Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-04-27
SEEDING BY MACHINERY.
Branch Of the Raisin Industry That
II Young But Already Very
Vigorous.

Sixty per cent. Of the California grape
crop u turned into seeded raisins, the
output OF one company alone for the
year 1908 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 IL 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 II
has been improved upon by California
inventors, until now 1t does It's work with
almost absolute thoroughness. And II
is an interesting fact that, In the process
OF seeding now In vogue, the raisln IL
not touched by human hands from the
time that 1t arrives from the packing
house until 1t Is confined In its ope-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.
AT the seeding plants the raisins 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 140 degrees F., after which they
are chilled; and after being subjected to
the latter process, they become as hard
and dry as bean. Then they are IN
shape to go through the final process
Of stemming, which takes of the short
stem remaining on the raisfn when u
comes from the packing houses. The
raisins are then put through a 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 ef-
feet of making them soft and pliabie.
Then 1t is sent on to the seeding ma
chine, where 1t passes between a pair
Of pure rubber rolls, and is then i'm
paled upon 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 ralsin strikes a series Of An
gers, which frees the raisin from the roll.
The raisins then pass through q system
of chutes. and are packed by girls in
one-pound cartons"
The capacity Of the plant at Fresno ia
405 tons per day. One house is used
solely for processing" the raisins. and
is frame structure 150x1S0 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 ESQ feet
long, which passes beneath street.