ORANGES AND LEMONS IN PALERMO. 51 3 







Great attention is necessary as to the amount of water required. 

 If too much is used the trees are subject to a disease called "male 

 clella gouima;" literally translated, "gum disease." If too little, devel- 

 opment is delayed and even their death may ensue. 



Cult! rat Ion. April and May are the best months in which to culti- 

 vate orange and lemon trees, the inclement weather having terminated, 

 thus insuring tin* safety of the buds. 



Oranges and lemons are cultivated from the dry seed,, which costs 

 lire 1.80 per kilogram, or from fresh plants containing the seed, the 

 latter requiring more attention than the former. 



Planting or sowing, as the case may be, commences in April, as stated, 

 or later, in order to avoid white frosts, the ground being previously pre- 

 pared. 



Trees resulting from dry seed are generally good and strong, and 

 attain a height of at least 1 meter, before being grafted with a view o/ 

 propagating the various varieties desired. 



The gardeners of the Province of Palermo recommend that a distance 

 of about 5 meters should intervene between each orange tree when the 

 ground is level, and about 4 meters in undulating, rolling, or declivitous 

 land. Lemon trees are recommended to be from 5 to 6 meters apart 

 when large trees are expected, or desired, as is the case with all trees 

 derived from "cedrangoli amari," (Citrus Mgaradia, Kiss.) 



The best means of planting trees is in placing them in parallel lines 

 from north to south, in order that they may be equally exposed to the 

 sun's rays throughout the entire day, and so placed as to form a series 

 of equilateral triangles, with a tree on each angle, as per drawing here- 

 with. To this method of planting the name Losanga has been given. 



It is customary* during the early stages of the growth of lemon and 

 orange trees to alternate them with other plants, such as vines, cotton, 

 etc., in order to give them strength and nutrition, as well as to utilize 

 the necessarily large vacant spaces of ground. 



At the expiration of ten years, however, or when the orange and 

 lemon trees have become so large and tall as to obscure the plants in 

 question with their branches, etc., they are taken up and utilized in a 

 new field. 



Fertilizers. Alkaline substances are better adapted than any other 

 materials for fertilizing. Gardeners in the vicinity of Palermo formerly 

 used sea-weed, mixed with the excrements of horses and cows or stable 

 accnm illations. 



Fragments of dressed leather, woolen rags, scrapings from horns, 

 and cert tin other remains of old or cast-off manufactures, as well as 

 decayed fruits, are regarded as the best admixtures of fertilizers for 

 oranges and lemons. The materials or substances in question are 

 stratified in proper places with a view to their fermentation before 

 being used. 



When trees are planted they are abundantly manured, and after one 



