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Ella M. Sexton - Stories of California
car-loads which make the season's orange crop are navel oranges. Over forty-five millions of dollars are
now invested in the growing and marketing of this remarkable fruit.
At Riverside, the home of the orange, the two original Washington navel trees still stand. Mr. Tibbets
guarded them for years, had them fenced with high latticework, and seldom allowed any one to touch
them. He refused ten thousand dollars for them, since for months he sold hundreds of dollars' worth of
buds from these parent trees. These two trees and their large family have caused thousands of people to
come to the state, and have built up Southern California wonderfully.
THE LEMON
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.
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