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careful that they keep their nails well trimmed. Each fruit is 

 individually clipped off the branch by means of specially constructed 

 lemon clippers with blunt blade tips and a spring like those on 

 secateurs ; a knife at times grazes the fruit and causes it to rot. 



The fruit, when picked, is placed either in baskets or a waist 

 sack, and carefully transferred to the sweat boxes. 



A fresh orange or lemon has a rind easily bruised, the oil cells 

 are then rigid and distended, and the slightest bruise or scratch 

 ruptures them. 



The sorting having been done usually in the orchard the fruit 

 is placed in the sweat boxes, and left in the packing-house until the 

 rind slightly wilts and the surplus oils and moisture have evapor- 

 ated, making the peel tough and flexible. This takes two or three 

 days, or, in moist weather, even a week, after which the fruit can be 

 pressed into the boxes when it will not very perceptibly shrink. 



The droplets of moisture found after a cool night on oranges 

 stacked in a heap are not due to " sweat," but to condensed vapour. 

 This moisture, which interferes with wrapping and packing, does 

 not condense in well ventilated storing houses. 



SHELF 



Fruit Storage House. 



The above diagrams show the ground plan and elevation of 

 a well devised storing house for keeping lemons over an extensive 



