1S38 



LEMON 



LENOPHYLLUM 



and in tho wostcrn rornor of San H(rii;inliiu). In this 

 rrjtion the nxil, moist suninior clinialc causos tlu' trcos 

 to bt>!ir a larpT projHirtlon of lii(;h-|)ric(Hl sumiiuT fruit. 

 In tho hot interior valleys some lemons are proiiuced 

 also: but while tho tro<-s will hthw just as well under 

 dosTt ov)nditions, tho fruit tends to mature mostly in 

 the winter when the priee is low. 'I'lie fruit itself under 

 siu-h ivmiitions is shorter-lived and will not keep so long 

 nor ship so well :i.s that imidueiil near the eoast. 



Lemons are piekisl from ten to twelve times a year, 

 each lemon bemp romovi»d from the tree when it has 

 reachoti a certain size, namely 'JJ^ inehes in diameter. 

 Each piekor curries an iron ring of the above iliamet^T 

 and removes every fruit which will not pass throufjli it, 

 regiiniless of whether the lemon is ripe and yellow or 

 IM'rfectly (treen. Cireat care is taken to avoid the 

 slightest abrasion of the skin. Tlie stems .are clipped off 

 even with the "button," and tlu' fruit is handled only 

 in tjlovol hands and canvas pickinti-bags. The largest 

 pickings are ready in the winter fmm December 1 to 

 Slarch 1, and as this is the time when tlie (irice of 

 lemons is low, it is necessary to defer picking the main 

 crop till March and April and to store an immense 

 amount of fruit, holding it until the high [)rices of sum- 

 mer prevail. Sometimes seventy-hve or one hundred 

 carloads of lemons are stored in one house and held for 

 thn-e to six months. The smallest |)ickings come in the 

 summer from June 1 to October 1, at a time when 

 tho price is the highest. It is necessary, therefore, to 

 subject the green lemons to such an artificial treat- 

 ment as will result in a good color in the shortest time 

 possible. Thus the lemon-grower luis two problems: 

 one is to be able to retard res|)iration and the ripening 

 process iismuch lus possibh' and the other to accelerate 

 these same processes. 



P"or the process of spring storage, large houses are 

 provided which are so constructed ;us to admit of per- 

 fect control of ventilation. On the storage-floor, there 

 arc a number of suspended canvas tents, each tent 

 accommodating one carload of fruit. When the fruit is 

 brought from the orchard, it is w.'ished in a solution of 

 one-fiftieth of 1 per cent of copper sulfate in water and 



eiled loosely in boxes which are stacked under the tents. 

 Kiring moi.st, foggy weather the tents are raised and 

 free circulaticm of air permitted. Hliould a dry, hot 

 wind from the de.sert prevail, the tents are kept closed 

 iis tightly as fKissible in order to retard evaporation. 



L<'mons pickc<l in September, however, after being 

 run through the copjjcr sulfate s(jlution, are removed to 

 a small fireproof building known as a sweat-house. 

 The sweat-hou.se usually has several rooms, each room 

 accommodating one carlo:uI of fruit. The fruit is 

 stackofi in these rooms in the picking-boxes, the green- 

 eat and most immature in the rear and the liglitcst- 

 colored fruit next the door. The room is then closed 

 tightly and several kero.sene stoves are burned in a 

 basf^ment below. I'ans of water are kept on ihc. stoves 

 and the gas<'S arising pass through cracks in the floor 

 into the fruit-rrxjm. These gases consist of a mixture 

 of carfKjn dioxiile, carbon monoxide and water vapor. 

 The temperature of the room is held :is near 90° as pos- 

 Hible and is regulated by the number of burners under 

 the rof»m. Great care is taken to keep the atmospheric 

 saturated with moisture. I>emons are artificially 

 colonel in this manner in three to six days, depending 

 on the depth of the green color in the rind. 



The curing prow-ss caus<-H the lemons to shrink in 

 size .ilightly and the rind becomes thinner, more pliable, 

 with a texture and general finish greatly desired by th(e 

 market. During the whole process of picking and 

 curing lernon.s they are handler] very much more care- 

 fully than oranges. TTie grayling and sizing is done 

 almr^st entirely by hand, the washing-machine being 

 the only bit of machinery through which lemons are 

 paaeed. 



For many years the lemon business in C^alifornia did 



i\ot tlourish. I'ntil fifteen years ago, California lemons 

 had a very bad reputation for decay in the eastern 

 markets, and perhaps justly. California growers did 

 not po.'^.sess the knowledge and the skill necessary for 

 successful handling. One of the most serious troubles of 

 those days was the brown-rot, which not oidy destroyed 

 a third or more of the lemons on each tree in the orchard, 

 but c'ontinued its ravages in the storage- house. The 

 nature of tliis .and many of the other troubles is now 

 well undcrsldod and control methods systematized. 

 The business has been readjusted to conditions until 

 the old bad reputation has been lived down and by 1912 

 California lemons were selling steadily in the New \'ork 

 City aucti(m at a premium over the Kuroi)ean |)ro(luct. 



On accoimt of the pecidiar troubles to which the 

 lemon is susceptilile, the expenses of jjroduction are 

 greater than in the case of the orange. Until recently 

 the increased tariff has to some extent offset this 

 dilTerence and at jiresent the acreage of bearing lemons 

 is being increased very rapidly. 



Practically all varieties of any value in the Old 

 World were introduced into t'alifornia and tested out 

 in the early days. Most of them, however, were not 

 suited to our climatic conditions. Fifteen years ago 

 the list had been reduced to six, n.amely the Eureka, 

 Lisbon, Villa Franca, Cenoa, Bonnie Brae and Messina. 

 Five years ago the list had shrunk to three varieties, the 

 Eureka, Lisbon and Villa l''ran<'a. Today the Eureka is 

 practically the only variety widely planted, although 

 there are m.any old orchards of the other varieties 

 still in licaring. The Eureka is a seedling which origi- 

 nated in Los Angeles. During the yeans of its proiiaga- 

 tion it has split up into several strains, some of which are 

 vccry mvich more desirable than others. The best strain 

 of iCureka is precocious, vigorous, prolific, thornless 

 and almost seedless. The chief objections to the 

 Eureka .are its habit of throwing out long, ungainly 

 branches wliieh fruit on their ends, and the thinness of 

 thi> foliage in the springtime which allows a good many 

 lemons to sunburn. 



While the orange requires only a medium amount of 

 I)runing, the lemon tree demands almost constant 

 attention. The young tree should be regularly pinched 

 back and built up wliolly of short, stocky branches, 

 strong enough to bear a heavy load. All growth is cut 

 off at some arbitrary level, at S to 10 feet from the 

 ground. A great many vigorous young shoots will 

 arise from the top and should be removed twice each 

 year, once in the .spring and again in late summer. In 

 addition to this, many of tluc large growers keep a gang 

 of expert pruncrs occupied the year round cutting out 

 the weak and decadent branches and thinning the 

 fruiting brush. One e.X7)erienced pruner working eon- 

 tiiniously will care for 25 to 40 .acres of Eureka lemons, 

 and a somewhat less amount of Lisbons, which are 

 very thorny and not easily handled, j Eliot Coit. 



LEMON VERBENA: Lippia. 



LEMON VINE: Pereskia. 



LEM6NIA: Uavenia; see Limonia. 



LENOPHtLLUM (Irimgh leaf). CrassulAce.r . A 

 genus (■stahlishc'd by J. N. Hose in 1904 for Sedum 

 guttatum and other species: perennial herbs branching 

 at the biisf;: I vs. a few oijjiosite pairs clustered near 

 the b.ase, very thick and somewhat flattened and more 

 or less concav(! on upper surface: fls. yellow (or dry- 

 ing redilish) in an erect infl. or solitary; sepals 5, equal, 

 nearly distinct,; petals erect, distinct, spreading or 

 recurved at top; stamens 10: carpels narrow .and erect. 

 — Sijccies about a half-dozen, Mex. and Texas. They 

 are tufted plants a few inchc^s high, to be treated like 

 cotyledons or echeverias. L. gulUilum., Rose, and L. 

 Wdnhergii, Brit., are the names most likely to appear; 

 both are Mexican. L. H. B. 



