390 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



fruit it is apt to be massed in the house and that which is just picked 

 given the same ventilation as that which has been in the house several 

 months, when, as a matter of fact, lemons in different stages of curing 

 require radically different treatment as regards ventilation. As a result 

 of this treatment some of the fruit is usually wilted from receiving too 

 much air, while the greater portion of it is badly decayed from receiving 

 too little. 



Proper ventilation is the keynote of success in keeping lemons, and 

 after extensive and expensive experience along the old lines, Mr. 

 Teague of the Limoneira Company, already cited, concluded that lemon 

 handlers had been on the wrong track in believing a low temperature 

 first in importance. If the ventilation is right the temperature will 

 take care of itself. Mr. Teague decided that proper conditions for 

 keeping lemons lie just between the points where they wilt and where 

 they sweat, inducing neither if possible, for too much moisture induces 

 decay and too little causes shriveling. The fragment of the stem left 

 on the fruit by the cutter may be used as a test ; if it adheres, the con- 

 ditions are right for slow curing; if it detaches easily, the best keeping 

 quality is not being secured. 



The Limoneira Company was first to equip a house on the open air 

 plan. The house is 300 x 100 feet. The flooring is 2-inch planking and 

 the roof covered with gravel-paper roofing. The building has no sides 

 whatever, allowing free circulation of air. The fruit for storage is 

 put into regular shipping boxes, piled in blocks of 560 boxes. There 

 is a double row of these blocks on either side of a 20-foot space which 

 extends to the entire length of the building, and which answers the 

 double purpose of a work room and an air space. The boxes are so 

 piled as to permit of the circulation of air around each box. Each 

 block of fruit is covered by a canvas 10 x 10 x 20, made box shape by 

 a canvas cover and four canvas curtains on rollers, the openings at the 

 corners being closed by lacings as desirable. The ventilation is con- 

 trolled by raising or lowering the canvas, and each block of fruit can 

 be given exactly the ventilation that it requires, irrespective of the 

 other fruit in the house. By this method 50 or 100 cars of fruit can be 

 handled and kept in as good condition as if there was only one. Each 

 block being numbered, a complete record of the lemons from each of 

 the six sections of the ranch is kept from the time it is picked until the 

 fruit is shipped. The fruit is all washed in a lemon washing machine, 

 and is piled up in the house wet, just as it comes from the machine. 

 The canvas covers are not dropped over it, however, until it is thor- 

 oughly dry. An idea of these curing tents can be had from an ad- 

 jacent engraving which shows them on both sides of a central space 

 which is used for packing the fruit in the shipping boxes. 



With proper curing facilities lemons picked in November and De- 

 cember may be kept until the following July. Later pickings may not 

 keep so well and may be marketed first. Of the finer points in lemon 

 handling, however, there is much which must be learned by experience. 



Forced curing of lemons, by which green fruit may be colored in 

 about two weeks, is done by burning oil stoves in a closed room. The 

 change is effected by the products of combustion and not by the heat 



