For many years people who use that
sour but necessary fruit, the lemon, thought that
only the little yellow ones which came from the far-away
island of Sicily were good. The men who import
foreign fruits always said so; and in spite of the
fact that the larger California lemon was more acid,
of as good flavor, smooth skinned, and golden, people
believed the Mediterranean groves produced the best.
But, at last, our warm, dry air, good soil, and plenty
of water, together with care and skill while growing
and packing, have made California lemons the most
in demand. These lemons keep well, and bear shipping
and long journeys better than the imported fruit.
Citrus fruits, as the orange and lemon
are called, do well in all the southern counties,
and San Diego County boasts of not only the largest
lemon grove in California, but in the world. This
is a thousand-acre tract overlooking San Diego Bay
and cultivated by the Chula Vista colony. It
was once a pasture given up to wandering bands of cattle
and sheep. There was little water, and no one
ever thought these dry mesa lands would one day be
a beautiful garden spot, green with the shining lemon
leaves, and golden with fruit.
A company was formed to develop this
forty-two square miles of land, and to get water for
irrigation, since all the trees must have little streams
of water round their thirsty roots three or four times
during the dry summer. A great dam was constructed
on the Sweetwater River, near Chula Vista, and a reservoir
built. Water was piped from this to the lemon
groves, which are about a hundred feet below the reservoir,
and from May to September the trees are irrigated.
This is done by ploughing furrows on each side of
a row of trees and turning small rills of water slowly
down them till the ground is soaked around the tree
roots. No one thought the great reservoir would
ever be empty, but two winters with but little rain
made it necessary to put down many wells in the dry
bed of the Sweetwater River, and from these a strong
steady flow of millions of gallons is pumped into the
water pipes. So this great lemon orchard is always
sure of water enough, returning the gift later in
generous golden measure.
One may pick lemon blossoms, ripe
and green fruit every month in the year from the same
tree, but most of the crop ripens from November to
June.
Lemons are carefully cut from the
tree, and usually picked by size, a ring being slipped
over them, without regard to their ripeness. They
grow so thick on the tree that a man can pick more
than twenty boxes a day. In preparing it for
market the fruit “sweats,” as it is called,
in airy boxes, for a month in winter and ten days in
summer, and ripens and colors during this process.
Then each lemon is wiped dry and clean, wrapped separately
in tissue-paper, and packed for shipment. The
cost of a box of lemons from the tree to the railroad
is about thirty-five cents.
Thousands of car-loads are shipped
to the Eastern and Middle states, while the Pacific
Coast is a never-failing market.
Small, imperfect, and bruised fruit
goes to the citric acid factory near the packing-houses.
From these oil of lemon, lemon sugar, and clear green
citric-acid crystals are made, and the crushed waste
is returned to the grove and ploughed in about the
trees as a fertilizer.