Los Angeles herald., 1891-09-27
Typical Facts About South
ern California Farms.
Is Lemon Culture Preferable
to Orange GrOwings
A Highlands Lemon Grower Who
Makes a Strong Argument.
How to Make Prune Trees Bear-A
Number of Facts Showing
what the Farmers
Are Doing.

L. S. Dyar, OF Ontario, writes to the
Alessandro paper that he recently sold
his place in that colony for $4,000.
His place consisted of ten acres not inn
proved and ten acres planted to lemon
trees five years ago. He estimated that
the lemon orchard sold for about $1,000,
or $500 an acre.
w. ). Corwin, of Highlands, with post
Office address at Messina, writes; 81
consider the lemon far more profitable
to plant than the orange. The lemon is
a necessity and must be had, at least for
the sick, all the year. In good local
ity, with plenty OF water, the right kind
of soil-not too sandy, not too heavy
the lemon will do best. The lemon will
grow faster and bear more than the Or
ange at given age.
zone of the advantages of the lemon
over the orange is that it requires less
water. The fruit never splits like the
orange, which Is quite an item. The
fruit is not so likely to be stolen. The
Gull fruit does not spoil so quickly as
poor oranges do. Gull lemons can be
worked up to better advantage than Or
anges, into essences, extracts and citric
acid. The lemon is picked when about
half grown, which must be easier on the
tree and soil than if left till maturity
like oranges.
81 prefer the Lisbon lemon to all
other varieties for the following reasons:
1t is the best fruit grown of its kind; it
has the best foliage; the main crop of
fruit is grown from spring blossoms, and
the fruit is picked IN November and the
first half of December, and thus escapes
all loss from wind storms, frost, etc.
ssThe trees do not break down when
empty of fruit in the winter like an
orange tree that is loaded with fruit.
demons that are grown from spring
blossoms are much better, keep longer
and are far more juicy than those from
any other time of blossoming.
Lemons that hang on the tree all
winter are more or less bitter, have less
juice and are thick-skinned.
tsI have seen trees ten years planted
bear two thousand lemons, and some
times more.
"First-class one-vear-old buds set five
years in the best of soil and locality, and
given good care, should bear on the aver
age 800 lemons per tree. have had
trees bear 700 lemons at that age, and
they did not have the best of care either.
'tGood lemons in August frequently
sell at six, eight, and even ten dollars
per box. There are about 800 lemons to
the box.
ttThe returns per acre from an old
lemon grove, say ten years set, at say So
per box-a price reached yearly in all
the large cities of the east-wlll easily
discount the orange two to one for profit,
and at twenty years of age they will
more than double that estimate.
NThe lemon is a necessity and yet
heretofore but little attention has been
given to it's culture.
''The Lisbon lemon picked in Novem-
ber, very carefully handled and stored
ia a cool place, will keep till the follow
ing August with very little loss."
now TO MAKE PRUNE TREES BEAR.
Colonel A. E. Cochran, who owns a
a prune orchard near Healdsburg, gives
the following as his plan for making
prune trees bear heavily:
81 have discovered that by cutting
prune trees back in a new and rather
peculiar way it is possible to get tree
which will live twice as long as an ordi
nary tree, and bear heavily every year.
i learned this secret from a gardener
who had been employed during most of
his life in the best prune district in the
old world, and who was here only for
visit. have eleven acres on my ranch
which show we'll how the experiment
succeeds. Ordinarily, of course, prune
trees bear in the third year. But these
were not permitted to produce fruit at
all until the fourth year, and then only
small quantity. This is the fifth year,
and off the trees on the eleven acres l
take more than twenty tons of prunes.
But this is nothing to what l expect
next year, for if the season is good
one those trees will yield not less than
sixty tons.
The secret is all in cutting back to
get large trunk. The trunks on the
prune trees on that eleven acres Of land
are all half again as large as one would
expect. The object is to give the tree
body and power so that it will not die
easily, and will be capable of support
ing an enormous yield. The cutting is
done from the center, the large limbs
being cut off close to the trunk. The
tree is not clipped at all on top, and only
little on the sides. / am convinced
that if the prune raisers OF this state
would use this method the prune crop
of California would soon be doubled on
the present acreage"
SUMNER PRUNING FOR APRIcoTs.
Summer pruning OF apricots, says the
Alhambra Review, is more generally
practiced by growers in this portion of
the state than in the northern and CEN
tral fruit districts. There are different
objects to be accomplished by summer
pruning. First, if pruning is to check
the growth and to be followed up by
winter pruning, the work should be done
as soon after the fruit has been gathered
as possible. This will allow the second
growth of wood to mature before the
rainy season comes on. Ii, however, the
summer pruning is to be the only one
for the year, the object is to develop fruit
buds, and the work can be deferred until
September, or sometimes even as late as
October. At all times in pruning apricot
trees, it should be borne in mind that
the fruit is produced on the last year
wood and fruit spurs. We have in mind
several apricot orchards in the neighbor-
hood of Sierra Madre. which were seve-
raj years ago pruned to the stumps by
some butchering ignoramus. OF course,
the years crop was lost, there being but
a few struggling fruits produced. It is
customary in the pruning of apricot trees