Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-14
The Raisin Craze In California.

Our fourth crop of alfalfa has just beer
harvested November 1st) and the fields
are now starting green and luxuriant fol
the winter pasturage. There has been
no frost yet or rain. The sun shines
brightly, and the temperature is delight
full. The raisin packers are still busily
at work, and long trains, carrying moth
ing but raisins, are sent out weekly from
this San Joaquin valley to Eastern mar
kets. 1t is estimated that the VINEYARDS
of California will have put in market
before the close of the present year
100000 boxes Of raisins at 50 box,
$3,000,000; 10000 tons of table grapes at
$50 ton, 81 100000; 50,000,O00 gal
Ions of wine at 20 cents, $4,000, 900;
1,500 600 gallons of brandy at $l.40,
50. 100, ,000-aggregating SIG, 100000 an
income of over 500 per acre for the es-
timated 900 acres of vines now under
cultivation. There will be many
hundred acres set to raisin grapes about
Hanford the coming winter and spring,
in addition to the large vineyards put out
last spring and those already in bearing.
There is nothing more pleasing to the
eye than twenty, or forty, or eighty
acre vineyard, with its straight and seem
ingly endless rows of verdant growth,
from which are peeping the monstrous
clusters of ripening Muscats. F. H. Jew
EFT, our leading packer, tells me it
is poor vineyard that will not yield
thirty pounds of Muscats to the vine, and
and that the yield is oftener forty pounds
and frequently fifty. Thus it will be seen
that an acre OF 400 or more vines will
yield from - 900 to 10000 pounds to the
acre of green fruit. A shrinkage of two
thirds is allowed in drying, making the
raisin yield per acre from 1000 to 5000
pounds and over per acre. Z
Everyone is after land, and every one,
when he gets land, is after raisins.
Ministers, bankers and all-no one is
exempt from the land and raisin craze
Rev. Mr.. Motherall, pastor of the Pres
byterian Church here, has a raisin vine.
yard four years from setting, and was
offered $120 an acre last August for the
grapes upon the vines before being
picked-which he refused. After they
were made into raisins he was offered
five cents a pound, the estimated crop
being 1000 pounds per acre, which offer
he also refused. If he packs them he
expects to receive ten cents u pound.
which will yield him the very satisfac.
tory sum Of $400 per acre. Nothing
delighted him more the past sea-
son than to take callers through
his vineyard, lifting up the vines
and pointing out the huge clusters. He
thinks some of them were fully as large
as the famous "grapes of Eschol." s.
E. Biddle, banker, tells me he refused
an offer of $500 an acre for the raisins
from his 5-year.old vineyard, and ex-
poets by packing or selling direct to the
packers to realize much more. OF course
the margin between the prices obtained
for grapes on the vines and the packed
praduct is not clear profit. There are
the pickers to pay and trays and boxes
to buy, all of which aggregates consider
ably. Yet every owner of large vine-
yard will do we'll to make his own raisins
and by careful and honest asserting and
packing he will soon build up an enviable
reputation and a paying market for his
individual product.
1t is claimed that ten acres of California
orchard and vineyard will afford family
of five persons living, and neat mar.
gid at the end of every year. A gentle.
man not far from where live has eleven
acres, mainly in apricots. peaches,
nectarines and raisin-grapes. Through
the winter and early spring he prunee
his trees and vines, plows the ground
and puts everything in "apple- pie''
order; in May he cuts and dries HE april
cots; in June, July and August the early
and late peaches and nectarines; in Sep
tember he picks his first crop of grapes
and dries them into raisins; in October
his second crop, and in November
finishes packing and marketing the
whole. thus pleasantly and proftably
rounding out the year with saving OF
q, 200 to 81 800 above expenses.-[E E. 81.
Barber, Tnlare county, CAL, in the
American Agriculturist.