418 



CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



heavy decay, that they had concluded the most profit- 

 able way was to ship the fruit within from four to six 

 weeks after gathering. The result was that the fruit was 

 not equably distributed throughout the year, and at times 

 the .market would be so glutted that the shipper would 

 get "red ink" for his shipment. Not being able to hold 

 his lemons when the market was low, and having only 

 the smaller percentage of his crop in the summer, when the 



price is usually high, 

 one can perhaps im- 

 agine how the lemon 

 growers' books have 

 been balancing at the 

 end of the year and 

 will probably be able 

 to answer the ques- 

 tion often asked : 



Fig. 89. A package of Italian lemons as " nV are SO 



they arrived in an American market. leillOn TOV6S 



budded over to oranges? 



"STYLE OF PACKING HOUSES. 



"The old style lemon house, and the one still used 

 by many of our growers, is a double- walled, double-roofed 

 affair, some of them having patent systems of ventila- 

 tion, and others depending simply upon doors and win- 

 dows. When attempting to hold lemons by this method, 

 they are massed in the house and the fruit just clipped 

 given exactly 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 dif- 

 ferent treatment as regards ventilation. As a result of 

 this treatment some of the fruit is usually wilted from 



