376 Lemon Curing and Storage. 
PREPARATION OF LEMONS FOR MARKETING, 
The lemon as taken from the tree is not in condition for. 
marketing except to packers who wish to undertake the curing. 
To secure best results in quality and in keeping properties, 
the lemon should be carefully cut trom the tree as soon as 
proper size is reached. To allow the [ruit to hang upon the 
tree until lemon color is assumed, gives a lemon which is de- 
ficient in inice, oversized, apt to develop bitterness, and prone 
to decay. If gathered before the color begins to turn, lemons 
may be kept for months, and they will improve in market quali- 
ties, by a thinning and toughening of the skin, and by increase 
of juice contents. This curing of the fruit, as it is called, is ac- 
complished in many simple ways. If the fruit is gathered and 
placed in piles under the trees, where, with low-headed trees, it 
is completely shaded by the foliage, it processes well and comes 
out beautiful in color and excellent in quality, providing it is a 
good variety. Some have trusted wholly to this open-air curing 
under the trees, merely protecting the fruit by a thin covering 
of straw, or other light, dry materials. Others let the fruit lie 
a few days under the trees, carefully shaded from the sun, and 
place it in boxes or upon trays, and keep it months in a darkened 
fruit-house, providing ventilation but guarding the fruit against 
draughts of air. Gathering the fruit while still green, and pack- 
ing with alternate layers of dry sand, has given excellent mar- 
ketable fruit, but of course the handling of so much sand is too 
expensive. 
Much attention has been given to lemon storage in southern 
California during the last few years and many curing and storage 
houses have been constructed. Naturally there is great varia- 
tion in design and in methods of operation. The essential con- 
ditions to be secured are exclusion of light; regulation of tem- 
perature; ample ventilation, under control, however, so as to 
prevent entrance of air which is too dry or hot; convenience and 
cheapness of handling, for the lemon is expensive in handling 
at best during the months of storage which is often desirable. 
The way these and incidental requirements are met in one of 
the latest constructions and in the methods of the owner can be 
best shown by reference to the operations of Mr. A. S. Gaylord, 
of Cucamonga, San Bernardino County, who secures admirable 
results with a house of moderate cost, of which plans and a gen- 
eral view are presented herewith. 
Lemon-Curing House-——This lemon house is almost a house 
within a house—the outer building enclosing an area 30x100 
feet, the inner apartment being divided into five rooms of 18x20 
feet each. Between the outer walls and the inner rooms is a 
hallway (marked G on the plans} five feet wide in front and four 
