TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



63 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECOND DAY. 



Wednesday, May 6, 1903. 

 Convention called to order. President Cooper in the chair. 



CURING AND MARKETING OF LEMONS. . 



By C. C. TEAGUE, of Santa Paula. 



The past year has marked one of the greatest, if not the greatest, strides 

 that has been taken in the lemon business since the shipping of lemons 

 from California has assumed anything like commercial proportions — a 

 stride that has been a complete revolution of old methods and one that 

 is destined to have a far-reaching effect upon the future of the business. 

 I refer to the open-air method, as it has been termed, of holding and 

 curing lemons. 



Unfortunately about 75 per cent of our lemons are gathered in the 

 winter and spring months, and up to last year the experience of our 

 growers and shippers who had attempted to hold their fruit until the 

 summer months had been so disastrous, on account of the heavy decay, 

 that they had concluded that the most profitable way was to ship the 

 fruit within from four to six weeks after gathering. The result was that 

 the fruit was not equally distributed throughout the year, and at times 

 the market would be so glutted that the shipper would get "red ink" 

 for his shipment. Not being able to hold his lemons when the market 

 was low, and having only a small percentage of his crop in the summer 

 when the price is usually high, one can, perhaps, imagine how the lemon- 

 growers' books have been balancing at the end of the year, and will 

 probably be able to answer the question often asked, Why are so many 

 lemon groves being budded over to oranges ? 



The old style lemon house, and the one still used by many of our 

 growers, is a double-walled, double-roofed affair, some of them having 

 patent systems of ventilation, and others depending simply upon doors 

 and windows. When attempting to hold lemons by this method, they 

 are massed in the house and the fruit just picked given exactly the 

 same ventilation as that which 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. 



