The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-29
California Wine and Raisins.
lCharIes Nordhoff in the Tribune.l


I have now seen the grape grow in al
most every part of California where
wine is made. The temptation to new
settler in this state is always strong to
| plant vineyard and l am moved, by
much that / have seen, to repeat here
publicly advice have often given to
individuals Do not make wine. I re-
member a wine-cellar, and chesply
| built, but with substantial and costly
casks containing, because the vineyard
was badly placed, a mean, thin, fiery
| wine and on a pleasant sunny after
noon, around these casks a group of
| tipsy men, hopeless irredeemable beasts,
| with nothing much to do except to en-
| courage each other to another glass,
and to wonder at the eastern man who
would not drink. There were two or
three Irdians staggering about the
! door; there was swearing and filthy talk
| inside there was pretentious tasting
| of this, that and the other cask, by
| parcel of sots, who in their hearts
would have preferred d" forty-rod" whis-
| ky. And a little way off there was a
| house with women and children in it,
who had only to look out of the door to
| see this miserable sight of husband,
| father, friends, visitors and hired men,
| spending the afternoon in getting drunk
| | do not want you to understand that
| every vineyard is a nest of drunkards,
| for this IS not true. In the Napa and
| SOnOma valleys, in the foothills of the
! Sierra, at Anaheim and elsewhere in the
| southern country, you may find many
| men cultlvatlng the grape and making
| vine IN all soberness. But everywhere,
too, and In my own experience far often
er, you Will see the proprietor, or his
! sons, or his hired men, bearing the
| marks of strong drink and too often,
| If you come unexpectedly, you will see
some poor wretch in the wine-house,
who about o'clock is maudlin. Seeing
all this, l advise no new settler in the
| state to make wine. He runs too many
| risks, with children and laborers, even
| if he himself escapes. Fortunately, no
| one need make wine, though every man
may raise grapes for it is now fact
established by sufficient and practical
| trial, that raisins, equal in every respect
to the best Malaga, can be made in Cali
| fOrnla from the proper varieties of
| grapes, and can be sold for a price
which will very handsomely pay the
maker, and with a much smaller invest
ment of capital and less skill. The
vineyard owners already complain that
they cannot always readily sell their
crude wine at paying price; but the
market for carefully made raisins is, as
l am told by the principal fruit dealers
in San Francisco, open and eager. To
| make wine requires uncommon skill and
care, and to keep it so that age shall
| give it that merit which commands
really good price demands considerable
capital in the necessary outlay for casks.
| While the skillful wine-maker undoubt-
| edly gets large profit on his vines, it
| begins to be seen here that there is an
over-supply of poorly-made wine.
But any industrious person, who has
the right kind of grapes, can make
raisins; and raising making, which 10
months ago, had still very uncertain
| future in this state, may now safely be
| called one of the established and most
promising industries here. Last year I
! ate excellent raisins in Los Angeles,
and tOlerable ones in Visalla but they
sell, very commonly, in the shops,
what they call dried grapes" which
are not raisins at all, but damp, sticky,
| disagreeable things, not good even in
buildings. This year, however, have
| seen, in several places, good native
raisins; and the head of the large
| fruit-importing house in San Francisco
told me, the other day, that one raisin-
| maker, last fall, sold the whole of his
crop there at 50 per box of twenty-five
| pounds, Malagas of the same quality
| bringing, at the same time, but 50. 371.
| There IL a market for all well-made
raisins that can be produced in the
state, he said, and they are preferred to
the foreign product. At Folsom, Mr..
Buggy told me he had made, last year,
| LOO boxes of raisins, and that he was
satisfied with the pecuniary return; and
I Judge, from the testimony of different
! persons, that, at seven cents per pound,
raisins will pay the farmer very well.
| The Malaga and the white Muscat are
| the grapes which appear, here, to make
| the best raisins. Nobody has yet tried
| the seedless Sultana, which, however,
bears well here, and would make, I
| should think, an excellent cooking
raisin.
For making raisins, they wait until
the grape is fully ripe, and then care
| fully cut off the lunches, and lay them
| either on hard, clay floor, formed in
| the open air, or on brown paper laid be-
| tween the vine rows. They do not trim
| out poor grapes from the branches, be-
| cause, as they assert, there are none
! but / suspect this will have to be done
! for the very finest raisins, such as
would tempt a reluctant buyer. The
punches require from 10 to "A days of
exposure in the sun, be be cured. Dur
ing that time they are gently turned,
| from time to time, and such as are
earliest cured are at once removed to a
raisin-house. This is fitted with shelves,
| on which the raisins are laid about a
foot thick, and here they are allowed to
sweat little If they sweat too much,
| the sugar candies on the outside, and
this deteriorates the quality of the
raisin. It is an object to keep the
bloom on the berries They are kept in
| the raisin-house, believe, five or six
weeks, when they are dry enough to
| box. 1t is, as yet, customary to put
/ them in 25-pound boxes, but, no doubt,
as more experience is gained, farmers
will contrive other parcels. Chinese
| do all the work in raisin-making, and
are paid 81 a day, they supplying them
selve with food. There is no rain dur
ing the raisin-making season, and, con-
sequently, the whole outdoor work may
be done safely as well as cheaply.
Enormous quantities of fruit are now
put up III Jln CANS, III GnlS SIaG0 anu
you will be surprised, perhaps, as was
the other day, to hear of an orchard of
peach and apricot tress, which bears,
this year, its first full crop; and for 100
acres of which the owners have received
$4,000 cash, gold, selling the fruit on
the trees, without risk of ripening or
trouble of picking. Yet peaches and
apricots are not the most profitable
fruits in this state, for the cherry, the
most delicious cherries in the world
grow here, is worth even more and 1
suspect that the few farmers who have
orchards of plums, and carefully dry
| the fruit, make as much money as the
| cherry owners. There has sprung up a
very lively demand for California dried
plums. They bring from 20 to % cents
per pound at wholesale, in San Fran
cisco, and even as high as 80 cents for
the best quality; and I am told that
last season a considerable quantity was
shipped eastward, and sold at hand
! some profit in New York.