The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1896-12-08
THE PRUNE CROP.
AN INDUSTRY OF TREMENDOUS
GROWTH IN CALIFORNIA.
Animated Scenes i'm the Orchards at
Gathering TIme-HarvestIng
the Crop-rhe Drying
Process.
. COMPARATIVELY few neon


growth of the prune- growing
interests of California in the last de-
cade. Ten years ago, writes corre-
spondent in the New York Tribune,
the total area of bearing prune or
chards in California was less than 1000
acres. There are to-day 81, 600 acres
of bearing prune orchards in this
State, and about 5000 acres more vet
to come into bearing. Conservative
estimates. put the total crop of Cahfor-
MIA prunes In favorable year at not
less than 70, 200 tons. In a few years
more full yield of the fruit in this
State will be upward OF 80, 600 tons of
green fruit.
1t is estimated by the Los Angeles
Times that the capital invested in the
growing of prunes-that is, in tho
land, trees, fencing. irrigation systems
and devices for watering prune groves,
tools and horticultural implements-is
about S16, 900, 900. Ten years ago the
total capital invested in the prune in
dustry was less than $780, 900.
At this season of the year, when the
prune crop in California is being
gathered and dried for market, tho
scenes in the great orchards are long
to be remembered. Thousands of men,
women and children throughout the
valleys of Central and Southern Cali
fornia are busy in the pruue orchards
and at fruit-packlng houses. This is
the season to which people in the hor-
ticultural districts of the State look
for earning money annually in hand
ling the fruit product. A prune or
,harl in iEgo1g g &c 1
tIful things in the realm of horticul-
ture, and when the throng of happy
workers are there it is On interesting
sight. The thousands of trees are
planted In long rows, so exactly dis
tant one from another and in such
symmetry that one may look in any
direction among them and the align
ment is perfect. The ground is soft
and even, and the years of monthly
cultivation and care have made it SO
smooth that not even pebble or a
clod, blade of grass or the smallest
weed may be seen anywhere.
When the fruit grower, who has
been daily watching the process of
ripening of his crop, finds that the
fruit is so thoroughly ripened as to be
soft to the touch, he employs a force
of workers. Great sheets of cheap
cloth are laid on the ground beneath
the trees, while strong men shake the
trees and boys shake branches SO that
the plunes may fall. The sheets are
gathered up at the ends and the fallen
fruit poured into padded boxes, so as
to avoid handling as much as possible.
Tree after tree is treated in this way
once each day until the crop is gath
cred. The operation is often repeated
once each day for twenty days at some
trees before all the pruues are harvest
ed. Meanwhile the gathered fruit has
b9en carried to the washing boxes and
the dipping oauldrons. The prunes are
put into great heavy wire cages, hold
ing several hundred pounds each, and
are first dipped into running water.
where the dirt and dust are washed
away. In moment more the cage is
elevated on crane and let down into
cauldron of hot water heavy with
concentrated lye. The purpose of this
operation is to remove the bloom and
to crack the skin tkat envelopes the
flesh of the prune, in order that the
drying process may take place more
rapidly. In its natural state the skin
is so smooth and tough that it would
take week to dry the fruit properly
for market. From the cauldrons of
hot I've water the cages Of prunos are
lifted again and once more plunged
into hot clean water, so that the I've
may be washed away and gloss be
given to the fruit.
Then comes the drying process.
Girls and boys come with shallow
wooden trays yard square, and, as tho
prunes pour down from q hopper into
which they are dumped from the
cages, def hands spread the product
over the trays in the twinkling of tho
eye. a little tramway carries the
trays and fruit out into the drying
yard every minute, and there on the
ground, covered for two or three
acres with some cheap fabric, the
prunes are placed for drying by tho
sun. There is n strong sunshine
! twenty-nine days out of thirty in each
summer month in the valleys Of Cen.
| tral and Southern California, and so
it is the rule that pruues are well dried
| in two and y half or three DAYS. A
/ little army OF workers is always busy
in the pruuo harvesting season in
gathering the dried product from the
trays, and carrying it in baskets to
the sweat boxes, where, after a week
or ten days, the dampnegs that arises
from quickly dried fruit has ovapo-
rated. Often pruno grower on an
extensive scale may have in his bins at
| the close Of the harvesting OF the crop
/ six hundred or seven hundred tons Of
! dried prunos, while his drying yard
Of several acres may be so completely
COVERED with trays rs 10 look as if
smearsd purple black. Ittakes from
two and one-halt to three pounds of
the green fruit TO make one of the