> According to the detailed description of lemon production in Harold G. Powell (1908), the production of lemons in nineteenth century Sicily starte

> According to the detailed description of lemon production in Harold G. Powell (1908), the production of lemons in nineteenth century Sicily started with the sowing of bitter orange seeds in spring in small seed beds under the bearing lemon trees. After one year from the seeding, the small trees were transplanted in small clumps at a distance of about 60 cm from each other. When the plant reached a height of almost a meter, the tree was transplanted to the groves at 3–4 meters of distance from each other. Curious. Wouldn't those still have been bitter orange trees? Perhaps the authors left out a step where the bitter orange trees were cut down and their rootstocks used for grafting on shoots from the lemon trees? If so, I wonder why they were planted near a lemon tree to begin with — to acclimate them to lemon wood or something?