214 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



The soil is dug or hoed from three to five times a year. The 

 Sicilian hoe is like a small shovel on a bent handle. In 

 January or February it is dug fairly deep, and the trees are 

 manured. In April the soil is stirred again, and the "conche," 

 or embanked basins, are formed. In June it is dug again for 

 weeding. Lemon trees are manured every year in some groves, 

 every other year in others, and every third year in perhaps the 

 majority. The decomposed droppings of different animals, 

 decayed litter and leaves, bones, ashes, etc., are used as they 

 are available, and in some cases artificial manures are applied. 



A year after the tree is planted the soil is cleared away 

 around the base, commencing at a distance of perhaps two feet 

 and to a depth of a foot, or fifteen inches, and into the trench 

 are emptied two baskets of compost, weighing perhaps forty or 

 fifty pounds. The trench is then filled up, and the earth 

 placed to form a mound around the tree. A similar method 

 is followed in applying manure to old trees, but the trench is 

 made at a greater distance from the base, according to the size 

 of the tree. For old trees, from eighty to ninety pounds of 

 compost are applied to each tree. Manure is best applied in 

 winter or in early spring. Autumn manuring is considered to 

 unfavorably affect the quality of the lemons. 



In driving through the country, and in more closely inspect- 

 ing many groves of varying areas in different localities, no fact 

 more strongly impressed me than the very striking difference 

 in the healthiness, cleanliness, and freedom from disease of 

 orchards and trees, often on adjoining properties. When a 

 grower, from want of capital, laziness, or bad management, 

 does not irrigate, manure, and cultivate his grove, the trees 

 tell even the passer-by of the neglect. The generality of the 

 lemon groves are well cared for, the trees are healthy and the 

 fruit clean. In some localities I found the lemon round scale 

 fairly frequent, but no systematic treatment with insecticides 

 is practiced. 



CROPS. 



I have already referred to the succession of crops, and to 

 the fact that as the lemon is cultivated over a considerable 

 range of climate, the lemon harvest continues for many 

 months. It was pointed out that the April blossoms produced 

 a crop of lemons in October, those of May in November and 



