The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-09-19
RAISING RAISIN GRAPES.
"A Leading Industry of the Pacific Coast
Region.


siXty-fve millions of pounds.
This locality, comprising an area OF
eight thousand square miles, lies in
the heart of the justly celeb rated San
Joaquin valley. Two-thirds of the
county is level vineyard and orchard
land; the remainder, spurs of the
snow-clad Sierra Nevadas and their
luxuriant and fertile foot hills. Fiji
teen years ago this vast tract of land
was barren plain, fit only at its best
for sheep pasturage and grain farming
on a small scale.
To-day the desert literally blossoms
as the rose, and its milk and honey"
of solid comfort and wealth are its raisin
vineyards. But these in turn are the
product of the irrigation supplied by
the two magnificent rivers, Kings and
San joaquin, which flow westward
from the melting SHOWS of the Sierras
This supply is ceaseless, the water
being conducted by about two thou
sand miles OF canals and five thousand
miles of lateral bitches to thousands
of small farms and vineyards in Fres-
no valley. The county is supposed to
have the most extensive irrigation sys-
tenn in the world-certainly in the
state-and the system is as essential to
its vital existence as is the warm blood
rushing through the veins to the health
OF the animal.
The cost of supplying a vineyard
with water is but sixty-two cents per
acre per annum. and the labor of APP
plying it, if the land has been properly
leveled to receive it, is Slight No
Venetian canal, with its graceful gon-
dolas sailing between the marbled
walls of the old palaces, is half as
beautiful to the Fresno raisin vine
yardist as the ribbon-like and impid
ditch" upon whose quiet surface are
mirrored earth and sky and the
tangled leafy loneliness which lies be-
tween.
A raisin vineyard is in full bearing
in three years, but the grape has not
reached its perfection until the vine
from which it springs is six or seven
years old.
The Muscat and Thompson seedless
are the best variety of raisin grape
cultivated, the latter having only been
introduced within the last few years,
but the Iinfandell and Sultana have
also large claims upon popularity.
Standing before one of these vines
upon which inverted cones of count
less perfect spheres are hanging-each
cluster weighing several pounds-a
vision of the Hebrew spies, with their
magnificent grapes of Eshcol, borne
ION staff between the two" rises be-
fore us, and involuntarily we exclaim:
rs not this also the Promised Land?"
Few sights are more disappointing
to the eastern tourist and stranger
than ride through a raisin vineyard
in March or early April.
Nothing greets the eye but acres of
level land covered with brown soil,
from whose arabic surface thousands
of small horned stumps protrtde,
about four or five inches high and
standing ten feet apart.
The pruning of the vines is done be-
tween the middle of November and the
1st of March.
Soon after the wooing sunbeams of
Nj ay coax open the folded buds the
eultivator begins it's work Soon the
iaterals throw out their long arms,
upon which already appears the en-
bryo grape cluster, and until the leaves
of the vine meet and shut out the pos
sibility of getting a pillow between
them the cultivation continues In
this constant vigilance lies the secret
of success.
Slowly the forest of vines expands
AS far as the eye can reach is dead
level of living green interspersed with
silvery isles of ru ming water.
About the first of September the long
sunny days, the devices nights and
the percolated soil have perfected
their marvellous work, and the first
crop is ready to be gathered. By this
time the laterals have run riot and the
vineyardist can scarcely see over the
top of his vines.
The process of grape-gathering for
raisins requires the most delicate
handling and cleanliness. Hundreds
of shallow wooden trays, about five
feet square, are distributed among
dOACho VI u dLiICO JlChCIS' 1 ne DulClGS
are carefully cut from the vine, and as
carefully laid upon the base of the tray
to avoid bruising them. There they
remain untouched for ten days and
nights. One-half the grape is by this
time cured; but instead of turning
them with the hand, an empty tray is
placed over them, the lower one is in
verified, and the turning and transfer
have been made. In twelve more days
the curing is completed. The trays
and contents are then stacked about
twenty trays high, where they remain
for five days sweating, when they are
ready to be graded and packed in
boxes of five, ten, twenty and fifty
pounds for the eastern market.
Vines six years old yield one and a
half tons of raisins per acre, giving
net income of two hundred dollars per
acre. While the supply of raisins is as
unfailing as the growing demand, there
is an aesthetic as well as an economic
side, A few women have not only found
raisin vineyards a source Of comforta-
bic revenue, but their cultivation a
most elegant and healthful pastime
The approach to some Of their homes,
with the vineyard in the rear of the