YoL. VIII. No. 187. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



203 



LEMON INDUSTRY IN THE 



UNITED STATES. 



Mr. G. Harold Powell, Pomologist in charge of 

 Fruit Transportation and Storage Investigations, of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States, has 

 published an interesting article on this subject in the 

 Yearhook of the Department of Agriculture, under the 

 title ' The Status of the American Lemon Industry, ' 

 from which the following remarks are taken : — 



The industry commenced from a commercial point of 

 "view about twenty-five year.s ago, but owing to difficultie.s in 

 preserving the fruit, and want of knowledge in general agri- 

 cultural methods it became so depressed that ten years ago 

 many of the groves were grafted to oranges. Now, however, 

 owing to increased knowledge in manuring and pruning, to 

 the extreme care practised in handling and packing, and to 

 ■co-operative methods in shipping and selling, the industry has 

 .greatly revived and sujiplies from one-third to two-fifths of 

 the total number of lemons consumed in the United States. 



The remainder are supplied mainly from Sicily, with 

 some from Cuba, and the West Indies. The demand for 

 lemons is steadily increasing all over America, and at pre.sent 

 the nurserymen in California are unable to supply young 

 lemon trees fast enough to meet the increased demand. 



The following figures show the position of the import 

 trade in lemons compared with that of the home supply. 

 The numbers are expressed in terms of the standard Califor- 

 nia box of 84 ft)., 312 boxes making a car load : — 



The fruit ripens in America during the late autumn, 

 winter, and spring, though fruit ready for picking is to be 

 found on the trees all the year round. 



The greatest demand occurs from May to September, 

 so that the fruit must be kept in good condition and slowly 

 ripened to meet the demand, and further it is the aim of all 

 growers to have as heavy a harvest as possible in the 

 .summer. 



The fruit is usually forwarded to the markets under 

 ventilation from November to March, and under ice during 

 the rest of the year. By this means, and by using great care 

 in the ventilation of the curing sheds, the loss by ' blue mould ' 

 is almost entirely avoided, if the fruit has been carefully 

 handled in picking. 



The groves occur mostly in Southern California in the 

 foot hills of the Sierra Madre mountains. They vary con- 

 siderably in size, the average being fiom-20 to 30 acres. The 

 growers prefer a deep, loamy, well drained, high piece of land 

 protected from high winds, and with the soil free from hard 

 pan. ..The .groves are irrigated once a month from April tfi 

 October, sometimes le.ss frequently. The tillage is intensive 



from spring to late summer, when a leguminous cover crop 

 is drilled or .sown in between the trees to supply nitrogen. 

 The land is then furrowed out in case irrigation is neccesary 

 in the autumn or winter. The cover plot is ploughed in 

 not later than March 1. 



Fertilizers are applied to the tree at the rate of 1 lb. 

 per tree for each year it has been planted. Two 

 applications are generally made, one in tlie autumn and one 

 in the spring. Young trees are supplied with considerable 

 (juantities of nitrogen, but as they grow older the potash and 

 phosphorus are iucrea.sed. L;irge quantities of stable manure 

 are also used. 



The trees are pruned in such a manner that a short 

 bushy growth is formed. The bottom branches are kept 

 clear of the ground, as this prevents infection by the deadly 

 ' brown rot ' fungus, which is further prevented by the use 

 of the cover crop, as described above, since the fungus grow.s 

 in the soil. 



In case of frost in the wintei, the growers are supplied 

 with lines of brazers between the trees in which crude oil, 

 briquets of shavings and asphaltum are burned, and in 

 this way the temperature of the grove may be raised from 

 3' to 5". When trees have been frozen, subsequent damage 

 bj- rapid thawing is, of ten prevented by making a thick 

 smoke over the grove. 



Careful .spraying and fumigating to prevent insect and 

 fungus troubles are also employed regularly. And ' brown 

 rot " is further guarded against by using cojiper sulphate or 

 potassium permanganate in the water in which the fruit is 

 washed. 



In picking the fruit a ring 2,% inches is used. All fruit 

 which will just pass through the rmg is cut from the tree with 

 shears and put into a canvas bag with which each picker i.s 

 supplied. Smaller fruit which has ripened is also picked, 

 together with the larger fruits which will not pass through 

 the ring. 



The fruit is then cleaned from dust and ' black mould ' 

 by passing it between two cylindrical brushes in a tank full 

 of water. It then comes on to a canvas or moving belt table 

 where it is sorted by hand into tbree grades, dark-green or 

 unripe, silver, green or i^artially mature, and yellow or tree, 

 ripened. Great care is exercised in handling the fruit. The 

 tree-ripened lemons are shipped £|,t once, but the others are 

 packed carefully in standard boxes and stored in special 

 curing-houses. Here the degree of moisture and temperature 

 is most carefully regulated by covering the boxes with tent.s 

 that can be lowered and raised in such a way that there is as 

 little change as possible. Great care and judgement arft 

 necessary here to prevent the fruit from withering, and to 

 enable it to rii>en well. 



The storage or curing-houses are generally owned by 

 a co-operation of growers, or an association of such 

 co-operations. 



AVhen in the curing Iwuse the fruit is carefully looked 

 over and all fruit showing any sign of ' brown rot ' or ' blue 

 Hiould " are removed. 



When ready for market, the fruit is carefully packed iu 

 c;irs, either under ventilation nr under ice as mentioned above. 



In conclusion, the following figures of expenditure and 

 returns may be quoted. They are taken from a grove where 

 very special care is exercised. The grove contains 20 acres 

 and the total working expenses amounted to 87, 41747 or 

 $3 70-87 per acre. The average returns for the last four year's 

 have been .?900 per car load, and this estate gave about 21 

 car loads; that, is the return was about .§18,900 or a net 

 profit of $11,482-53. 



