216 STATE BOABD OF HOETrCULTUEE. 



about five eighths being suitable for export, the balance being 

 used for peel and essences. 



The January fruit is of still less value, only three eighths 

 being fit for packing. The fruit gathered at this time is fully 

 ripe and quite yellow. The inferior fruit of this month's 

 gathering is largely cut in halves, packed in brine, and 

 exported for lemon-peel making. 



The remains of the crop are gathered in February, and is 

 called "old fruit." It is of inferior quality. Nothing is now 

 left on the tree except the green fruit from the August blos- 

 soms. Fully three fourths of the February gathering is used 

 for essence, acid, and peel. 



Out-of-Season Crops. — I was much struck with what are 

 called out-of-season, or extraordinary, crops. In one grove I 

 visited, one half was bearing a fine crop of lemons ready for 

 the second gathering. On the other half there was hardly a 

 ripe lemon, but the trees were carrying a good crop of fruit 

 about one fourth grown. I found that it was a fairly common 

 practice to force the trees into bearing such crops. Sometimes 

 peculiar climatic conditions will do it, but usually it is the 

 result of special cultivation and irrigation. If trees are 

 deprived of irrigation during the hot months of July and 

 August, and then abundantly watered in September, a prolific 

 amount of blossom will generally result, producing a valuable 

 May crop. This cannot be done every j^ear, for the tree sulfers 

 from the privation mentioned, and takes a season to recover 

 its normal condition. Still, the May fruit being of fairly good 

 quality and valuable on account of the demand, realizing as 

 much as 30s. and 40s. for one thousand lemons, the temptation 

 to force crops is considerable, the price compensating for the 

 scanty succeeding crop. 



GATHERING, PACKING, AND STORING LEMONS. 



In the preceding pages I have dealt at considerable length 

 with the general features of the cultivation of the lemon tree 

 in order to produce the splendid fruit for which Sicily is so 

 famous. So important is this industry that the British Consul 

 at Rome says that four fifths of the total lemon and orange 

 trade of Italy is confined to the Island of Sicily. The magni- 

 tude of the trade, nearly the half of which was, until a few 



