The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-08-09
CALIFORNIA RAISINS AND FIGS.
PROCESS OF RAIsIN- MAKING.

hAlSlNS AND
PROCESS OF RAIsIN- MAKING.
Any industrious person who has the right
kind of grapes can make raisins; and raisin
making, which IS months ago had still a
very uncertain future in this State, may
now safely be called one of the established
and most promising industries here. Last
year l ate excellent raisins in Los Angeles,
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 largest
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 So per box of 25 pounds, Malagas
of the same quality bringing at the same
time but $2.37.. There is a market for all
well-made raisins that can be produced in
the State, he said, and they are preferred
Buggy told me he had made, last year 100
boxes of raisins, and that he was satisfied
with the pecuniary return; and l judge
from the testimony of different persons
that at seven cents per dound 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 yet tried the Seedless Sultana,
which, however, bears well here, and would
make, l should think, an excellent cooking
raisin.
For making raisins, they wait until the
grape is fully ripe, then carefully cut off
the punches and lay them either on hard
clay floor, formed in the open air, or on
brown paper laid between the vine rows
They do not trim out poor grapes from
the punches, because, as they assert, there
are none; but l suspect this will have to be
done for the very finest raisins, such as
would tempt reluctant buyer. The bun
ches require from IS to "a days of exposure
in the sun to be cured. During that time
they are gently turned frem time to time,
and such as are earliest cured are at once
removed to 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
dsteriorates the quality of the raisin. 1t 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 il 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 themselves with food
There is no rain during the raisin-making
season, and consequently the whole out
door work may be done safely as well as
cheaply.
EXPERIMENTS IN THE CULTURE OF FIGS.
Enormous quantities of fruit are now
put up in tin cans in this State; and you
will lie surprised, perhaps-as l was the
other day to hear of an orchard of peach
and apricot trees, which bars 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 sus-
pect 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 very lively demand for
California dried plums. They bring from
20 to 90 cents per pound at wholesale in
San Francisco, and even as high as so cents
for the best quality; and am told that last
season considerable quantity was shipped
Eastward, and sold at handsome profit in
New York. The plum bears heavily and
constantly north of Sacramento, and does
not suffer from the curculio; and the dried
fruit is delicious and wholesome. Some
day the farmers who are now experiment.
ing with figs will, do not doubt, produce
also marketable dried fig. The tree
flourishes in almost all parts of the State.
Usually it bears two and often three crops
year; and it grows into noble and
stately tree. So far, the preparation of
dried figs has not been successful here. In
the fruit stores you see abundance of figs,
l,,t fba,r in
collar, and not tempting to the sight though
l am told that when Smyrna figs sell from
90 to 30 cents per pound, California figs
bring but from to 10 cents. The tree
comes into full bearing, where its location
is favorable in it's third or fourth year; and
ought to yield then about GO pounds of
dried figs, l am told. l suspect the cost of
labor will control the drying of figs, for
they must be picked by hand. If they fall
to the ground they are easily bruised, and
the bruised part turns sour. They are
dried in the shade, and on straw, which
let's the air get to every part. Irrigation
is not good after the tree bears, as the figs
do not dry so readily. Birds and ants are
fond of the fruit; and in one place / was
told the birds took almost the whole of the
first crop. There are many varieties of
the fig grown in this State, but the White
Smyrna is, l believe, thought to be the
best for market. There are no large plan
tations of this tree in the State, but it is
found on almost every farm and country
place, and is a very wholesome fruit when
eaten green.
When the farmers of the Sacramento
Valley become tired of sowing wheat, and
when the land comes into the hands of
small farmers as it is now doing to some
extent, it will be discovered that fruit trees
are surer and more profitable than grain.
This Spring hear considerable emigra-
ton is coming into California; and advise
every one who goes there to farm, to lose
no time before planting an orchard
Trees grow very rapidly, and it will be
many years before such fruits as the cher
ry, plum, apricot or the raisin grape are
too abundant to yield to their owners ex-
ceptionai large profits.-N. Y. Tribune.