Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-04-03
LEMON onLTnRE.
Details OF the business, By A. y.
Chapman, ESQ.

I
Chapman, Esq.
From among the numerous and valua-
BILE papers read before the Los Angeles
County Pomologal Society, for which
the HERALD had no room, the following
thoughtful article on lemon culture by
A. b. Chapman, Esq, is presented for
the consideration of all those engaged in
citrus culture.
The lemon is one Of the standard
fruits of Southern California. and should
be source Of great profit to the people.
What is needed is to know what kind to
plant and what culture and care is neces-
sary to insure the greatest success. Mr..
Chapman gives his views as follows:
"The combustion merchants OF San
Francisco or elsewhere are not RESPONSE
BILE that our lemons, in the markets, are
not success. This is q charge con.
stantly made by the papers, but the
facts do hot sustain the charge. Our
lemons generally, as cured Tor not cured,
as we send them to market refute the
charge.
That our lemons do not hold a high
place in the market is because we, the
growers Of that fruit, are ignorant of the
proper method of curing them. There
is no literature ON the subject Of prepar-
| ing the lemon for market.
The Agricultural Department Of the
United States should furnish this State
and Florida with copious information
upon this subject, as well as upon the
subject of the best olive tree and the
best method Of extracting its oil and the
best iig and its proper cure.
have heard commission merchants
deplore the fact that the lemon grew in
California, and say it cost them con
stantly their customers.
| have frequently seen large sized
lemons for sale in the mark cts Of San
Francisco, and oranges that looked like
small sized squashes or over-ripe cucum-
bers. and because we, the growers, send
them there, we expect the commission
merchants to sell them. It's the old
fable of 'leading the horse to water
the people won't buy them, and the CON-
mission merchants can't compel them to.
Such lemons are bitter, with thick rind,
with minimum quantity of juice, and
this little juice gets mixed in with
the bitter OF the rind. This spoils the
drink or the juice, and the customer is
driven Oft by our lemons and curses the
commission merchant for selling such
lemons to him; and then we curse the
commission merchant because he can't
sell them; and our papers call upon us to
boycott the commission merchant be-
cadse he can't get good prices for them.
This is thoroughly unjust in us. Sup
pose those of us who raise pears for
market should let them remain on the
tree until they were perfectly ripe and
then pull them and ship them at once to
them! Would they not be thoroughly
unmarketable?
Now, we do not all Of us always send
such lemons to market as above de-
scribed. Some of us are beginning to
learn something on the subject; many
OF us are studying it. II we can solve
1t and get our lemons as perfect as those
that come from Sicily, then our lemons
would be equally, if not more valuable,
than our oranges.
For myself, it seems to me that have
learned that the lemon is in some re-
stects like the pear--it to be good has
to be picked at "a particular stage of ma
turity, and afterwards has to be treated
in a particular way.
l cannot say that know Just when to
pick and how to treat them, but l am
now picking with reference to size.
pick them green or just turning ripe, be.
fore they get yellow. / would rather
pick one perfectly green, both for keep
ing qualities and abundance of juice,
than when quite yellow. In the late
summer or fall of the year prefer to
pluck them quite greer, or just showing
a change OF color from green. In the
winter this change OF color occurs often
when quite too young to pluck.
Frequently, In conversation with
lemon buyers from the East, they have
told me that the imported lemon often
arrives in New York quite green. Even
in Chicago and the Western cities we
often fAd them of this color.
The lemon grower must learn by ex.
perience just when to pick lemon, as
the pear grower knows just when to
pick pear. 1t ia when the juices Of
each attain a certain ripeness, after
which they begin to deteriorate, and
bitterness intervenes. My experience is
that the rind of the lemon before it be-
gins to get yellow on the tree, never is
bitter, and if picked while green or just
changing from green color, never will
develop bitterness of rind.
Picking the lemon as above-cutting
the stem is better-I handle them as
carefully as possible; don't allow them
to be bruised. l place them carefully
in Florida orange boxes, and the boxes
half full. set these boxes one on top
OF another, so as to allow as free circula-
tion of the air as possible through the
boxes and over the lemons. These
boxes are placed in dry room, which is
kept open in dry weather and closed in
damp weather. In dry weather keep
the lemons from ten days to two weeks,
in damp weather two to four weeks,
when they will have sufficiently evapor-
ated to become somewhat soft. Then /
wrap them in paper (the best fruit
paper), and place them in boxes for
market. Many will be yet green, but
in the course OF six weeks or two months
they will color up beautifully, when
they can be sent to market.
1t is interesting to pick green lemon,
/. e.; one just ready to begin to turn yell
low, from the tree. 1t is as hard as
bullet. Cut and squeeze it, it gives but
little Juice 1t would take four or five
of them to make lemonade.
Now, set aside the same size and kind
OF lemon from the same tree, and cure
it as explained in the foregoing paper for
two or three months; then cut and
squeeze it; it is full of juice. Where did
this juice come from? 1t seems to have
absorbed it from the rind, for the rind is
not half as thick as it was when the lem
ON was plucked. and the lemon itself has
reduced in size from one-sighth to one-
fourth. Yet this lemon has as much
available juice in it as existed in three or
four lemons Just like it when first plucked
from the tree and rind not bitter.
Now, again, suppose you pluck from
the same tree lemon that was OF the
same size OF the two lemons above de-
scribed as being plucked, and that has
been allowed by this time-two or three
months-to ripen up we'll on the tree.
This lemon win be two or three times as
large; it will have no more juice than
the first lemon plucked and cut; the
rind will be thick and bitter. This
lemon is worse than useless. 1t is q
State incubus 1t brings our whole sec
tion into disrepute; discourages the
man who raises it and ignorantly lets it
ripen too much."