The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
HOW RAISINS ARE CURED
ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL IN
DUsTRIEs OF CALIFORNIA.
A Food Product of Increasing ImpOr-
tance-The Grapes Are Dried in
the SUN in the Vineyards.

San Francisco Letter in New York Post.
Early rains have spoiled immense quanti-
ties OF grapes in the California vineyards.
The raisn-growers suffer more than the
winemakers, as wine grapes are used nearly
as fast as they show, by the saccharo:neter,
that they ale ready for the press, while
raisin grapes when ripe must still be dried
in the field. But prices for raisins, though
probably a little higher than in recent years,
will still be reasonable, for the main crop
is already in the packing houses or on the
way to market.
1 remember very well the troublesome and
crude beginnings of the raisin industry in
California A few men, whose names are
nearly forgotten now, and who were laughed
at by the newspapers, began to dry grapes
Of various kinds. This was about $780, and
the men who finally proved that a rasin
could be made in California were w. w.
Blowers, of Woodland, George Briggs, of
Yuba City, Mr.. Dietz, of Sacramento, Will
liam West, of Stockton. and few others
of less note. They spent money until some
Of them were almost penniless, going to
Spain, Zante and other places to study the
business as far as the very natural local
jealousies of raisin makers abroad permitted
such Investigations; importing r"0ted vines
and cuttings from all sorts of PAGES, some
of which proved to have been wrongly lab
eled, and not to be raisin grapes at all; try
ing experiments with vineyards on different
soils, and with various kinds of drying APP
paratuses and patent arrangements.
Technically, almost any kind of grape will
dry into a useful cooking product, and will
often be fit to eat Even in old Spanish
times in California the surplus Mission
grapes were dried and along in the fifties
and sixties such dried grapes found sale at
good prices. Hard and full of seeds, the
product nevertheless formed the basis of
many a pioneer grape pie. But, as one
might say that almost every variety Oh
prunus will dry into a dried plum, but only
a few varieties will make prunes, so we fnd
that the raiSin of commerce requires Tor IT'S
production peculiarly firm, sweet grape OF
high flavor, thin, transparent skin, and the
capacity to dry rapidly and easily. There
are hundreds of varieties of wine grapes,
but the good raisin grapes can be counted
on the fingers of both hands-and there is
still room for improvement.
VARIETIES OF GRAPES.
There is the Muscat group, which pro-
duces the bulk of the raisns of the world.
This consists Of Muscat of Alexandria
Muscatello, Gordo Blanco, the famous
Huasco of Peru "a seeding MuscaD and
one or two others, all yellow or greenish
in color, all possessing a sweet, musky
flavor and all immense bearers. There is
the seedess group, including Sultana,
Thompson's seedless and one or two more,
some very sweet, some more or less acid
and popular for cooking, and all quite small
in comparison with the MuscatS. There
are the white and black COTinthS, the true
"currant" grapes of Greece, but these va
rietieS are as yet OF little Importance III
California, as wherever tried they degener-
ate in quality, often producing seeds ana
becoming coarse. ..En.
rTl,o ono orao+ fo,1 of tha leading Vari-
cites of raisin grapes is that they produce
a succession of crops extending over the
whole season from August until frost,
which often finds the vines covered with
small half-groWn clusters. A variety which
gave its entire yield in one mdseason crop, \
which could be gathered cured ana taken
to the packing house before danger OF
early rains would enable growers to make
more money, and yet to sell the ra1slnS az
they do now. Greater size of berries and
fewer or smaller seeds are also desirable
qualities To such ends as these the atten
ton of intelligent hybridizers is BENG Oil
rected.
Returning to the history of the industry,
it is curious that when raisins of fine grade
were first produced by Blowers ana others,
they could hardly sell them even mere; Inc
foreign article had a different flavor, peo-
pie said This was merely the flavor or age
and staleness; two-year-old ra1slns were an
that usually reached California then; and
Blowers pF Fot b Mas frisd nrocess of semi
roasting to give darker color and more OF
the sugar crystals common IN ola ralslnS.
Aside from this, it is certain that our new
er and richer lands produced ralsln OF
stronger and different flavor from that OF
Valencia For a time it was thought neces-
sary to initiate foreign labels and packages
in the most exact manner, and q sea Voy-
age for our own raiSinS was even recon-
mended. Mr.. Blowers, after eXmOltins IaIs7
of Woodlands at state and county 1al[s,
planted ten acres, which were in bearing Dy
1875, in which year he marketed 6O,VU
mounds That year he also sold upwards
of 10000 grape cuttings. THESE ngures are
from the California Hortcultur1st Tor sep
tember 1876 and were given by Mr.. BLOW
ers himself l speak OF this with especlal
exactness because, in various reviews or the
industry, it has been SAD tnat NO nee rai3 rbs
DEVELOPMENT of the business is sufficiently
wonderful without taking six or eight years
of hard pioneer work from us hIstoiS'
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH.
After 1876 large sums of money were
made and the planting of vineyards took
place on a great scale, first in Yolo and
solano, counties, afterward in Los Angeles
and San Bernardino, and finally in Fresno.
Tulare. Kern and Kings, where the indus
try has now found it's most suitable home
upon rich sandy loans often strongly i'm
pregnated with alkali salts, which, when
not present in excess, add vigor to the vine
and high flavor to the grape.
The process of making raisins is best
studied at Fresno, the leading town of the
central San Joaquin valley region. When !
first saw the place in 1877 it was small,
new village in the midst of wide stretches
of sand. A single irrigation ditch watered
a few acres, and men were planting fruit
trees and vines. The sites for the great col
onies of later years were being surveyed.
Miss Austin, one of the pioneers, was at
work in her small vineyard. There was one
struggling little newspaper, the owner of
which offered me 81 half interest, free, If L
would take hold to boom the richest valley
on earth and help make a city right here -
At the present time Fresno has popua-
ton of 12O00. The tributary orchards con-
tanned in 1896 some 34S,500 trees, half of
which are of bearing age. The area devoted
to raisin varieties of grapes is now about
IS COO acres. The raisin crop of 1890 exceeded
q 100000 pounds. and by 1895 the Southern
Pacific Railroad had shipped from Fresno
county, chiefly from Fresno, the town of
the same name, the enormous quantity of
S3924142 pounds of ''raisins and dried
grapes''-the latter used elsewhere for max
ing wine. The raisin crop alone at this
period exceeded 600C0,G00 pounds. The best
estimate of the 1857 crop now Obtainable
from the raiSin packers themselves is 75-
100000 pounds, allowing for the damages of
recent rains
A man who desires a raisn vineyard
ploughs deeply and plants cuttings of the
most approved varieties, where the vines
are to stay, at distances of from six to
and are cut down to stumps of fifteen inches
in height which form the permanent bear
ing vines. In four years the yield is
cid bla au6 the crOO increases in size and