PICKING AND CURING LEMONS 395 



tention to this, desirable sizes and good-keeping stock are obtained. 

 Neglect of this is the weak point of many of the lemon growers of 

 California. Good results can not be obtained, even by the best 

 methods of keeping lemons, unless the fruit is picked at the proper 

 time and properly handled. 



If gathered before the color begins to turn, properly cured 

 lemons may be kept for months, and they will improve in market 

 qualities, by a thinning and toughening of the skin, and by increase 

 of juice contents. This curing of the fruit, as it is called, is accom- 

 plished in many simple ways. If the fruit is gathered and placed 

 in piles under the trees, where, with low-headed trees, it is com- 

 pletely shaded by the foliage, it processes well and comes out 

 beautiful in color and excellent in quality, providing it is a good 

 variety. Some have trusted wholly to this open-air curing under 

 the trees, merely protecting the fruit by a thin covering of straw, 

 or other light, dry materials. Others let the fruit lie a few days 

 under the trees, carefully shaded from the sun, and place it in boxes 

 or upon trays, and keep it months in a darkened fruit-house, pro- 

 viding ventilation but guarding the fruit against draughts of air. 

 Gathering the fruit while still green and packing with alternate 

 layers of dry sand, has given excellent marketable fruit, but of 

 course the handling of so much sand is too expensive nor is it at 

 all necessary. 



Much attention has been given to lemon storage in Southern 

 California, and many curing and storage houses have been con- 

 structed. Naturally there is great variation in design and method 

 of operation. The largest and latest design of lemon curing and 

 storage houses is that of the Limoneira Company at Santa Paula, in 

 Ventura County, and is described by Mr. W. S. Killingsworth as 

 follows : 



The entire plant is constructed of reinforced concrete and hollow tile, 

 and is 600 feet long. The main room in the center of the building, where 

 the lemons are graded and packed, is 166 by 200 feet, and is designed so that 

 and other floor may be placed between the present floor and the joists. At 

 each end of the main room there is a storage room 160 by 218 feet each. A 

 reinforced concrete fire-wall extends above the roof and separates the main 

 room from the two end rooms. A concrete basement ten feet in the story 

 extends the length and breadth of the entire building. As the fruit is brought 

 from the orchard it is received at the two end rooms, where the washing 

 machinery is located, there being two in each room; one-half of each room 

 is set apart for the washing machines, the other half is enclosed and used 

 for storage. When the fruit is washed it is either placed in one of these 

 rooms or in the basement, being conveyed in boxes on a traveling belt and 

 there remains until cured,,and ready to be placed on the market, or held in 

 storage as market conditions are favorable or otherwise. Two electric 

 driven elevators carry the fruit to the main floor of the center or general 

 work room, where it is graded and placed on trays two feet square, from 

 which it is taken when being packed. 



The old tent system of curing lemons, which originated at this ranch, has 

 been supplanted by a ventilator system. When necessary the air is drawn 

 from the curing rooms by an electric fan, to which is connected a 24-inch 

 pipe reduced to ten inches when it comes in contact with the underground 

 pipes extending the full length of the basement. These pipes are six and 

 eight inches in diameter with two-inch holes on the top side, at intervals 

 of six feet, and it is through these holes the air is drawn from the base- 



