SOME SUBTROPICAL ORCHARD FRUITS. 201 



to the Mediterranean growers, as over 1200 car-loads 

 annually have recently reached the markets east of the 

 mountain ranges. 



The lemon is not as hardy as the orange. Its fruit, 

 foliage, and wood will be seriously injured by a freeze that 

 the orange will endure without serious injury. But this 

 is not surprising, as the varieties from Sicily and extreme 

 south France are the outgrowth of ages of selection in the 

 soft mild climate of the great inland sea, where frost is 

 unknown and where soil and air are never dry on the 10th 

 parallel of latitude. 



It is not probable that it would require a long period for 

 a skilled expert, such as Burbank, of Santa Kosa, Califor- 

 nia, to develop, by crossing and selection, varieties of the 

 lemon such as the market now requires from the varieties 

 of the mountains of north India at a height of four 

 thousand feet. If this can be accomplished, we might 

 secure varieties hardier than the orange, with a more com- 

 pact form, that would be less troublesome to keep in shape 

 by perpetual pruning. 



197. Propagation, Pruning, and Curing. In south 

 Florida the lemon is budded almost exclusively on seed- 

 lings of the sour orange, and the same is true in California, 

 as common experience has shown that on this stock the 

 lemon-trees have a better habit of growth, the fruit 

 averages less in size, and the tree seems to be some 

 healthier and hardier. Where the Citrus trifoliata has 

 been used, it has seemed to increase hardiness and the 

 growth is less riotous than when on sour-orange or rough- 

 lemon roots. 



The pruning of this rampant-growing tree seems as yet 

 to be an unsettled problem, and growers differ materially 

 as to methods. Many growers annually shorten the long 

 leaders and rampant points of growth in the partially 



