OTHER


TROPICAL FRUITS.


petent persons, it is believed that, as far as it goes, it can
be relied upon.
 After the orange, which is fully treated of in the previ-
ous chapter, the most important of the semi-tropical fruits
S
is-
 THE LEMON.-The lemon is produced in the orange-belt


of Florida to
thing of the k
 The tree
bears a larger
ons, than are
lemons of one


a degree of perfection far surpassing any-
ind in any other part of the world.
grows more rapidly, produces fruit sooner,
crop, and has larger and better-flavored lem-


found
and a


anywhere else. I h
half to two pounds


State Fair saw lemons weighing two a


In man'
its culti
such ric
tenderer


ave
Swe
nd


y respects the lemon-tree resembles
ovation is the same, except that it
h soil; it does best on a light, san
Plant, however, requiring care to


seen and picked
:ight, and at the
a half pounds!
the orange, and
does not require
dy soil. It is a
protect it from


the cold, which it can not bear as well as the orange. Be-
low the frost-line, of course, there is no danger, and it may
be left to itself. It is a rapid and rampant grower, not
so smooth and graceful as an orange-tree, but spreading
out its branches wildly in all directions up and down. It
commences bearing fruit about two or three years sooner
than the orange-tree, and bears much larger crops. An
orange-tree may be expected to bear in its sixth year two
hundred oranges and one thousand in its tenth year; the
lemon-tree will bear in its third year two hundred lemons
and five thousand in its tenth year, on the average. The
first two or three crops are usually a coarse, spongy fruit,
but the succeeding crops improve each year in delicacy and
excellence.
 The fruit bears handling and transportation remarkably
well, and it is generally thought by competent observers
that it will prove quite as profitable a crop as the orange,
with the advantage of producing returns two to three years