The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-26
A GREAT INDUSTRY
Is THAT OF GROWING GRAPES
IN CALIFORNIA.
In Twenty Years it Has Become One
Of the Wonders Of the West.
It is Now the Busy Sea-
SON Of Packing.

Pomona, Cal, Special to New York Times
This is the high noon of raising, har-
vesting, packing and shipping in Cali
fornia. Thousands of people are busy in
all the valleys in this State preparing
the raisin crop for market. While cold
ana snowy weather comes to the Eastern
States at this season of the year, the
raisin- growing valleys of California will
probably remain dry and sunny until well
along into December.
The rapid growth or the raisin industry
in California Is one of the wonders of the
West From a few scant acres of raisin
vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley in
1875, the industry grew IN twenty years
to an average of over ZOE 900 acres in 1896.
Twenty years ago less than $4,000 was in
vested in producing raisins in California.
Today the capital iunvested In land in tho
industry-that Is, in irrigation systems
and devices for raisin vineyards in rais'n
packing houses and general vineyard
improvements. Is roughly estimated at
about $34, 000, Co.,
The raisin crop of the State in 1893 was
estimated at 3,l5o,0O0 boxes, or s4,50O000
pounds. But for severe frosts In the bud
ding vineyards last Spring and long dry
Summer this year, the product would have
been over 100000 boxes. In 1894 1t was
over 100000 boxes. For nearly ten yeas
California has supplied the raisin markets
Of the United States and for seven years
Fresno County has been the most i'm
portant raisin-growing region in the
world.
Ths first raisin grape vines were
brought tc, the coast In about 1850 by the
Franciscan priests, who came from the
cloisters and universities of Spain on mis-
sions of Christianity and civilization
among the Indians. There are still half
dozen enormous vines about the old mis-
sion at La Paz. in Lower California,
that are said to have been planted there
by the Franciscan fathers over 100 years
ago. The vines have long since ceased
to nr0duCa than a few leaves zach
year. The priests, who came to Upper
California, or the California of the Union,
in 1880. brought the seeds for the first
(Which has proved the best raisin grape
vines of the Muse itei Gordo Blanco
In this region from the vineyards of Cas-
tile. and planted them in the gardens
about the adobe missions at San Juan
Capistpano and Santa Barbara.
But the fathers never gave the vines
more than sufficient attention to produce
a few bushels of grapes annually, from
which they dried raisins for their simple
domestic uses. The Franciscan fathers
had their little vineyards too close to the
ocean shore, where the fogs and cool
breezes were too damp for drying and
curing the raisin grape in full perfec-
tfop. such as the Americans have since
leIrned in the interior valleys.
The growing of raisins as recognized
industry dates from 1873 The raisin crop
in California in 1874 was worth about
$4,000. When the Southern Pacific Rail-
New Orleans and brought the vast San
Joaquin Valley in close communication
with the markets, the raisin industry
progressed fast. But there We're years OF
patient and watchful experiment and of
expenditure of money before the raisin
grapes could be grown, cured, and packed
In California, so as to sell in Eastern
markets alongside of the production from
the famous old raiSin districts or South
ern Europe.
Costly lessons had to be learned as to
the quality of soil best adapted for grow
ing raisips. Heavy. loamy, adobe, sanity
and light soils were all tried. Localities
in the foothills and in the valleys were
experimentally studied for the best re-
suits. Then there have been long expert
ments in the proper quantity of irriga-
ton water for raisn vineyards in differ
ent soils. Some vineyards have been
rotted by too much water. while others
failed for lack of sufficient moisture. The
best methods of pruning Nraisin grape
prolific yields were asccrtained IN the denr
old school of experience through more
than a decade. Still there are many facts
to be learned about pruning of raisin
vineyards planted in the unusually rlch
soil of California.
It was several seasons before the Cali
fornla .raisin men found how TO cure ana
pack their crops so as to sell equally as
well as the foreign raisins in the same
Eastern markets. Agents were sent by
the then youthful Kasin Growers Asso-
citation to Spain and the islands in the
Mediterranean Sea to learn the art OF
curing and packing raisins.
Abo.,t 1887 and 1883 the California raisin
came into demand all over the Eastern
States, and in 1892 the United States Ag-
ricultural Department report said that
California raisins were reducing the i'm
ports of raisins by 70 per cent. a year.
Those were the palmy days for the Cali
fornia raisin growers. There was good
profit in the business. thousands of acres
were transformed from raw grazing land
into luxuriant vineyards. Several thou
sand men left other pursuits and became
raisin growers and vineyard laborers.
new towns grew up like mushrooms in
what had been known as desert wastes a
decade previous. railroad branches were
built in the fast growing raisin districts