River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-09-22
SEEDING BY MACHINERY.
Branch of the Raisin Industry That
Is Young But Already Very
Vigorous.

Sixty per cent of the California grape
crop is turned into seeded raisins, the
output of one company alone for the
year 1903 being $500 carloads. In Fresno
alone, where most of the seeding is done,
there are seven large plants for the
handling Of the product, employing L.
800 persons. AND yet the seeded raisin
industry is only II years old. This we
are told by H. A Craft, who describes
the seeding machinery in an article con-
tributed to the Home Science Magazine.
Says this writer:
'The seeding is done entirely by ma
chinery. The original raisin seeding ma
chine was New York invention; but it
has been improved upon by California
inventors, until now it does its work with
almost absolute thoroughness. And it
is an interesting fact that, in the process
of seeding now in vogue, the raisin is
not touched by human hands from the
time that it arrives from the packing
house until it is confined in it's one-pound
carton ready for shipment to the mar
ket.
"Be it understood that the entire pro-
cess of converting the grape into raisin
is not performed at the seeding plants.
The preliminary work is done at the
packing houses, situated all throughout
the vineyards. At the packing houses
the raisins are dried, stemmed, as far as
the larger stems are concerned. graded
and packed in rough boxes for shipment
to the seeding plants. From outside
points these boxed raisins are shipped to
the seeding plants by the carload.
Eat the seeding plants the raisirs are
dumped from these rough boxes, and are
then 'processed," to use a technical
term. preparatory to seeding. First the
raisins are subjected to a dry tempera-
ture of 40 degrees F., after which they
are chilled; and after being subjected to
the latter process, they become as hard
and dry as a bean. Then they are in
shape to go through the final process
of stemmjng, which takes off the short
stem remaining on the raisin when 1t
comes from the packing houses, The
raisins are then put through q rubbing
machine, which has the effect to remove
the short stem mentioned and leave the
raisin in its simple form.
'Then the raisin is subjected to moist
heat of 100 degrees F., which has the eff
feet of making them soft and pliable
Then it is sent on to the seeding ma
chine, where it passes between a pair
of pure rubber rolls, and is then i'm
paled upon q roll of small saws. which
presses the seed out through the sur
face of the raisin. The saw roll, with
the raisin thus impaled, revolves and
passes over a Ticking device, which
whisks off the seed, leaving the raisin
still impaled on the saw roll. The saw
roll, still revolving, passes around until
the seeded raisin strikes a series Of fin
gers, which frees the raisin from the roll.
The raisins then pass through a system
of chutes, and are packed by girls in
one-pound cartons"
The capacity of the plant at Fresno is
405 tons per day. One house is used
solely for processing" the raisins, and
is a frame structure 150X180 feet on the
ground and three stories high This
is connected with another, in which the
seeding and packing are done, the raisins
being conveyed from one to the other
by an underground conveyor 280 feet
long, which passes beneath street.