CHAPTER XXXIV 

 THE LEMON AND MINOR CITRUS FRUITS 



Lemon growing is a very unique and distinctive branch of Cali- 

 fornia horticulture, which in the present advancement of culture and 

 preparation for the market, well illustrates the originality and invention 

 which the California fruit grower has displayed in his undertakings. 

 Lemon growing in California is old because it rose at the old missions 

 in the second century back of us, but successful lemon growing as a 

 great industry is new and constantly assuming new phases. For the 

 old seedling lemons were bad, and though enterprising growers soon 

 learned that fact and set about getting better ones, it took years to 

 secure them and to learn how to grow and handle them so that the 

 Californian could compete with the Sicilian fruit in the markets of the 

 United States. Nor was time the only thing sacrificed hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars were lost before the California grower could put 

 upon the market a good lemon, fit to stay good for a sufficient length 

 of time. Unprofitable plantings; expensive curing houses, which did 

 not cure well; countless experiments which yielded only loss and dis- 

 appointment all these are wrecks upon the rock of American lemon 

 growing. 



Naturally Californians sought first to know how lemons were grown 

 and handled abroad. At cost of great effort and outlay they learned 

 practically nothing that they could do and a great deal that it was not 

 necessary to do. Then they assumed a more rational mood a dispo- 

 sition to discern what principles are involved in the problem, and to 

 apply them in their own way according to conditions locally prevailing. 

 Along this line grand success has been attained by a few masterful 

 men conducting large lemon enterprises or smaller undertakings of 

 their own, while the mass of lemon planters, for one reason or another, 

 have never reaped the reward they expected. On the whole, it may be 

 said that lemon growing is a much harder and more exacting enterprise 

 than orange growing, and for this reason many have new-topped their 

 trees to oranges and thus escape difficulties which they could not over- 

 come. 



With the aid of the protective tariff the most resolute and capable 

 have attained success, and the California lemon became known and 

 highly esteemed upon its merits everywhere. The tariff has somewhat 

 reduced the effect of cheap labor in Italy and cheap water transporta- 

 tion from the Mediterranean region, and our lemons could sometimes 

 compete with the foreign product not only in the west but even in the 

 cities of the Atlantic seaboard. All this has been accomplished within 

 two decades and it is a notable result. One measure of this fact may be 

 found in the shipment of over six thousand seven hundred carloads 

 during the season of 1910-11. The California lemon has, however, not 

 yet attained such mastery of American markets as the orange has, for 

 there is a value of about six and one-half millions of dollars in imported 

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