The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1879-06-04
THE FLORIDA AGRICULTURIST.

been produced, and with what poor
success Wilson, of Albany, n. Y,
about thirty years ago, produced the
celebrated strawberry that bears his
name, and it is still so far the best
that there is no acknowledged rival,
scarcely one that fairly ranks as num-
Der two. to it. Exactly so with the
grape. You can count all the good
American grapes on your fingers,
and yet hundreds are engaged year
after year, in getting seedlings from
them. Indeed, so far as I know, the
sweet orange, with the citron and
French lemon, is almost an excep-
ton to Its disposition to come nearly
true from the seed.
was reading Gallesio on the Cit
rus family, some time ago. no.
ticed two striking remarks, which |
must quote from memory, not having
the book at hand One is this: That
in 1899 there came a severe frost all
over Europe, and the sweet oranges
grown on the Mediterranean were
killed to the ground everywhere. Up
to this time they had worked sweet
orange buds from some known varl-
ely upon sweet-orange seedlings for
stock. The frost killed the artificial
wood, and the seeding root sent up
shoots which bore. and the growers
to their surprise found the fruit fully
equal to what they had before. They
had learned the lesson that the sweet
orange seed is true to itself.
But Gallesio speaking of the lemon
says: That somebody got seeding
which has proved of incalculable val
ne to European lemon growers, and
that the gratis of this seeding had
been spread all over Southern Europe.
He says in other words that the true
Sicily lemon is sport which does
not produce itself. Its seed, no doubt,
reproduce a fruit like the original
from which the sport came. AT least
| infer SO from the great uniformity
we find in Seeding Sicily lemons 1t
is probably that there are in Europe
two or three different lemons, all ex-
cellent and all worthy of cultivation,
all no, doubt, seedlings from the same
source, and ii we keep on experiment
ing, some OF us may get a seeding as
valuable as they are. But that is ex-
perimenting, we want something to
sell while we are experimenting, on
seedlings. In jacksonville. nursery
men have two lemons that they are
selling as true, which in leaf are quite
different, both doubtless good. 1
saw both the other day at the garden
of Mr.. A. J. Adams in Manatee.
One is the" Bichu the other the
Lamb lemon, the latter if | mis-
take not, the Importation OF Mr.. San
ford, of Orange county. Mr.. Adams
has seen the former in Europe. He
thinks it is the earliest and the latter
probably the common well-known
Sicily lemon. We want one or both
IN Hillsborough and Manatee counties
by hundreds of acres.
I am now in correspondence with
the most eminent seed firm in the
United States upon the subject of i'm
porting lemon cions, and they have
referred the matter to partner now
travelling in Europe. | shall be I'M
able to purchase what they will
doubtless considered small impor-
tation, and if any gentlemen wish to
share in the enterprise they will
please let me know at once, stating
how much money they wish to invest,
whether one or ten dollars. / shall
this Summer plant out twenty-five
feet apart each way, all the Florida
or French lemons l have to be ready
TO graft next Spring.