422 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



faith in the plan, and the following are a few reasons 

 why I think it impracticable: 



"(1) The lemon when picked and handled properly 

 should stand shipment to the eastern markets without 

 ice, and the ventilated lemon that arrives in good condi- 

 tion invariably gives better satisfaction than fruit that 

 has been iced. True, sometimes fruit that is a little weak 

 can be iced and made to arrive in fairly good condition, 

 and will, perhaps, sell well; but what does it do when 

 taken out of the low temperature of the car and subjected 

 to the hot, humid atmosphere of the East? It decays 

 and goes in as evidence that California lemons are not 

 good keepers? I believe that the keeping quality of hun- 

 dreds of cars of California lemons is injured every year 

 by icing. In the early summer months a few cars of 

 lemons will, perhaps, arrive in bad condition and the 

 order will be sent out : 'In the future, ice your cars.' And 

 the shipper immediately goes to icing regardless of 

 whether the fruit to be shipped is hard, good keeping 

 stock or not. If it is bad practice to refrigerate fruit in 

 transit it is certainly not good practice to put it in cold 

 storage after it arrives in the East. 



"(2) To be successful in the lemon business means 

 eternal vigilance as to care in handling, so as not to bruise 

 the fruit. When we who grow the lemon and are so deeply 

 interested in having it handled properly have such diffi- 

 culty in securing help that will touch it carefully, what 

 could we expect when it went from under our watchful 

 eye to the cold storage plant in the East, there to be 

 stored, sorted over and repacked before going to our cus- 

 tomers ? 



"(3) The expense of storage and repacking; freight 

 on decay. 



