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 a