

LEMON CURING HOUSE 



has been in the house several months, when, as a matter of fact, 

 lemons in different stages of curing require radically different 

 treatment as regards ventilation. As a result of this treatment 

 some of the fruit is usually wilted from receiving too much air, 

 while the greater portion of it is badly decayed from receiving too 

 little. 



Proper ventilation is the keynote of success in keeping lemons, 

 and after extensive and expensive experience along the old lines, 

 Mr. Teague of the Limoneira Company, already cited, concluded 

 that lemon handlers had been on the wrong track in believing a 

 low temperature first in importance. If the ventilation is right 

 the temperature will take care of itself. Mr. Teague decided that 

 proper conditions for keeping lemons lie just between the points 

 where they wilt and where they sweat, inducing neither if possi- 

 ble, for too much moisture induces decay and too little causes 

 shriveling. The fragment of the stem left on the fruit by the cut- 

 ter may be used as a test : if it adheres, the conditions are right 

 for slow curing; if it detaches easily, the best keeping quality is 

 not being secured. 



The Limoneira Company was first to equip a house on the 

 open air plan. The house is 300x100 feet. The flooring is 2-inch 

 planking and the roof covered with gravel-paper roofing. The 

 building has no sides whatever, allowing free circulation of air. 

 The fruit for storage is put into regular shipping boxes, piled in 

 blocks of 560 boxes. There is a double row of these blocks on 

 either side of a 20-foot space which extends to the entire length 

 of the building, and which answers the double purpose of a 

 work room and an air space. The boxes are so piled as to permit 

 of the circulation of air around each box. Each block of fruit is 

 covered by a canvas 10x10x20, made box shape by a canvas cover 

 and four canvas curtains on rollers, the openings at the corners 

 being closed by lacings as desirable. The ventilation is controlled 

 by raising or lowering the canvas, and each block of fruit can DC 

 given exactly the ventilation that it requires, irrespective of the 

 other fruit in the house. By this method 50 or 100 cars of fruit 

 can be handled and kept in as good condition as if there was only 

 one. Each block being numbered, a complete record of the lemons 

 from each of the six sections of the ranch is kept from the time 

 it is picked until the fruit is shipped. The fruit is all washed in a 

 lemon washing machine, and is piled up in the house wet, just as 

 it comes from the machine. The canvas covers are not dropped 

 over it, however, until it is thoroughly dry. An idea of these 

 curing tents can be had from an adjacent engraving which shows 

 them on both sides of a central space which is used for packing 

 the fruit in the shipping boxes. 



With proper curing facilities lemons picked in November and 

 December may be kept until the following July. Later pickings 



