Richland beacon., 1873-08-30
California Wine and Raisins.
ICharles Nordhoff IN the Tribune.l


most. every part of California where
wine is made. The temptation to a 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. re-
member a wine-cellar, and cheaply
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 group of
tipsy men, hopeless irredeemable beasts,
with nothing much to dc 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 I"dians staggering abont the
door; there was swearing and filthy talk
inside there was pretentiOus tasting
of this, tina. aud the other cask, by
parcel of so.s, who in their hearts
would have preferred " forty-rod" whis-
ky. And little way off there was
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
evely 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 i'll the
southern country, you may find many
men cultivating the grape and making
wine 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, bepring 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 maudliu. Seeing
all this, advise no rev 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
NAV 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
fornia from the proper varieties of
grapes, and can be sold for a price
which will very handsomely pay the
max. r, 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 a paving 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
| 10 Oh \ md
care, and to keep it so that age shall
give it that merit which commands a
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 y-made wine
But any industrious person, who has
the right kind of grapes. can make
raisins and raising-making, which 1S
months ago. had still very uncertain
future in this state, NAV now safely be
called one of the established and most
promising industries here. Last year I
ate excellent raisips 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
puddings. This year, however, I 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 g. 374.
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..
Bugby told me he had made. last ar,
!, 700 boxes of raisins, and that he WIS
satisfied with the pecuniary return: and
Judge, from the testimony of different
persons, that, at seven cents per pound,
raisins will pay the farmer very we'll.
The Malaga and the white Muscat are
the grapes which appear, here, to make
the best raisins Nobody has vet tried
the seedless Sultana, which, however,
bears we'll here, and would make. /
should think, an excellent cooking
raisin.
For making raisins, they wait until
the grape is fully ripe, and then care
fully cut off the punches, and Law 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
ont poor Craps 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
lunches require from 1S 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
sweet little. If they sweat too much
the sugar candies on the outside, and
this deteriorates the quality of II
raisin. 1t is an object to keep the
bloom on the berries. They are kept in
the raisin-house, I believe, five or si1
weeks, when they are dry enough tc
box. 1t is, a. vet, customary to pui
them in 25-pound boxes, but, no doubt
as more experience is gained, farmer,
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 ma,
be done safely as we'll as cheaply.