26 



CITRUS FRUITS IN CALIFORNIA: 



fruit in as firm a condition as possi- 

 ble. To do this the temperature 

 and ventilation must be regulated so 

 as to avoid sweating too rapidly and 

 at the same time not to let in enough 

 hot air to cause the fruit to shrivel. 



The methods of handling and curing 

 lemons have been greatly improved 

 during the last few years. As a result 

 of careful handling of the fruit from 

 the tree to the packing-house the loss 

 by decay has been reduced to a mini- 

 mum. The use of trays for curing in- 

 stead of the ordinary field and picking 

 boxes also helps to reduce the loss by 

 decay, as these trays are made just 

 deep enough to hold one layer of 

 fruit. This not only prevents the 

 bruising of the fruit but facilitates the 

 sorting of it. These trays can be 

 stacked as high as necessary in the 

 curing house without crowding or 

 bruising the fruit. 



During the summer months the 

 lemons are only kept in the curing 

 house long enough to properly color 

 them and then they are taken out and 

 packed for shipment. From two to 

 four weeks in the curing house is 

 necessary for proper coloring, depend- 

 ing on the condition of the fruit when 

 picked. There is very little need for 

 sorting the fruit during this time, as 

 before the fruit is placed on the trays 

 it is passed through the brushes so as 

 to remove any dirt or smut that may 

 be on it. These brushes are arranged 

 in vats containing water in which is a 

 solution of one per cent bluestone to 

 destroy any fungus or spores of blue 

 mold that might be present and which 

 always causes heavy decay if allowed 

 to get established in the curing rooms. 

 After passing through the brushes the 

 fruit is carefully taken from the water 

 and sorted as to ripeness and placed 

 in the trays, the yellow or tree ripe 

 fruit going into one stack, the partly 

 colored fruit into another and the 

 grass green fruit into a third; each lot 

 going to a separate curing room, and 

 notation made as to time of picking 

 and condition of ripeness. The yel- 

 low or tree-ripe fruit only stays in the 

 curing room long enough to slightly 

 reduce the thickness of the skin which 

 also makes it more pliable and less 

 liable to bruise in packing. 



The partially colored or pale yellow 

 fruit and the grass green fruit is left 

 in the curing rooms until it takes on 

 the perfect lemon yellow, when it is 

 also in condition to pack. 



During the winter and* spring 

 months when there is usually a very 

 light demand for lemons the fruit is 

 kept in the curing rooms much longer 

 and usually requires sorting several 

 times. If one fruit starts to decay it 

 will affect all the fruit around it. In 

 a short time all the fruit in the same 

 tray would decay. 



Lemons are graded as follows: Ex- 

 tra fancy, fancy, extra choice, choice 

 and standard. 



Sorting as to Quality. 



After the fruit comes from the cur- 

 ing rooms it is again sorted as to 

 quality. The perfect appearing fruit, 

 that is all the fruits that are smooth, 

 and show no scars or blemishes, are 

 sorted out and packed as extra fancy 

 or fancy., as the case may be. The 

 next grade is almost perfect, fairly 

 smooth and shows no bad scars or 

 blemishes and is packed as choice or 

 extra choice. All fruit showing up 

 perfect as to keeping qualities but 

 deficient as to appearance, having a 

 rough skin or badly scarred and off 

 color is packed as standards. 



The standard lemon packs a:-e 210s, 

 240s, 270s, 300s, 360s, 420s, and 490s. 

 In other words, there are that number 

 of lemons to the box according to the 

 size. The standard lemon box is 

 10^x14x27 inches outside measure- 

 ment, divided into two compartments, 

 and all lemons, excepting the very 

 small fruits, are packed in what is 

 called the 3-2 pack. Owing to the 

 shape of a lemon it is impossible to 

 grade them by machinery so all the 

 grading is done by hand. The fruit is 

 dumped into bins, each packer having 

 a separate bin or section of a bin to 

 work from and selects the fruit to 

 size. That is, if he is packing 250s 

 he sorts out all of this size or suffi- 

 cient for a box and then starts on 

 another size, and so on, a helper keep- 

 ing the bins supplied with fruit. The 

 packing is usually done by the box, 

 however, a good many shippers are 

 having their packing done by day 

 labor, due to the necessity of careful 

 handling. This is not always possible 

 where each packer is endeavoring to 

 increase his or her wages by trying to 

 pack a few additional boxes. 



In all of the operations from pick- 

 ing the lemon to the loading of the 

 packed boxes in the car, care must be 

 used to prevent bruising the fruit. 

 While this rule applies to the handling 



