Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-03-12
[, MINNESOTA, THURSDAY. MARCH 12 1X7A
RaisiIls.

Raisi,s.
Spain is the greatest producer Of
raisins. Those styled Valencia raisins
find great favor with all classes Of Eng
lish people. A few years ago a crop of
$4,000 tons, for the supply of the
world, was considered large now Lon
don receives IL, 1000 out of total of
~, 600 tons that are grown. These
raisins also find large market in the
United States and Canada. The i'm
provement in the article most obserya-
ble OF late years is that Of removing the
stalk before shipment. As no nseful
purpose has been found as yet for the
stalks, they are generally burned.
Muscatel, or table raisins from Malaga,
vary widely in quality. They are
known rs "layers," "bunch," and
"loose" raisins, the best being picked
from the stalk. This sort is largely
used in America. The growths Of
Muscatel's come to this county in
decorated boxes with colored paper and
lace edgings, increasing the expense of
packing to the extent Of 1926 per ton.
The Sultana raisins, produced in
Turkey, are cured in the sun, a slight
sprinkling of oil being employed, to
prevent the too great evaporation of
the moisture, and also to assist in tho
preservation of the fruit when packed
and shipped. The Germans are also
large consumers of these raisins, and
they constitute an article of considera-
BILE traffic between Trieste and Smyrna.
The Eleme raisins are also produced in
Turkey, and are used chiefly for export
to distant colonies and for ships stores.
As their name implies, they are picked
raisins, and are packed specially for
ship use from the vines of the Cara
b0urna and Vourla districts in Asia
Minor. The greater proportion Of the
raisins from Smyrna are known as
"Chesme," the name of On island near
the mainland. These are the Turkey
grapes, pure and simple, without
selection, picking of stalks, or any
manipulation whatever. They find a
ready market in Eastern countries, but
are the special feature of fruit trading
between Turkey and German ports.
There are vast districts in Persia where
raisins are cultivated, but the difficulty
of getting them to market is so great
that it does not pay to export, conse-
quently they are used for distilling and
for local purposes. At the Cape of
Good Hope raisins are produced which
find . market chiefly in Australia.
Di1 Saation from fruit is annually in
creasing, and the supply for this pur-
pose is the black raisins of Turkey.
These are small grapes cultivated with
out much care, by wine makers, and
form the stock on which much of that
agreeable beverage is founded. Much
also is used in the manufacture of
spirituous drinks at the place of growth.
This raisin has of late years been used
in the wine districts of France and in
Paris.
Sahara In the Past.
DR.. Zittel, the geologist who accom-
panied the expedition of ROlffs in its
researches through the Sahara, in the
latest of his letters on the characterize
tics of that desert, establishes, with
great clearness, says the Pail Mall
Gazette, and by more than one distinct
proof, the theory that it is the dried-up
basin of a former shallow sea. The
fine quartz sand, in particles never
larger than the head of O pin, which
forms at once the main feature and the
danger of its surface, is not produced
from any formation in or near it, and
must have been carried to it by some
foreign agency. The real surface of
the desert is bare, dry, chalk plateau,
at first examination resembling that OF
the Swabian Alps, but in reality of a
much more recent origin. Above it
rise here and there the isolated peaks
called by the Arabs Witnesses" which
are of later chalk again. The tops of
these, where several are visible, are in
variably in plane, showing that they
are the fragments of an ancient sur
face, the intervening spaces of which
have been washed away. If the ques-
ton be asked, by what, there being no
ground whatever for supposing torrents
or glacial action, the answer can only
be by the constant beating on it of
waves dissolving the softer portions.
But more interesting point to many
biologists will be DR.. Zittel's COM
ments on the splinters of flints which
are produced in great quantities round
certain peaks by the emitting process of
the alternate slight dews and frosts
which the expedition has found to be
common in the winter nights in the
Sahara. These fragments lie around in
profusion and to q careless observer
might appear not unlike some of the
ruder flint chips Of the first part of the
made study of the latter took pains to
examine some thousands of these natur-
al clippings of flint, and found but a
single one which an experienced eye
could take to resemble those which
have attracted so much notice in Europe.
Hence he concludes that the Sahara
flints affords Q fresh and very strong
indirect proof of the production of the
others by the human agency to which
science has already assigned them.