The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-11-29
LEMONS BECOMING
SCARCE AND dear
Their Use in the Manufacture
of Connections Is Largely
Responsible.
PRICES GOING HIGHER
The California Supply, Which for
Years Has Almost Supplied the
Demand, Is Now Far from
Adequate.

Lemons have become quite a do-
nestle Question:" The housewise is,
discovering that lemons are scarce and
dear. The explanation of the shortage,
is a simple one. This has been a rec
ord summer for the use Of lemons, and
the supply has not equaled the de-,
mand; prices have gone up and thel
end Of the summer finds a great in-N
road made into the autumn stock.
Our lemon supplies are mostly guar
anteed by Sicilian summers, say theI
London Daily Mail. The Messina and,
Palermo crops begin in November and
sometimes last through the whole year,
so that the same ship ma bring the.
last cases of the old crop and the first,
of the new. But his has been a lemon
summer, and SO the last shipments
from Sicily did not provide more tha.nI
enough to meet the August heat wave
Next to Sicily we depend upon Naples
and the Neapolitan crop, which beginst
in the early spring, usually lasts until
October, but this year., again, Neapoli-I
tan lemons w lasted only until tha
beginning of September. Then comes
sunny Spain. with Malaga, Murcia and.
Carthagena lemons, n the groves of
Lisbon practically complete the tale Of
u supplies.
Mostly from California.
California has, during the last thirty
years, supplied some portion of theN
American demand, but the United
States is not independent of the lemon
roveS of Europe, n it is the largest
consumer of European lemons, with
Great Britain a good second.
The confectioners take their share,A
though most of their supplies come in
the form of picked rinds and citrate
of lime. The Messina lemons, having,
the most acidity, are the best for the
rpose of the manufacture Of citratel
of lime, and it is in Messina that the,
lemons whose products are wanted byl
the confectioners are dealt with.
The pulp is there turned into pow;
dered citrate of lime, as it is more con-
venient to export than the concentrated,
lemon juice from which the manufac-l
turers here derive their citrate of
lime; III the rinds are put in brine and
sent over to England to be turned into
that adjunct to Christmas cheer, can
died peel.
The essence Of lemon is squeezed out\
of the peel by hand. Sicilian girls
stand with a pile Of peel cut into quar-
tiers at their side and before them isl
a sponge. That is all their apparatus.
They squeeze each quarter OF the rindl
and a jet of essence issues forth and Isl
soaked up by h sponge. hen the
sponge is squeezed and the costly es-l
sence is bottled, but thousands of lemA
ons are necessary to fill a tiny vial.
Tree Is a traiI Plant. 4,
The lemon tree is a frail plant and
not so hardy as the orange. It is so
used to the genial kindness OF the sun
that a nip of frost is fatal to it. One
hour of frost on January 80 last year
almost destroyed the Neapolitan crop,
and though many of the trees recov-
cred enough strength to put forth
zach JoovnS this WAR fhav had rot tIoA
strength to bear fruit, out by having
rested they will be all the better next
year., so that the crop Of 1907 may be
expected to reach a high level OF
abundance and quality. Last year, too,
the fragrant lemon 1rsn groves Of the
l. tn bud" The valleys showed the
black and leatiess skeletons Of trees
that should have been in leaf AMI blos-'
som and many OF them, shriveled past,
recovery, had to be uprooted.
The Neapolitan lemons are the fnA
est Of all and come when they are most
wanted and other crops are over. But
artifice and not nature regulates their,
maturity. In certain districts in Italy,
particularly in MAORI, they are grown,
on estates which once belonged, and,
some Of which still belong, to the an
less political times lived on their es-
tates outside the city and cultivated
groves as part Of the elegancies
of their pleasure gardens.
Here the trees are not allowed to
grow beyond six or eve feet in height
and the ripening Of the fruit is artif-
cially retarded by the trees being "
cred with rushes supported on piles, so
that when they ought naturally to be
ripe they are still immature, and the
where they grow are coo and
dark even in the sunny days of early
summer. But In May the rushes are
thrown aside and the sun pours down
on the trees to ripen the fruit Just at
the time when the English and Amer
lean summer demand is at its height.
Thus the Naples lemons escape the
dangers of a glut and fetch highest
prices when fresh lemons are most
wanted.
When a Balloon Catches Cold.
.'Balloning is so fascinating that 1t is
almost impossible to bring oneself to come