The Opelousas courier., 1892-02-13
THE HOME OF THE RAISIN.
TIE CALIFORNIA METHOD OF DRY
ING AND PACKING.
Alter Being Picked the Grapes are
Left in the Field TO Cure-The
Sweating Process.

Sweating Process.
The California method Of drying and
packing the raisin is peculiar and well
worth a brief description. When the
grape reaches a certain degree of ripe
ness and develops the requisite amount
of saccharine matter a large force is put
into the vineyard and the picking be-
gins. The punches of ripe grapes are
placed carefully on wooden trays aud
are left in the field to cure. The pro-
cess requires from seven days to three
weeks, according to the amount of sun
shine. This climate is so entirely free
from dew at night that there is nc
danger of must. The grape cures per-
fectIy in this way and makes a far
sweeter raisin than when dried By
artificial heat. When the grapes are
dried sufficiently the trays are gathered
and stacked in piles about as high as a
mans waist. Then begins the tedious
but necessary process OF sorting into the
sweat boxes. These boxes are about
eight inches deep and hold 125 pounds
of grapes. Around the sorter are three
sweat boxes for the three grades of
grapes. In each box are three layers of
MANILA paper which are used at equal
intervals to prevent she stems of the
grapes from becoming %entangled, thus
breaking the fine large punches when re-
moved. The sorter must be an expert.
He takes the punches by the stem, plac-
ing the largest and finest in the first
grade box; those which are medium
sized in the second grade, and all
broken and ragged punches in the third
class. When the boxes are filled they
are hauled to the brick building known
as the equalizer. This is constructed SO
as to permit ventilation at the top, but
to exclude light and air as much as
possible from the grapes. The boxes
are piled in tiers in this house and
allowed to remain in darkness for from
ten to twenty days. Here they undergo
a sweating process, which difuses
moisture equally throughout the con-
tents of each box. This prevents some
grapes from retaining undue moisture,
and it also softens the stems and makes
them pliable.
From the equalizing-room the sweat
boxes are tcken to the packiug-room.
Here they are first weighed. The first
and second grades are passed to the sor-
ter, while the third-grade raislns are
placed in a big machine that strips off
the stems and grades the loose raisins in
three or four sizes. These are placed in
sacks and sold as loose raisins. The
higher grades are carefully sorted into
first and second class clusters. After
this sorting the boxes are passed to
women and girls, who arrange the clus-
tiers neatly in small fye-pound boxes
with movable bottoms. These boxes
are placed under slight pressure, and
four of them fill one Of the regular
twenty-pound boxes of commerce.
The work of placing the raisins in the
small boxes requires much practice, but
women are found to DE much swifter than
men at this labor, and as they are paid
by the box, the more skilful earn from
81 to 81 a day. It is light, pleasant
work, as the room is large, cool and well
ventilated, and there is no mixing of the
sexes, such as may be found in many of
the San Francisco cameras. For
this reason the work attracts nice girls,
and one may see many attractive faces in
a trip through a large packing house.
One heavy-shouldred, notwithstanding
German woman, who, however, had long,
slender fingers, was pointed out as the
swiftest softer in the room. She made
regularly So a day. The assurance of
steady work of this kind for three
months draws many people to Fresno,
and the regular disbursement of a large
sum as wages every week goes far to
explain the thrift and comfort seen on
every hand.
The five pound boxes of grapes are
passed to the pressing machine, where
four of them are deity transferred to a
twenty pound box. The two highest
grades OF raislns are the Dehesa and the
London layers. It has always been the
ambition of California's raisin-makers to
produce the Dehesa brand. They know
that their best raisins are equal in size
and quality to the best Spanish ~raisins,
but heretofore they have found the cost
of preparing the top layer in the Spanish
style very costly, as the raisins had to be
iattened out Tor thumbed, az it is techni-
cally called) by hand. In Spain, where
women work for twenty cents a day, this
hand labor cuts no figure in the cost of
production, but here, with the cheapest
labor at ST. so a day, it has proved a bar
to competition. American ingenuity,
however, is likely to overcome this handi-
cap OF high wages. t. g. White, an old
raisin-groWer, has invented a packing
plate of metal, with depresslons at regu-
lar intervals just the size OF q big risin.
This plate is put at the bottom Of the
preliminary packlng-box, and when the
work Of packing is complete the box is
reversed and the top layer, pressed into
the depressions of the plate, bears every
mark of the most careful hand manipula-
ton. Mr.. Butler used this plate Tor tb
time this season, and found it a sue
cess, and there is no question OF its gen
eral adoption. Every year sees more at
tentfon paid to the careful grading OF
as.uPon this depends much of
their marketable value. The large pack
ing houses have done good work in en-
this rule, and the chief sinners
Who still indulge in careless packing are
mail growers with poor facilities. Prob,
IDLY the next few years will see q great
Increase in the number and size of the
houses which will prepare and
market most of Fresno's raisln crop. !,
The growers also will avail themselves of
he cooperative plan, for which the /
system offers peculiar advantages. ]