393 
ing the lemons are washed, if necessary, to remove scale insects, 
and the sooty mould or fumagine. This is done with hand brushes 
or in specially constructed washing machines. 
In large groves a good plan is to have a child follow the picker 
with a padded basket to receive the fruit. 
The rind of a fresh-picked orange or lemon is easily bruised, 
the oil cells are then turgid and distended, and the slightest bruise 
or seratch ruptures them. 
For long keeping, lemons are picked still green when they 
attain the size desired, pickers using metal rings of the required 
diameter, 7.¢., 2Ygin. to 2Yin. The trees are gone over about once 
every month, this lightening up of the trees help them to carry the 
later fruit. 
According to seasons a quantity of lemons will ripen before 
they attain the picking size. These “tree-ripe” fruit are picked as 
well as the right size green ones, but being already coloured and 
matured they do not require curing, and are marketed as soon as 
possible, as they lack keeping quality. 
Only the right size, sound, green lemons are “cured” for long 
keeping and a better market. During the curing process the colour 
gradually changes from green to a waxy, lemon yellow, the thick 
rind becomes thin, the layer of white, spongy material it is made 
of shrinking materially, leaving an apparent increase in the quality 
of juice under a thin, leathery rind. The process takes about a 
month to six weeks to run. 
In California, where the art of curing has been svstematised, 
the lemons are washed if necessary and sweated; then they are 
loosely packed in packing cases, which are stacked and covered by 
by curing tents. It is eonceded that for successful curing there 
should be as much uniformity as possible of temperature (85 to 
90 deg.) and humidity. The packing house and curing tents are 
so constructed as to bring about these conditions. These tents con- 
sist of rectangular rooms usually of sufficient size to hold about 
600 packing-cases of loose fruit, or about one car load. Thev econ- 
sist of a frame about 15ft. x 15ft. The sides and tops of these 
rooms are of canvas, the sides being lapped over one another at the 
corners and fastened with cords drawn through hooks. Both sides 
and ends of the tent can be raised or lowered by means of cords 
and small pulleys. A roller sewn at the bottom is found convenient 
for that purpose. In this way it is possible to allow air to circulate 
among the boxes or to shut it out almost entirely. Boxes are stacked 
insidéd these tents in blocks 12ft. x 12ft. x 8ft. high. On jealm 
nights the curtains can be rolled up and lowered again in the morn- 
ing. The fruit is gone through carefully every fortnight, each case 
being taken down separately and stacked up in a fresh heap. 
