PLANTING AND PRUNING LEMONS 



459 



The lemon delights in a sandy loam, and probably our best 

 orchards are on such soil, but the trees thrive in other soils. There 

 is a difference of opinion among growers as to what soil is to be 

 especially sought for. There are profitable lemon orchards in 

 southern California located upon deep clay loams, and even upon 

 strong red clay soils. As with some other fruits, the choice of 

 soil is, to a certain extent, governed by the stock on which the 

 lemon is worked. 



PROPAGATING AND PLANTING 



The prevailing stock for the lemon is the orange seedling 

 either the sweet or sour stock, under the same conditions that each 

 is preferred for the orange, the sour stock resisting measurably 

 the effects of ill-drainage of heavy land or flat, low places. The 

 orange root thrives on a greater variety of soils than the lemon, 

 and produces a healthy lemon tree where the lemon on its own 

 root would fail. The growth of orange seedlings for budding has 

 been described in the last chapter. If lemon seedlings are desired 

 they may be grown in the same way. Plants either for permanent 

 growth or for stocks for budding can be grown from cuttings, as 

 explained in Chapter VIII. The budding of the lemon is prac- 

 tically the same as of the orange, which has been described. An 

 old tree can be changed from one variety to another by the meth- 

 ods described for the orange, and oranges can be worked into 

 old lemon trees and good fruit secured if the lemon itself be grow- 

 ing upon an orange root, which is likely to be the case with trees 

 planted during the last decade. 



Planting of the lemon is the same as that of the orange. The 

 distance in planting varies from twenty to twenty-five feet. Irri- 

 gation of lemon and orange trees is also similar. 



PRUNING THE LEMON 



The pruning of the lemon is essentially different from that of 

 the orange, because the habit of the tree is different. The lemon 

 requires constant attention to bring it into good bearing form and 

 keep it there ; the orange, after it is well shaped, simply needs 

 attention to encourage it to retain the bearing form to which it 

 seems naturally disposed. The orange provides itself with sat- 

 isfactory bearing wood, as a rule ; the lemon devotes itself, even 

 when it is old enough to know better, to a rangy rambling wood 

 growth with bearing wood upon the ends of willowy rods where 

 it is swept about in the wind and burned in the sun, instead of 

 nestling it neatly among the leaves as the orange does. 



The rational proceeding with the lemon is, then, to develop it 

 at first into a low, stocky and strong form, such as is described in 



