The Raisin Industry / A practical treatise on the raisin grapes, their history, culture and curing

The Sweetwater valley, or rather continuation of valleys, is much smaller than El Cajon, perhaps only a quarter or half mile wide, but it is more favorable to raisins, grapes or vegetation of any kind. Olive orchards of good size trees, vineyards with large and yet growing vines, cornfields and pastures, and the winding and shaded little creek in the center of the valley, give the latter a freshness and beauty not surpassed anywhere.

On our way on the railroad as well as through El Cajon valley, we have frequently passed alongside of or under the now famous Cuyamaca flume, carrying water to San Diego and Coronado. This flume is a fine structure, running sometimes in the ground, sometimes again on elevated trestle-work over the ravines, or spanning the gaps between lofty hills. The whole length of the flume is thirty-six miles, and the cost of construction was $112,000. Its size is five feet, ten inches wide, and sixteen inches deep, but by an addition of two more boards the depth of the water can be increased to three feet, ten inches,—a large body of water for this country, where water is comparatively scarce. The flume heads in a magnificent dam at the head of San Diego river, and it would suffice to irrigate quite a large stretch of country if the people were only willing to use the water. But the farmers here have been so repeatedly told that the land absolutely needs no irrigation, and indeed would be ruined by the same, that the most of them now fully believe this to be the case. The water is therefore not diverted anywhere along the route of the flume, and even in El Cajon and other places, where the crop of almost every kind of fruit would be doubled by judicious irrigation, no effort to use the same is made. I could find no one who irrigated, and as a consequence the company that owns the flume have not yet put in the extra boards that would more than double the carrying capacity of the flume.

One of the most interesting places in San Diego county is the famous Sweetwater dam. It takes only two and one-half hours to visit it and return, and a trip to it will repay the trouble. We start out southeast and cross to National City, only a few miles from San Diego, and really a suburb of that town. National City is decidedly new, an attempt at something grand, which it will take sometime to finish. The most interesting thing there, in a horticultural sense, is the olive orchards of Kimball Brothers. They are scattered in two or three places, and comprise about fifty acres altogether. The trees are as large as good size apple trees, bushy and silvery, and are heavily laden with fruit. The land around each tree was checked up, each tree having a little square for itself, and a Chinaman with a hoe was busy irrigating. In one corner of the orchard was a large circular reservoir five or six feet high, and perhaps twenty feet across, to facilitate the irrigation. The train starts from here directly in among the hills, following the bed of the Sweetwater river. The bottom land is now being settled up by farmers and gardeners, who were busy taking their first lessons in irrigation. The plantations of course are very young, the irrigation works having been finished quite recently. At Sunnyside there are a few older orchards of oranges and olives, but, as a whole, the country is uncultivated.

Five minutes more and we are at the dam. There is no station, except a little wooden platform, and we had to scramble over a rough hill to get down to the dam. The gorge there is probably one hundred feet wide and several hundred feet deep, with almost perpendicular sides. There is no other vegetation visible than grass and a few low shrubs scattered around. It is a most excellent place for a dam. The Sweetwater dam is built almost entirely of masonry and cement, and, both as regards construction and size, is one of the very best in the world. It is built in the shape of an arch, with the convex part up stream, and gives an impression of solidity and safety not always found in structures of this kind. The masonry dam is forty-six feet wide at the bottom, at the top twelve feet. The length of the top is 340 feet, and at the bottom of the cañon the base of the dam is about one hundred feet, while the height is about ninety feet in the center. At one end of the dam is a wasteway and gates for letting the water out in case of a flood. The gates slide on an inclined plane, and consist simply of three-inch boards with pegs in each end, which are caught by a hook when they are to be raised. The capacity of the wasteway is said to be fifteen hundred cubic feet per second, or as much as the Sweetwater river is ever likely to carry, even during flood time. For one who is accustomed to headgates and waterways in the Fresno canals, this waterway looks very small indeed. But the engineers say it is large enough, and we suppose they must be right. The water is delivered through a large iron pipe thirty-six inches in diameter, covered for some distance down the cañon with masonry. For 29,807 feet, this pipe line runs down the valley or on the mesa lands adjoining it. It will deliver fifty million gallons of water per day, and can now irrigate ten thousand acres of land. The whole cost of construction was $502,000, and the time consumed in building was two years.

The reservoir, as it now stands, is a magnificent sheet of water with tributary watersheds of 186 square miles, and a water surface of about three and one-half square miles. It is a grand illustration of the enterprise of the San Diego capitalists, of the skill and success of the California engineers, and of what may possibly be accomplished on nearly every stream in San Diego county. It is a structure of which any country might be proud, and which has few equals and no superiors anywhere in the world.

On our way back we meet a picnic party of schoolgirls, who with their teachers have spent the day in the country. They fill the cars with smiles and chat, with flowers in bouquets and garlands, in baskets and by the armful. We are treated to flowers and to beautiful Muscat grapes culled from the vineyards,—enormous bunches and berries almost as large as plums. These grapes are a revelation to me, grown here within the reach of the fogs of the ocean, and irrigated with water from the dam or flume. Verily, I have never seen choicer grapes anywhere, and I am satisfied that they could not be surpassed by any for raisins. What a fertile country this will be when irrigation is better understood and more practiced. Could we but see it when that time comes.

RIVERSIDE.

There is no place in Southern California where the effects of a close and intelligent study of horticultural matters are so visible as in Riverside. Money alone may build villas and mansions; but the intelligent and ever watchful horticulturist alone can, out of climate, soil, water and capital, produce a Riverside. It is charming beyond description; it must be seen to be realized. The best time to get a full and good view of Riverside is early in the morning, just at sunrise, and there is no better place to view it from than the hill on which the Hotel Rubidoux was to have been built. I arose before sunrise, and struggled up the steep hillside. It well repaid me for the trouble, as few more beautiful views can be had. The whole settlement can be taken in at a glance,—the town close by imbedded in orange groves and vineyards, and the dense verdure of the country stretching for ten miles down the valley, and almost connecting with the yet farther off South Riverside. On the eastern side we see the San Bernardino Mountains, with the “Old Greyback,” and between the mountains and the settlements a lower range of steep hills appear, which in a continuous range either bar the way or like isolated islands shoot boldly up from the mesa land.

The Riverside colony forms a continuous settlement along the mesa, skirting the river, the deep green of the orange orchards harmonizing splendidly with the lighter green of the vineyards. At close intervals there are houses in every direction, with the bluest smoke rising straight up from their chimneys, and thence carried in long, tiny bands and columns down the valley just level with the tree tops. It is a pity the hotel on this hill was never finished—a great many more would then have enjoyed the almost unequaled view. An extension of the main business street in town leads up to this hill. On both sides of the street there are fine orange orchards and neat houses,—real country homes, sidewalks of cement where rows of fan-palms take the place of regular shade trees along their sides. The business portion of Riverside is confined to two streets crossing each other at right angles. If we stand in the center of this crossing we take it all in, the houses extending a block and a half in the four different directions. Some of the houses and brick blocks are very large and expensive, while many again are smaller, but all are costly and elegant, with new and perhaps startling ornamental designs. Whatever Southern California does, it does well, and even the cheapest structures have an air of character and taste which can hardly be too much admired.

When one speaks of Riverside he means the whole settlement that is irrigated, and to live in Riverside may mean to live in town, or it may mean a suburban residence ten miles away. In the latter locality the benefits of the country are happily combined with the luxuries of city life. Street cars run from the center of the business part of town down to the end of the settlement. It is a cheap way to view the settlement to board one of these early cars. You can see as much as any one may care to see, but of course cannot stop and examine. The whole drive is one not to be matched anywhere else. From the moment you leave town you pass orchards and vineyards separated from each other by only a road or cypress hedge. Every foot of ground is taken up. The main effort of all the settlers appears to be to make everything attractive, from the very sidewalk to the elaborate garden and the villa. Nearer town, every street has sidewalks of cement, and bordering them are continuous hedges of cypress trimmed in various styles, and in front of every house are lawns and plats of shrubbery and flowers, as neatly kept as if visitors were expected day or night. Some of the villas partake of the character of mansions, with towers, balconies and painted windows, while here and there in some of the finest orchards are yet seen some of the first houses built, small and unpretentious. The individual tastes of the owners are clearly discernible. One has a row of palms running along his sidewalk, another has palms and grevilleas, while others prefer the pepper and gum. The manner of trimming the hedges is charming; it has here become quite an art. Some hedges have square, others roofed tops, and at every corner there is a little pillar of cypress with diamond or globular top, not at all artificial or stiff.

The vast majority of the plantations consist of orange groves. The color of the trees is splendid, every leaf being bright and shining, and there is no sign of smut or scale. The large and upright Seedlings are easily distinguished from the smaller but bushy Navels. The tendency is now to plant mostly the latter, and most of the old Seedling trees are being budded over. The original Navel tree, which is the prime cause of the prosperity of Riverside and of the fame of its oranges, is yet standing by a modest cottage, which appears not to have kept pace with the times. The tree is small, perhaps twelve feet high, having been constantly cut back for buds. From this tree have sprung all the rest. No other Navel tree imported from Brazil or Australia resembles it in quality of fruit or in bearing capacity. It is probably a chance “sport” originally imported by the Agricultural Department at Washington, its companion trees being different in the most essential points which make this variety so valuable and so famous. This beautiful and choice orange, now generally known as the “Washington Navel,” is slightly oblong or egg-shaped, and the skin is very smooth, with no ridges at the poles, the latter being characteristic of the other Navel varieties. The crop of Navels this year is good. Many growers expect from three to four boxes to the tree, and, as each box brings from three to four dollars, it is evident the business pays. The valuable and permanent improvements everywhere show this to be the case; the account books of the grower need not be searched to demonstrate it. Here and there we also see a lemon orchard with its larger trees of a different green. A few years ago many lemon orchards were dug up, as no one understood the secret of saving the lemons till the warm season, when alone they can bring a good price. But at last one of the growers wrung the secret from Nature, and now buys up all the young lemons he can find and stores them away to be used from six to ten months later, just when they are most in demand. In company with that courteous horticulturist, the editor of the Riverside Press, E. W. Holmes, we visited this gentleman, G. W. Garcelon. To him is due much credit for having discovered the process. He presented us with lemons of the small and proper size that had been picked green eight months ago. They were equal to the best imported, both as to smallness of size, acidity, thinness of skin and quality of juice. These lemons bring now five dollars per box, at which price lemon culture proves more profitable than that of the orange.

The only variety that should be planted is the Lisbon lemon, the Eureka having too bitter a peel, and the much recommended Villa Franca being round and thus unacceptable. We passed several vineyards, the Muscat vines being large and the vineyards well kept. The grapes are just ripening, but it will be some two weeks yet before they are ready to cut. The only variety grown here is the Muscat of Alexandria, the real Gordo Blanco being unknown, or at least not generally planted.

The far-famed Magnolia avenue is near at hand. The center is occupied by a continuous row of old pepper trees, with gracefully drooping branches, under which the cars run. The outside rows are different in various places, generally palms with alternating grevilleas, or gum or pepper trees. The custom now is to replace the outside trees with palms, and many of the stately gums are being cut away. Beyond the sidewalks are the trimmed cypress hedges, and behind them orange orchards, only interrupted by open lawns and gardens partially hiding the tasty dwelling-houses of the horticulturists. All that we see, now so luxuriant and beautiful, is the effect of water on the otherwise barren plains. Everything is irrigated several times a year by means of flowing water brought from distant points, from the mountain cañons, or from the artesian wells in the river bottom higher up, several miles away.

The canals are all on the highest ground, and are dug on technical principles. There is no washing and no filling up, no broken-down gates and overflowing and stagnant ponds. Some ditches are cemented, and look magnificently clean, without any weeds or mud. The water in them is like the water of a spring, clear and pellucid. In course of time all the ditches will be cemented, the cost for doing the work being paid for in a short time by the water saved and the absence of the necessary cleaning out.

Riverside is indeed to be envied its Chinatown. The latter was, some years ago, moved a mile from town into a hollow, and now every house there is surrounded by cypress hedges and windbreaks of cypress and gum. Moreover, every house there is connected with the sewerage system, and the usual smell is not noticed on the outside. Indeed, one can drive by and not know the nature of the town, for it looks like any other country village, almost hidden in evergreens.

In a few weeks the raisin harvest will commence, and from that time on Riverside, along its whole extent, will be life and bustle. When the grapes are all in, the oranges will be ready for harvesting, and the country will again boast of its thousands of carloads of the golden fruit.

REDLANDS.

We have reached the object of our journey in the upper end of the San Bernardino valley. One of the features of South California, not Southern California, as we in the center all used to say, is the motor roads, not electric motors, but regular little steam engines, that will pull you anywhere, and which will not shock you with anything except perhaps with their smoke. Such motor roads lead almost everywhere, connecting the outlying colonies way up in the mesa with the headquarters on the regular railroad. And these motor roads are neither neglected, nor do they go begging for customers and freight. They are as much or more patronized even than the regular railroads, and they pay well. The cause of this is evident. They are more accommodating; they can without inconvenience stop wherever required, and passengers get on or off at almost every corner. The little train stops with equal readiness at the call in front of the rich man’s villa, to enable him and his family to embark, as at the poor man’s garden, to allow him to get on with a load of greens or with a basket of eggs. Thus managed, it rushes along with short and frequent stops, always full of passengers and freight.

Going up the San Bernardino valley from Riverside is a trip that no one should neglect. It takes us through one of the best improved parts of South California, through a veritable garden spot, with a radius of six or seven miles. From Riverside we pass for several miles over the level mesa land, just brought into cultivation through the new Gage canal system. Over two thousand acres have been planted here within the last two years to oranges, lemons and vines, and the fine and regularly planted trees with the large distances between show us how much the new settlers have been able to profit from the experience of the older ones. For several miles there are young plantations, each with its neat and substantial residence and outhouses, indicating that the settlers mostly are people of some means and of much refinement and taste,—just the class of people that we all would choose for our nearest neighbors. Everywhere are school-houses of artistic designs, most magnificent ones in the older settlements, smaller but tasty ones in those of almost yesterday. As we pass along the mesa, the upper San Bernardino valley, closed in by steep and lofty mountains, lies on our right, and in front the Santa Ana river courses through the center of the valley, with its vast broad river bottom covered with wild vegetation, pastures or cultivated fields. We cross several ditches, one laid in cement, with the water running in them as clear as that in the washbowl.

Once across the river bottom we are almost directly at Colton on the Southern Pacific Railroad. The first thing that attracts our attention is the beautiful plantation on the railroad reservation. Fine green lawns, fountains, beds of evergreens and flowers, the whole inclosed in pepper trees, gives the traveler immediately the impression that something beautiful in the way of gardening can be accomplished, where there is only a will and a taste. Such beautiful places everywhere in the South show that the people who came here, came not alone to make money, but also to enjoy life and to cultivate those pleasures and occupations which help to prolong and beautify the same.

From Colton up to San Bernardino the whole country is settled up and resembles the outskirts of a large city, where the business men have their suburban residences. The level and gradually sloping mesa is dotted over with little hills and knolls, just the place for a residence. Every such place has been taken advantage of, and fine residences with towers, balconies and airy awnings crown every little eminence, each one through its peculiar situation seemingly dominating the valley.

San Bernardino has been greatly benefited by the boom. The old and the new are there in strong contrast, the new decidedly predominating. Magnificent brick blocks grace the principal business streets, and the nearest streets crossing them, blocks that must have cost large sums of money, and which for design and substantial structure can nowhere be surpassed in any city of this size. The fine large hotels erected lately are kept up with style and even splendor. The large Stewart House is not inferior to the best town hotel that can be seen anywhere, and its interior arrangements, with a large covered court, are most admirable. My stay in San Bernardino was only too short; a long stroll around town and a little longer shake hands with the veteran journalist and horticulturist, L. M. Holt, took all the time I had to spare.

From San Bernardino to Redlands is but half an hour’s ride through the bottom lands of the Santa Ana river. We approach rapidly the upper end of the valley, where the elevated mesa spreads out all around like a perfect ampitheater, backed by the loftiest mountains in Southern California. The mesa is now in close view, and Redlands, Lugonia, Terracina, Crafton, all different points of the same settlement, lie in front of us at an elevation of about fifteen hundred feet above the sea, like a map or extensive panorama, where roads, orchards and houses are so clearly and distinctly seen that they can be observed at a glance. The mesa land here slopes about four hundred feet to the mile, and the different orchards or settlements lie apparently one above the other, all in full view. If I am asked for the place in this part of the country with the finest view, with the freshest air, with the purest water, and with the coolest breezes, and where business and the comforts of life can be combined, I will say, and say it again, Redlands. In all these points there is nothing here that surpasses it, and few are the places indeed that even can pretend to equal it. From whatever point we stand, be it at the lower end of the railroad depot, at any orchard or home in the center of the settlement, or at the upper end close to the rolling hills, from every point we see every other point, some below, some above us, all equally distinct. And this extensive and magnificent view, that requires no tedious and tiresome climbing to see, extends away down the valley for sixty miles, over slightly rolling hills, over level mesas with their dark-green orchards and vineyards, over the steeper hills, over the lofty Sierra Madre range in the northwest. If we turn to the right we are immediately met by the snowy peaks and the bare walls of the San Bernardino range, here and there cut by the cañons and gorges of the tributaries of the Santa Ana river.

The business part of Redlands is as neat and tasty as any,—brick blocks and cement sidewalks, horse cars, and water under pressure.

No explanation is required to be made of the quality of the Redlands climate and soil. A trip over the settlement will reveal all to any one with open eyes. Orange orchards, young of course, but thrifty, on every side, alternating with Muscat vineyards, according to the taste of the owner; beautiful homes of the horticulturists, the stately mansions of the bank presidents and those that became wealthy quickly, and the grand view common to all,—these are some of the good things this settlement enjoys. The water for irrigation is all under pressure, either coming to the surface in open flues or in iron pipes. The orange orchards are being irrigated everywhere, in a way which should make a San Joaquin valley man stare. Iron pipes are laid all over the orchard, and at the beginning of every row of trees there is a faucet. These faucets are all opened at the same time, and a tiny stream of water issues forth and runs on each side of the young orange trees down to the other end of the check. It is left to run for several days at a time. At the other end of the check the water is not wasted, but runs into a little wooden spout at every row of trees and through the same into a cement ditch which carries the water to another place. The system of irrigation is simply perfect; if it were not so, the land could not be irrigated. With this system there is no waste, no weeds, no malaria, no hoeing nor other work of any kind. Irrigation is here as easy as the washing of your hands in a patent washstand: you open the faucet and let the water run. The general opinion by people not acquainted with the colony is that water here is very scarce; this is a mistake. There is water enough to irrigate all the land; most of it is now only running to waste to the sea; to be utilized it must only be stored. The Bear valley reservoir, when perfected, as it soon will be, will hold water enough to irrigate over twenty-six thousand acres of ground, which is about all the irrigable land tributary to Redlands. There are other reservoir sites in the mountains, and the possibilities of future irrigation can hardly be comprehended. Although young, only four years old, the upper San Bernardino colonies produce already considerable quantities of fruit. Six thousand acres are now under cultivation, eight hundred of which are in Muscat grapes, the balance mostly in oranges and other fruits. Last year they produced fifty carloads of grapes and forty carloads of raisins, and altogether about 149 carloads of fruit, dried or fresh. No better showing could be expected of any place, and there is no better advertisement of the resources of the country.

I have yet a thing to add, a thing to praise. Everywhere in the South magnificent drives are laid out, avenues are planted with shade trees, evergreens and palms, street cars take you everywhere, and the comforts of pedestrians and riders are always assured. The roads are all sprinkled, and the dust is an unknown quantity except in by-lanes and corners, where the sprinkler cannot reach. Riverside sprinkles the whole of her business streets, and her Magnolia avenue effectively and continually for about ten miles down the valley. Other places do the same, perhaps only not to as liberal an extent. In many places the tired pedestrian finds little wooden benches to rest on under a shady tree, close to a fountain of drinking water, all placed there by the kind society, W. C. T. U. Comparisons are not in place; but how many times I have wished such a thing had been met with in some other places I know of where the sun is just as hot, and where the dust is just as deep.

AN HOUR IN A PACKING-HOUSE.

The following sketch of a Fresno packing-house, where already cured raisins are bought and packed, may prove interesting to those of my readers who have not had time or opportunity to visit any similar establishment. The same kind of work is going on in each packing-house, whether it be large or small, except that the number of hands are varied. In the two or three largest packing-houses in Fresno, as many as four hundred hands are sometimes employed at one time when the work is pressing; as it slackens, less hands are used. These large city packing-houses are all situated close to the railroad; they buy the raisins already cured and dried from the colonists, who bring them in sweatboxes to town. The time of the greatest activity is from the last week in August to October 15th. The largest of these city packers are Messrs. Cook & Langley, who own packing-houses both in Riverside and Fresno; Schacht, Lemcke & Steiner, successors to George W. Meade, the oldest packing-house in Fresno, superintended by H. W. Shram; Chas. Leslie & Co., Griffin & Skelley, etc.

The pioneer packing company of Fresno, known as the Fresno Raisin & Fruit Packing Company, is doing at this time a large business. Every day five or six carloads of raisins are sent away, while a string of from twenty to thirty, two and four horse teams are waiting outside of the weighing shed to have their raisins weighed and received. These raisins come both from large and small vineyards from all over the country, but principally from the colonies, where they are the products of twenty-acre vineyards. Some of the best raisins in fact came from the smallest vineyards, where they had the best care, and where the owner has given the vineyard all his time. Mr. H. W. Shram, the superintendent of this large and old packing-house, has had years of experience in the packing business, and has followed the Fresno raisin business from its infancy. As soon as the raisin boxes are unloaded they are immediately weighed. It takes eight men to attend to this part of the business, one weighing and one clerk to keep accounts. The dried wine grapes, such as Zinfandel, Malagas, and even Sultanas, are immediately wheeled into the stemmer-house to be separated from the stems and cleaned. This stemmer is one of the largest in the State, and the only one of its kind as regards construction. It stems, cleans and assorts, in from three to four different grades, sixty tons of raisins a day. Nine men are working this machine, some feeding, others pushing wide but shallow boxes under the spouts, others again wheeling them away when full. The steam engine of ten horse-power and boiler are fired principally with separated stems, refuse raisins, and stones of peaches and apricots. The separated dried grapes are packed and shipped in eighty-pound sacks, and go in this way to the East, or even to Europe. Every day one or two carloads of these dried grapes are shipped. The Muscatel layers, however, go first to the sweating-room, before anything is done with them. This sweating-room is one hundred by fifty feet, and has the walls and floor filled around with one foot in thickness of sawdust, so as to prevent the outside air from entering. This sweating room is constantly filled with raisin boxes from floor to ceiling, and seldom contains less than forty tons of raisins at one time. It takes from ten to thirty days to equalize the moisture in the raisins as well as to properly soften the stems so that the grapes will not fall off. This is of the utmost importance. If it is not done the stems will break and the berries fall off, and instead of a first-class layer raisin we would only get a first-class loose.

After having sweated for several weeks the raisins are brought out to be assorted. We see several rows of oblong tables, each one with a border around like a deep and large tray, and with a hole at each end in which the loose raisins are pushed. It takes eighteen of these tables to receive the grapes to be assorted, and as it also takes six girls at each table, it is evident the work is one of great importance. Only girls are used, as boys and men could not as properly do the work. It takes a girl’s nimble fingers to handle the raisins, so that none break. They are also more patient, and are, in every way, suited for the work. As the raisins are being assorted, the different grades are clipped from the same bunches, and placed in different trays. Thus one and the same bunch may contain four different grades of raisins. Each one is separated at these tables, to make different brands of raisins. The trays, with five pounds of raisins each as they leave the graders, are placed in large piles on the floor, and are from there taken away at leisure, first to be packed and afterwards to the press. This is a department of its own. It takes great experience to press the raisins just so much, that they will look well, but not so much as to burst. A broken raisin will sugar and spoil, and would cause complaint and dissatisfaction. The public is constantly being educated as to what fine raisins are, and now wants only the best. Each tray is pressed, and it takes four trays to make up a box of twenty pounds. A tray is placed over the box, the sliding bottom is pulled out, and the whole cake of raisins with paper and all drop in the box below.

After the raisins are assorted they have to be packed. Twenty girls are occupied with this, the most pleasant, but also the most skillful, work in the packing-house. No bad raisins go in here, and if any there should be, they are separated and placed with a lower grade, as even one or two raisins would spoil an otherwise good box. This requires a great deal of care and attention, but the girls are being educated, and the same ones are re-engaged from year to year. Fresno is getting an army of girls educated for the business, and we find much less trouble now to get the raisins well packed than a few years ago, when everything was comparatively new. Now there is hardly a girl in any of the colonies who does not know something about raisin-packing, and who is able to make good wages during packing time. Several cents a tray are paid for packing, and many girls earn two dollars a day, while none earn less than one dollar a day. The first quality raisins are packed under the Lion Brand, while the second quality goes by the name of the Golden Gate. Both brands are equally popular and are readily sold. The loose raisins are as important as the bunches and layers. The American housewife has learned that she gets more for her money if she buys loose raisins than if she buys layers, which always contain a large percentage of stems. Loose raisins are therefore now very popular. The loose raisins have all been sweated, and the best of them have come from large, fine bunches, from which they have simply dropped off, and magnificent they look indeed as they are separated and graded into several grades, the largest of course to make the very choicest brands. The process of packing is quite different from that of packing layers. In loose, the boxes are simply filled with fifteen pounds of loose raisins; then a tray containing five pounds, and which has been faced, is placed on top, this making up twenty-pound boxes.

The facing is a most important and interesting work. It takes from forty to fifty girls to do it, and only expert hands are allowed at the facing tables. The facing consists in placing large, fine and flatted raisins in layers on top of the box, as an advertisement that the contents underneath are equally carefully assorted and choice. A careful and skillful facer can face forty boxes a day, while from twenty to thirty boxes is a low average. Mr. Shram buys raisins and dried grapes from every one who has any that are really choice. For Feherzagos three to three and one-half cents are paid, for Malagas four cents, and for Muscatels three and one-half to five cents, according to quality. All the work in the packing-house is done by piece work, and from two to five cents are paid for different qualities of the work, such as assorting, picking over, picking and facing. Four hundred girls and boys are daily employed. The present raisin pack, Mr. Shram affirms, is the best of any he has ever handled. They are shipped to every large town in the East, and are constantly increasing in demand. Besides raisins, Mr. Shram handles peaches, figs, apricots, and in fact any dried fruit we have. Tons and tons of Adriatic figs are brought from the colonies every day at six cents per pound, an enormous price when we consider the yield of a fig tree. But, says Mr. Shram, they are in demand, and as long as we can sell them again when packed and sweated to advantage we can afford to pay a good price.

When sufficient boxes are packed, they are loaded in cars and made up into trains exclusively loaded with raisins. The various packing-houses combine to do this. Generally during the packing season two such train-loads are sent away every week, each one consisting of from ten to fifteen cars of raisins, each car containing one thousand boxes. Five hundred and thirty such cars were shipped from Fresno last year (1889). Some of the packers packed one hundred thousand boxes each.

RAISIN GROWERS AND THEIR VINEYARDS.

The following sketches are intended to convey to those not living in the raisin districts of our State an idea of the men who have made a specialty of the raisin industry,—men through whose experiences and intelligent work others are now profiting.

While the raisin growers and packers can now be counted by the hundred, and while all of them have in some way contributed to the development of the industry, and as such deserve to be mentioned in the annals of this industry, it has only been practicable to here refer to a few of the most prominent. Where exactly to draw the line was not easy to decide, and my intention has been not to slight or neglect any one, and should any one find himself omitted he should account for it through my ignorance of real facts. I should especially have wished to add to these short notes more extensive accounts of the work and vineyards of R. B. Blowers of Woodland, of the late G. G. Briggs of Davisville, and of Robert McPherson of McPherson, but I have not been able to procure the necessary data. These three gentlemen have all greatly contributed to the development of the high standing of the raisin industry in this State.

G. G. BRIGGS.

Mr. Briggs was the first large raisin-grower in the State, and owned vineyards in both Solano and Yolo counties aggregating seven hundred acres or more. Subirrigation by means of perforated pipes, in which the water was made to circulate under pressure, was first tried extensively in Mr. Briggs’ vineyard at Davisville, by which means the grape crop was almost doubled. Later on Mr. Briggs planted extensively in the Washington Colony at Fresno, but he died before his vineyard there came into bearing. He is said to have imported raisin grapes direct from Spain, and a grape now growing in the vineyard of G. E. Freeman at Fresno is said to be of that variety. It resembles the Muscat of Alexandria in growth, but the berries are those of the Gordo Blanco. Mr. Briggs advised to give the raisin-vines more room, and following his ideas several vineyards as well as his own were planted with the vines ten by sixteen feet.

R. B. BLOWERS.

R. B. Blowers of Woodland, Yolo county, planted his first vines in 1863, and produced his first raisins in 1867. From 1870 to 1873 he planted the principal part of his vineyard. He was the first one in California to do any really careful packing, and he may justly be said to be the father of the raisin industry in this State. Mr. Blowers was the first to irrigate the raisin-vines by means of pumping and flooding, for which purpose he constructed his afterwards so famous well. The first successful raisin dryer was invented and built by him at a time when every one else doubted the propriety and desirability of drying grapes by artificial heat, and the dryer thus constructed has never yet been surpassed. One of the characteristics of the Blowers dryer was the blower or suction fan, by which means the air was changed in the dryer, the moist air being sucked out, while dry air was allowed to rush in. Mr. Blowers improved nearly every branch of the raisin industry, and studied every operation, such as plowing, irrigation, curing and packing, more thoroughly than any one ever did before or has done after him. Mr. Blowers’ raisins were the best in the State at their time, and wherever exhibited received the first premium. At the World’s Fair at Philadelphia, they received the first premium, and attracted much attention. I may add that Mr. Blowers is the inventor or at least the perfector of the “face-down” method of packing, the best method for packing raisins. Mr. Blowers has published a short essay on raisins, referred to elsewhere in this book.

ROBERT McPHERSON.

Robert McPherson was for Southern California what G. G. Briggs and R. B. Blowers were for the Northern part. The McPherson vineyard extended once over 360 acres of land, and one year he shipped over one hundred thousand boxes. Many of the practical devices for irrigating, curing and packing raisins now generally in use in the southern part of the State were invented by him. The McPherson vineyard was situated in Orange county in the southern part of this State. Robert McPherson was certainly the largest and most prominent raisin-grower in Southern California. He is now no longer in the business.

T. C. WHITE.

The “Raisina” vineyard was the first thoroughly conducted raisin vineyard in Fresno. It was planted by T. C. White in 1876, ’77 and ’78, and from that time gradually extended until it contained one hundred and twenty acres, of which sixty-five acres are in Muscatel grapes of the variety known as Gordo Blanco, brought there from the Blowers vineyard at Woodland. The vineyard also contains some Seedless Sultanas and White Corinths. The soil of the vineyard is white ash, the location two miles south of Fresno, in the old Central California Colony. The soil is now partly subirrigated. T. C. White has done a great deal to develop and perfect the packing and curing of raisins, and he has also given much time and study to the other branches of the industry, such as growing, pruning and cultivation. Through the study of the imported Spanish raisins, as well as of those produced by R. B. Blowers, Mr. White succeeded in packing a very superior brand, which has never been surpassed in this State. The brands packed at the Raisina vineyard were as follows: Dehesa Clusters, London Layers, California Layers, Loose Muscatels, and cartoons of two and one-half pounds. The largest pack at one time was thirteen thousand boxes of twenty pounds each. In order to “face” the boxes accurately and rapidly, T. C. White invented the facing-plate elsewhere described in this book. Experiencing considerable difficulty in properly facing his Dehesas, it occurred to him that a block or plate might be made with cavities in which the raisins could be placed quickly and without danger of being disturbed. His idea was entirely original, and the facing device as made by him is a perfect machine which has not been improved upon. This device is now covered by patents.

In packing T. C. White employed the Blowers’ method, or the “face-down” method, which he so improved upon that it has not since been excelled. Many of the fine points in raisin curing and packing were perfected by him, and the raisin industry will always be benefited by the work he has done. Below I give a list of the premiums taken by T. C. White’s raisins at various fairs: 1885, silver medal and special first premium for best raisins at the Mechanics’ Fair in San Francisco; 1886, first premium and gold medal at the Mechanics’ Fair in San Francisco; 1888, first premium and one hundred dollars for best raisins at the State Fair. Same year they received first premium and gold medal at the Fresno District Fair; 1889, first premium at the Fresno District Fair.

MISS M. F. AUSTIN.

The story of Miss M. F. Austin and her success with the Hedge Row Vineyard reads like a beautiful tale. A schoolteacher by occupation, Miss Austin possessed many prominent qualities and elevated ideas, among others that horticulture should become a business for women as well as for men. Acting upon these ideas, Miss Austin removed to Fresno in 1878 in company with a lady friend and teacher, Miss L. H. Hatch, and she began immediately to improve her Hedge Row Vineyard, a part of which had been planted two years before by Bernhard Marks, the founder of the Central California Colony. The vineyard was gradually extended until it contained one hundred acres, nearly all in Gordo Blanco vines. Miss Austin must be given credit for having improved upon many operations in the vineyard and in the packing-house. She first discovered that under proper conditions the sulphuring should be done in the flowers of the grapevines. By this method she one year largely increased her crop of grapes. In packing she showed her womanly taste and refinement, and not only succeeded in producing superior Layer and Dehesa raisins, but made several innovations in packing which to this day are imitated. Among these we may mention the packing in cartoons, and in small ornamented paper bags, which latter were again placed in paper boxes. Miss Austin and T. C. White were the originators of fancy packing in this State.

The largest pack of the Hedge Row Vineyard was seventy-five hundred boxes, while the total of one year’s pack reached sixteen thousand boxes. Miss Austin built the first raisin dryer in Fresno, and demonstrated that machine-dried raisins were a success if not a necessity as regards the last crop. The pluck and intelligence of Miss Austin soon became extensively known, and many were the ladies who, imitating her, engaged in horticulture and in the raisin industry. Fresno county and the State at large owe her a debt of gratitude for what she has done. Those who had the pleasure and honor of her friendship lost in her a dear and faithful friend, a brilliant and intelligent companion, and a person who had few equals in any path of life.

JOSEPH T. GOODMAN.

The owner of the Floreal vineyard arrived in Fresno in 1879, and purchased a then already started plantation, which, however, he soon greatly remodeled, enlarged and improved. Mr. Goodman, formerly one of the brilliant newspaper men and literary writers of this coast, and publisher of the Territorial Enterprise of Virginia City, Nevada, has probably more than any other man studied the characteristics and requirements of the raisin grapes. His vineyard, while not the largest, is in our opinion the best cared for in the State, and newcomers could perhaps not do better than learn from it. It now comprises one hundred and twenty acres, mostly in Gordo Blanco. For the curing of the grapes, thirty thousand trays or more are needed, while a separate packing-house and tray-shed are prominent features of the vineyard. The land was all leveled with great care before planting, and every check can be flooded if necessary. The soil is the very richest, being the chocolate-colored loam, which in Fresno is considered the best and strongest soil for Muscat grapes. The location of the vineyard is the old sink of Red Bank creek, in the same district where Forsyth’s and Butler’s vineyards are situated. As regards planting, pruning, sulphuring, topping and other vineyard operations, Mr. J. T. Goodman is an authority from whose verdict there is no appeal. The Floreal vineyard always bears good crops, which must be exclusively attributed to the care given the vineyard and to the judgment with which all operations there are conducted. Mr. Goodman has invented several appliances for facilitating the vineyard work, most prominent among which I may mention the vineyard truck, by the means of which the expenses of harvesting and some other vineyard labors are greatly reduced. He also suggested the facing-plate independently of T. C. White.

A. B. BUTLER.

The largest raisin vineyard in Fresno county or in the State of California, as well as in the world, is owned by A. B. Butler. The vineyard is situated about three miles southeast of Fresno, on the sink of Red Bank. It contains about six hundred acres, nearly all of which is planted in Muscat grapes of the Gordo Blanco and Alexandria varieties, and a few Sultanas. The vines are planted at various distances, such as ten by sixteen feet, and six by twelve feet, etc. The pruning is all “low standard,” except the Sultanas, which are staked four feet high. The only trees in the vineyard consist of two or three avenues of fig and poplar interspersed with fan palms, while some poplar trees line the outside boundaries of the vineyard. The first vines were set in 1879, and since that time the planting has been carried on until the whole six hundred acres are now in vines in full bearing. Mr. Butler himself superintends the general work of the vineyard, and during the packing time carefully watches the packing. The latter is accomplished in a large building containing packing-rooms, storerooms, steam dryer, separator, box factory and storeroom for labels. The dryer has a capacity of fifty tons charge of green fruit, and is considered one of the best in the State. There are two dryers, the large one just mentioned and one smaller, of twenty-five tons capacity, situated in the center of the vineyard. The Butler raisins are celebrated all over the continent, and are most excellently packed. The labels used are very fine and are manufactured to order in France. The principal brand packed is “Butler’s Cluster Raisins.”

Mr. Butler acquired much experience in Spain, where he spent considerable time studying the raisin business. The output of the vineyard has been as high as one hundred thousand boxes per year. Similar to the other vineyards in this district, the soil of the Butler vineyard is among the very best in the county, all now subirrigated. Mr. Butler is the largest packer in the State, and his raisins have gained a continental reputation. As regards Spanish methods of packing, Mr. Butler is better posted than any other packer in the State. An interesting essay on Mr. Butler’s experiences in California and in Spain is published in monthly California for March, 1890. The crop this year promises to be of extra quality.

WILLIAM FORSYTH.

The owner of the Forsyth vineyard and the producer of one of the two finest brands of raisins in this State arrived in Fresno in 1881, and planted his present vineyard of one hundred and sixty acres in 1882 and 1883. The vineyard is situated in the sink of Red Bank creek, some four miles east of Fresno, and consists of heavy reddish or chocolate-colored soil of unusual richness. The vines used are almost entirely the Gordo Blanco variety, with a few Sultanas. The land is all leveled, was irrigated the first year only, and is now subirrigated and drained, requiring no further irrigation of any kind. The vines, set eight by eight feet, are pruned low, and given short spurs. The outbuildings consist of a packing-house, and equalizing or sweating house combined, thirty-five by one hundred and seventy feet. A dryer of late pattern, with steam boilers and flues, has a capacity of forty tons at a charge. The houses for the laboring men as well as the Colonel’s dwelling-house are most elegant and complete, and show the care and refined taste of the owner. Over fifty thousand trays for drying the raisins are used in curing, the trays being three feet square, large enough to hold thirty pounds of grapes. The grove of palms, ornamental and shade trees, the flowers and shrubbery surrounding the Colonel’s home in the center of the vineyard, are all models of beauty and testify to the culture and prosperity of one of our foremost raisin-growers.

The vineyard produces yearly from fifty to sixty thousand boxes of twenty pounds each, of the highest quality of raisins. The raisins are remarkable for their high grade and even packing. The brands are: Forsyth’s Imperial Clusters, the “Tiger” brand and the “Forget-me-not” brand. During the packing and picking season some two hundred and fifty hands are employed daily in the various departments, all under the direct supervision of Colonel Forsyth himself, who has gained his experience both by practical work in California and by visits to the raisin districts of Spain. During the latter he has gained much experience about foreign methods, which he has not been slow to apply in his own business. As regards location, the Forsyth vineyard is not surpassed by any, and as regards appointments it is the most complete and handsome establishment that can be found anywhere. The Forsyth raisins excel in quality of berry, grade, uniformity of size and in the elegance and care with which they are packed. They stand at the head of the California raisin product. Col. Forsyth has been appointed Commissioner for California at the World Fair in Chicago, 1892.

A. D. BARLING.

Among our younger raisin-growers and packers, Mr. A. D. Barling occupies a prominent place. A sketch of his life and connection with the raisin industry is most interesting. He came to the raisin district with only a dollar in his pocket. To-day he is a wealthy grower and packer, whose raisin brand is among the best in the State.

Mr. Barling, formerly of Michigan, was educated at Ann Arbor. In 1873 he left college and started West, settling in Merced county, California. There he became connected with the Farmers’ Canal Co., as their chief engineer, which position he held for seven years, and in that capacity conducted the water of the Merced river down to Livingston on the S. P. R. R. From Merced he went to Mexico in the employ of the Mexican Central Railroad, but returned to San Francisco, California, in 1882. Here he had charge of the construction of the large wharf at Alameda point, then being constructed by the S. P. R. R. Co.

Becoming tired of working for a salary, Mr. Barling went to Fresno and rented a lot in the Central Colony. By dint of hard work, not having any capital at all to start with, he and his wife saved one thousand dollars, with which they purchased the present El Modelo vineyard, paying forty-five dollars per acre for the rough land in 1885. Mr. Barling and his wife went to work with a will and set out the land in Muscat cuttings, but through unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances all the first planting was lost. Undaunted they replanted in 1886 with great success, and to-day they own one of the finest and best-paying 150-acre vineyards in the county, having yearly added new territory to the first purchase. Last season they packed sixteen thousand boxes of Muscat raisins, and established the El Modelo brand, which in the market is considered second to none, and which has established an enviable reputation for its packers. This year’s pack is estimated to reach fifty thousand boxes of twenty pounds each. Mr. Barling’s thorough education and skill and experience as an engineer has materially contributed to his success. He has also held the position of assistant cashier in the Fresno Loan & Savings Bank for the last five years.

FRANK H. BALL.

The Ball Vineyard adjoins the town of Fresno, and is situated in the rich red lands, the sink of old creeks. The one hundred and twenty acres in Muscatels are among the best cared for in the district. Mr. Ball possesses the faculty of doing the necessary work at the right time and doing it thoroughly. The crop is annually sold in the sweatboxes to packers in Fresno City, no raisins being packed on the vineyard. Mr. Ball is the author of an excellent essay on raisin-grape growing and curing, published in the California for July, 1890. His methods of culture and curing are the best, and the raisins produced by them are not surpassed by any in the State. Mr. Ball is one of our most successful raisin-men.

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY RAISIN PACKERS, 1889.

LITERATURE.

The literature of the raisin industry is a very scant one, and as far as I have been able to ascertain not a single work especially devoted to this industry has appeared in any language. The various cyclopedias contain articles on raisins, but they are all more or less confused and unreliable, and of no great use to any one who wishes only reliable information, and who must depend upon the same for practical purposes. As regards California, much information has been given about raisin growing and curing in almost every newspaper published in the State. To mention them all would be to enumerate all the papers of the Pacific Coast. I can here refer only to a few of the principal ones, where the student who has time and inclination to follow up the subject may find material for a more detailed history of the raisin industry than the one I have written.

First among these papers I must mention the Pacific Rural Press, edited by that distinguished horticulturist, Professor E. J. Wickson, and published by Messrs. Dewey & Co. of San Francisco. In the files of this weekly, from 1873 to the present time, 1890, may be found scattered many interesting articles referring to our subject. A paper contemporaneous with it was the San Francisco Merchant, which contained many interesting articles on raisins and raisin grapes, especially during the period from 1881 to 1887. In the issues of the Press and Horticulturist of Riverside, San Bernardino county, California, we find during a series of years occasional notes and articles referring to the raisin industry of that section of the country. As regards the Santa Ana and Orange county district, the Anaheim Gazette will prove the most reliable guide, as recording the rise and decline, and, as we believe, also the revival, of the raisin industry of that section. The Yolo Democrat and the Woodland Mail published at Woodland, Yolo county, have devoted much space to the raisin industry of that section. In Fresno county the Fresno Republican, between the years 1882 and 1887, contained weekly a separate department for viticulture and horticulture edited by the author of this book, and that paper has ever afterwards devoted much space to recording the progress of the raisin industry of the country. The Fresno Expositor, the oldest paper in Fresno county, has contained much information about raisin grapes and vineyards since 1873, when the first raisin-vines were planted in the county. During the period from 1888 to 1890, this paper contained almost daily editorials upon the raisin industry, mostly contributed by this author.

The California Fruit Grower, a weekly horticultural paper mentioned below, has since its beginning a few years ago made dried fruit its specialty, and has contained many important articles on our industry, and in its columns may be found the most reliable raisin statistics published in this State. The San Francisco Examiner contained in 1888 a series of articles on raisins, contributed by this author. The San Francisco Chronicle has from time to time given much space to the raisin industry, and its horticultural editor, George F. Weeks, has most ably contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about our California raisins. A special raisin edition of this paper appeared February 2, 1890. Another San Francisco paper, the Journal of Commerce, contains much information as regards raisin statistics and the progress of the raisin industry generally, and its files may be consulted with much interest and profit. Among Eastern journals I wish only to call attention to the Fruit Trade Journal published at New York up to date (June, 1890); it contains weekly statistics of raisin sales, etc., all of great interest to the grower and packer. An important contribution to the history of the raisin industry is the work by Professor E. J. Wickson,—“California Fruits, and How to Grow Them.” It contains several chapters on grapes, most conscientiously written and very reliable. This book will always remain as a standard work of reference upon the subject. Professor E. W. Hilgard has during a number of years published essays upon topics related to our industry, all most valuable to the practical grower. They are enumerated below.

I may also mention the Rural Californian, published in Los Angeles. It devotes from time to time some space to the raisin industry of the southern part of the State. In the Reports of the State Board of Horticultural Commissioners will be found several papers upon the raisin industry, all mentioned below. Similarly the Reports of the State Board of Viticultural Commissioners contain several important and very interesting essays on raisins, etc., which are duly mentioned below. In these reports we find articles by T. C. White and W. B. West and others, as well as interesting discussions by growers. The California, a journal of rural industry, which commenced publication this year (1890), and is issued weekly and monthly, makes the raisin industry a specialty. It has already contained many articles contributed by our most successful growers, such as A. D. Barling, T. C. White, A. B. Butler, Frank Ball, Wm. Forsyth, etc., and also by this author. In the way of illustrations, California is fortunate to possess a most exquisite work on grapes. We refer to the very fine colored prints of California grape varieties published by Edward Bosqui. Among the number are our Muscat of Alexandria and Seedless Sultana. Each one of these plates is a work of art, than which there is nothing superior produced anywhere.

Below follows an enumeration of books, which to a greater or less degree refer to the raisin industry. For access to many of them I am indebted to the kindness of the proprietor of the Sutro Library, Mr. Adolph Sutro, of San Francisco, and to his librarian, Mr. George Moss.