| Show HAVE YOU BEEN HIDED HANDED A LEMON HERES HERE'S THE TUE TU HISTORY OF OE THE El fRUIT About on third one third of the total lemon crop of Sicily is consumed in the manufacture manufacture manu manu- facture of citrate of lime and antI from the tho peel of these same sante lemons comes tho the enormous quantity of essential oil or essence of lemon which furnishes practically practically the worlds world's supply and finally I even cven tho the peel itself is exported in brine brino to he be candied Tho lemons used for manufacturing purposes are those thoe from irom tho the winter crop crep picked from the tree and taken without selection tho the di discard card from the in the gardens and in the storehouses storehouses store store- houses windfalls w and all the tho rest of I the poorer quality of fruit I when bro brought ht to the fact factory on the lemons are arc first split plit with a sharp knife this thi work bein being done by women or boys each ach of whom is expected to split ab about ut lemons per lay day receiving there there- for 15 Hi cents The halved lemons are arc dumped into Ion long troughs on either side of which stand women omen with lar largo large o basI bas bas- baskets I ch beside eside them who rapidly and vcr very ery cleanly scoop out the pulp entire b oy DY means of a sharp spoon tho the bowl of u-hi u which h is set at ri right ht angles to tho the bandie handle han ban dle die throwing tho the peel into the baskets These women called t receive receive re re- re- re e cei 43 48 cents for each ench basket of halved fruit w-ei w weighing hin forty kilos eighty eighty- pi eight ht pounds and they may each ench work up nine basketfuls per day The pulps are passed between een toothed cylinders which tear them to shreds Provision sion is of course made to catch the tho juice and to lead it to the vats The shredded mass mas is then shoveled into lar large E receptacles of mattin matting and these are aro placed in a a. largo large press The refuse is con consumed sum cd for fodder or as fertilizer I Ia Iam Iam a am L credibly informed that this residue still contains moro more or less juice juico anti and improved methods should increase the tho yield About eleven cn gallons of juice should bould be bo obtained from 1000 lemons The workmen in the tho press pres room receive recci 58 cents per day and tho foreman 63 69 cents The crude juice collected contains water in io abundance citric acid malic maJic acid saccharine matter and extracts al nI- nI and mucila mucilage e On account of th the sugar contained therein it has hitherto hitherto hith hith- erto been found impossible to preserve tho juice wit without out fermentation but very verv an En English lish firm has established es es- a nely equipped factory near nar Me Messina sina for putting up unaltered pure lemon juice juico for the trade trado by a special patented process From Prom the Juice Concentrated juice obtained by evaporating orating the crude juice was formerly put on the market in largo quantities but in re recent nt years almost all the juice i is n used ed in iii the manufacture of citrate of lime This very important material which ss teems to b be the safest form in which the acid principle can b bo be con con- and is is tho substance from which tho the citric acid is directly manufactured is now produced In Sicily in lar large e quan quan- ties tics The manufacture of citrate commenced com coni- in Sicily about l fifteen teen years cars ago aeo increasing over every year and last year 95 per pcr cent of ot the production was ex ex- exported ported in this form and only 5 per cent as concentrated juice The cost of making making mak mak- ing citrate is about per pipe less than for the tho same quantity of ot juice furthermore it takes three days ays to boil boila a pipe of ot juice whereas a R. pipe pipe of ci ci- ci is ig produced in two hours In addition ad ad- the three days' days boiling caused a areat peat great loss in acidity acidify It takes lemons r to make one ono pipe of juice while nile only lemons aro o required to tomake tomake tomako make mako on one pipe of citrate A pipe of concentrated con con- juice contains 43 43 1 pounds of ot citric acid while w a a- pipe of citrate contains contains con con- The economy is evident In comparing prices of ot a pipe of concentrated concen concen- juice l fifteen teen years ago afO and of a pipe of ot citrate today tho the above figures must bo be borne in in mind Making Citrate of Lime Briefly described citrate of lime is manufactured by 1 filtering off the warmed crude juice juico into tinned boilers and a nd heating n nearly arl to the boiling point when finely powdered chalk 15 is s slow slowly I added a while hile thu tho liquid is being constantly constant constant- 1 13 ly 3 stirred When tho the effervescence c caused aused by bJ the tho admixture of the carbonate carbonI carbon carbon- I J a ate ate- te of limo lime has cea ceased ed the citrate read read- i iJ ly precipitates out the residue is a again t treated with milk of lime to reduce the tho r remaining n acid Tho The supernatant liquid liquids i is s drawn off and the citra citrate to of lime is is c compressed and n then dried in shallow pans in a heated room The Tho enormous increase over per percent percent percent cent durin during tho the past ten years Vears in in the m manufacture of citrate of or lime has al ni ready been noted and tho the interesting forecast for next season eason that the production production pro pro- will exceed by about 0 o per percent percent percent cent that of the past record year ma may now be made From tho lemon peel is is obtained tho the essential oil Tho peels are arc first soaked in water w-ater for some four or five o minutes in order to soften the envelopes of the oil vesicles and render easier casier the expression expression ex ex- I of the oil They aro are then thou carried car car- ned ried to the expressing room which is usually darkened and kept as cool as possible to guard Juard n against the ea easy 3 alteration al alteration alteration al- al of the tho delicate and unstable oil The expressing of the tho oil is performed bv by men called Ie who usually usually ally work ork from shortly after midnight until noon or until tho the p peel d prepared th the I day before is used up tip These hours will vary much according to season and tho the I amount of ot work on hand b but bt t tho the adherence adherence adherence ence to night work is very verv general on I account of the tho absence of light tight and the lower temperature In tho the spring to toward toward to- to ward vard the tho end of ot tho the season work must generally bo ho stopped by S or 9 D 0 o'clock clock except in very Cry favorably situated fac fac- tories tones Getting Out the Juice Each workman is seated on a low Jou- stool and has before him a n glazed earthenware tarn bowl I across which and resting in depressions in iu the tho rim is a wooden rod run through a sized good sponge In his bis left hand band tho the workman holds another sponge often shaped cup a against which be he presses the outside o of ot the tho peel giving ivin this a circular twisting motion In this a way the walls of tho the oj oil cells are arc broken and the oil squeezed out into tho sponge to drip into tho the bowl bo In this the oil rises to the to toof top of the tho admixed water and sediment and can then be decanted off The residue t is ill is subjected to pressure and tho the whole filtered into lar large e copper containers in iii which i it is b stored in a n cool dark clark place to await sale sale- The Ie re from 26 6 to 28 cents per day and I should press peels to the woi weight ht o of near near- ly 13 pounds The expressing of the of-the the juice is labor ious bus expert t work and these men ar are I now demanding an increase of wa wages to tc 55 5 cents centis per pcr day of ot eleven cleven hours It is 18 probable that tuat they will ivill receive 6 an ax I advance to n about out 50 M 0 cents in tIm tho near future Various ls machines machins have bave be been tried for foi expressing tho the oil but hut FO so far fur without success The Tue amount of ot oil obtained wi wit will vary var- largely according to tho district and the season but hut will average from 07 pound per 1000 I lemon mon peels for tor tho thE ripe fipo lemons to 1 1 pound and in iu rare ran cases cases- to even l ll pounds pound The Tho oil oi obtained from the October and November Novem- Novem her ber cuts is laT larger er per peT given quality of lemons but is li lighter t r in wel weight ht than that from lemons gathered later hitter in in these the se season eOD The thoroughness of tho the work of each is t tested at frequent intervals by tho the foreman who selects pieces at random from the basket into which the former has thrown the the pres pressed d p peels es and squeezes them a against the flame flamo of ot a tiny oil oU lamp If much essence remains in the peel it will flare fiare up bri brightly in the lamp flame fiame and thus show that the pressing has not been thoroughly done Lemons preserved in brine are also exported to a n certain extent but the tho production in this form is comparatively small The fruit is simply halved longitudinally lon Jon and soaked in casks in sea seawater seawater water and added salt for several days Tho The water is drawn of off and renewed always with the addition of moro more orless or orless orless less salt several times and the tho lemons finally shipped for export at the end of the process in the same casks |
