Part 19

_Time of Ripening._--Varying with different localities and seasons, the Muscat grape ripens in California between the 10th of August and the 30th of September. The earliest points where raisin grapes are now grown are probably Palm Valley in San Bernardino county and the plains of Kern county. In both these localities Muscats have been known to be ripe as early as July, but neither locality has yet produced any great quantity of raisins, and can hardly be considered as a raisin center. The earliness of the San Joaquin valley generally is probably caused by its small elevation above the sea, which is about three hundred feet for Fresno, and increasing as we go farther south. San Bernardino county again, somewhat later as to ripening, is, as far as its raisin centers are concerned, more elevated, or from one thousand to two thousand feet or more. The nearness to the sea has there also some influence to retard the maturing of the grapes, and it is certain that in Southern California the later ripening of the raisin grapes is principally due to this cause. Thus the picking in Riverside commences between the 10th and the 30th of September, and while the other raisin districts in the southern part of California may vary some, still the ripening season coincides very nearly with that of Riverside. In Highlands the grapes are said to ripen two weeks later than at Riverside. In El Cajon the grapes ripen between the 1st and 10th of September. In Fresno the Muscatel raisin grapes ripen in the end of August, and generally by the 20th of August the picking has begun everywhere on the drier soils, while on the wet soils it is generally retarded from one to two weeks. As a rule the dryness of the soil influences considerably the ripening of the grapes, and even the quality of the soil is not without some influence, as on sandy, warm soil grapes ripen much earlier than on heavy land. As an illustration of such early ripening, we may mention that, on certain gravelly soils northwest or north of Santa Ana, the Muscat grapes ripen two weeks earlier than on the heavier and finer soils in the immediate vicinity. The growers take advantage of this early ripening to sell their Muscat grapes fresh instead of drying them.

In Salt river and Gila valleys in Arizona the grapes are said to ripen much earlier than in California, but so far the vineyards there are not old enough to have been greatly benefited by this early ripening. On the plains of Kern county the ripening is hastened by the nature of the soil, and possibly also by the nearness to the desert and the desert wind, by the greater distance from the sea, and by a less amount of rainfall. In Malaga the grapes ripen several weeks earlier than in Fresno; in fact, the whole Mediterranean region seems to be earlier than California. As a general rule, we may state that the Muscat grapes ripen later in Southern California than in the central portion of the State. In regard to Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, the farther we go towards the south the earlier do the grapes ripen. But in every district there are localities which are earlier than others. The Muscat and Muscatel ripen earlier than the Sultana, which latter grape begins to ripen earlier than the Muscat, but attains perfection much later than any other of our raisin grapes. Thompson Seedless ripens in Yolo about August 10th, and is thus our earliest raisin grape.

_Signs of Maturity._--There are three different ways by which the ripeness of a grape can be tested,--saccharometer, taste or color. The saccharometer is a well-known instrument, consisting of a graded glass tube that will sink to different depths in liquors containing different percentages of sugar. There are different kinds of saccharometers, but the most practical one for the general raisin-grower is one divided in one hundred degrees, each degree showing one per cent of sugar to every hundred of water. Thus, if the saccharometer sinks down to twenty-five, we know that the water or must contains twenty-five per cent of saccharine water and seventy-five per cent of water. To properly test the grapes, a few bunches should be picked from several vines, the juice should be squeezed out and passed through a towel or otherwise strained. The must is then poured into the test tube, and the saccharometer inserted. If it shows twenty-five degrees or more of sugar, the grapes will make good raisins, but for very superior raisins several degrees more of saccharine are needed. It is not unusual to find the grapes reach thirty degrees in favored localities and in favorable seasons. Only inexperienced vineyardists will require the aid of the saccharometer to determine the state of ripening of the grapes; the more experienced judge by taste and color.

The taste of course is the most commonly used method for ascertaining the ripeness of the raisin grapes. Every grower experienced or not should examine his grapes repeatedly. To give directions for tasting the ripeness of the grapes is of course impossible; it must be learned, and can only be learned by practice. It is enough to say here that the grapes should taste very sweet, contain no acid, and if possible be rather solid.

The color is also a valuable adjunct in determining the ripeness of the raisin grapes. Fully ripe and perfect fruit should be amber yellow, somewhat transparent and waxy. If this color is combined with great sweetness, and in Muscatels with absence of acidity, we can be sure that the grapes are ripe. Some grapes do, however, especially when too much exposed to the sun, acquire the yellow amber tint without being sweet, but they are readily distinguished from the ripe grapes by their being of smaller size and harder, tasteless and acid. Such grapes never develop into good, mature grapes, and do not make good raisins. I may also remark that not all ripe grapes become amber colored. Those that grow in the shade and on very damp ground remain always green, although they acquire a certain sweetness, and will make good raisins. The Muscat grapes will make salable raisins even if not fully ripe, but in order to make superior and good raisins all grapes should be “dead” ripe, especially so if the grapes are to be dipped in lye. If unripe or partially ripe grapes of Muscats and Sultanas are dipped, they make very poor and red raisins; it would have been better-if they had never been dipped. This is especially the case with the Sultana, which begins to ripen and is eatable long before the Muscat, but which only makes a good dipped raisin after the Muscat has been ripe for some time. Three or four days make a great difference sometimes in the amount of sugar in the grapes, and consequently in the quality of the raisins, and the experienced grower will keep his grapes on the vines as long as possible to attain the greatest possible amount of sweetness. But on the other hand it takes judgment to foresee how sweet the grapes will be, as in unfavorable seasons they will not attain their full sweetness even if allowed to hang long on the vines. To know the time after which the grapes do not increase in sugar requires much experience and acquaintance with the locality where they are grown. In this respect different years vary very much.

_Picking._--Many vineyardists pick their raisins too green or before they are fully ripe. Not all raisins ripen at the same time, and to make the best possible raisins out of the grapes, it is necessary to pick over the vineyard several times, each time picking only the ripest grapes. In places where there are two crops of grapes, at least two pickings are absolutely necessary, and in many places two pickings are enough. The green grapes of the first crop are then left to be picked with the second crop, at which time they will probably be perfectly ripe and very choice. But if the vineyard is small and manageable, and the owner wishes to realize the most that he possibly can, he should make at least three different pickings, each time taking care only to pick those grapes which are fully ripe and which would make a first-class quality of raisins. As long as the smaller vineyardists sell their raisins in bulk at a contracted price of so much a pound for any kind or quality of raisins, we cannot expect any great improvement in the too common mode of picking, where good, bad and indifferent grapes go on the trays together. But I am certain that in a few years this will or must change. Raisins in sweatboxes will bring the price they are actually worth, and it will be to the interest of every grower to pick his grapes at the time they will make the best possible raisins, even if extra labor is required for the work. The pickers generally use small, pointed knives for separating the bunches, and they are preferable to small shears, as better enabling the picker to reach farther in between bunches and branches, and to cut the former without injuring the branch.

In picking the bunches, great care should be taken, much more than is at present in use. It is always best to begin picking in the poorest part of the vineyard, as it will take some time for the pickers to learn; they are almost certain to pick in the beginning too many green grapes. The poorest part of the vineyard is also apt to have the ripest grapes. The large, fine bunches should be handled with the utmost care, in order that the bloom of the grapes may not be injured. The bunches generally should be handled by the stems only, or, if this is impracticable, by the stem as much as possible. In separating a large bunch from the vine, the bunch should be cut as close to the stem as possible, and at the end of the stem of the bunch there should remain a portion of that broader part by which the bunch is attached to the main branch. There is nothing prettier on a bunch of raisins than this broad end of the bunch; it gives an idea of strength and oddity to the raisin cluster, showing the buyer at a glance that it is a cluster which was once solidly attached to the vine. Many raisin-packers place this broad end of the bunch so as to protrude above or between the berries, as if inviting the purchaser to take hold of it and thus lift the luscious bunch out of the box. With the poorer and smaller bunches, no such care in cutting need be exercised, and it would be to no benefit to so cut a small, poor bunch that it would cause the purchaser to believe it was a large bunch. Poorer bunches might therefore be cut with short stems. As to the handling of the bunches, the intelligent grower will soon learn how to instruct his men. If vine branches interfere with the lifting of the bunch from the vine, some of them may be cut without any injury to the vine, but too many branches cut this way will cause a new growth to start, which often is derived from the best fruit buds for the ensuing season, and which always is apt to be injured from frost.

A picker should average not less than fifty trays a day of cleaned and assorted grapes. At this rate the picking of twenty pounds of grapes costs about two and a half cents. Some persons employing white labor claimed to have lowered the cost of picking to one and three-quarter cents per tray of twenty pounds, but I failed to learn how these grapes had been handled, cleaned and assorted. The picking of the grapes is facilitated by previous care given the vines. Neglected and entangled vines are much more difficult and expensive to pick than those which have been properly cared for and correctly pruned the season before. The same may be said as regards vines between the branches of which weeds have been allowed to grow. In picking from such vines, the grapes are always torn, the best bunches destroyed and many grapes wasted on the ground.

_Cleaning._--When the bunch is picked or cut from the stem, it should be cleaned. If it is a first-class or even an ordinary layer bunch, every sunburnt berry, every leaf, twig or other conspicuous foreign substance, must be carefully removed with the picker’s right hand, while the left hand holds the bunch by the stem. This cleaning must some time be done, and at no time can it be performed with better results than when the grapes are green. The stems are then soft and flexible, while later on they are brittle, and in endeavoring to remove foreign substances many berries will be detached, or sometimes even the whole bunch broken. This cleaning of the bunch does not need to extend to third-rate or small bunches, which are to be used for loose raisins. The latter can be cleaned very rapidly with machinery, and it would only be a waste of time to clean them by hand-picking. The use of a pair of bellows is also very practical. With them much of the spider webs and smaller refuse can be removed, which could not be gotten rid of in any other way. A few hands should therefore go over all finer bunches and blow them clean, especially if sand or dust have accumulated on the trays or bunches. If the grapes are carefully assorted when picked, and the different grades placed on separate trays as they should be, this cleaning is done rapidly, as the largest part of the crop, which only will make loose raisins, need not be cleaned.

_Drying on Trays._--As soon as the grapes begin to ripen, the trays should be distributed along the rows in the vineyard. They may either first be placed in piles at every row where the roads cross the vineyard, or at once distributed along the vines. The former method is to be preferred, as it protects the trays from dirt and dust, and in distributing afterwards it gives the pickers a more varied labor, often welcome as a change from the cramped position necessary in picking. Muscat vines in proper bearing require one or two trays to the vine, while for young vines one tray will suffice. The probable quantity needed should be ascertained beforehand in order that the trays may be properly distributed. The ripe grapes are always placed directly on the trays, and not previously picked in boxes. In placing the bunches on the trays, the proper way for each picker should be to have two trays, one for each grade. On one tray he places all the large bunches that promise to make first-class bunch raisins; on the other tray he places again all inferior bunches and loose berries. The smaller bunches and loose berries may be placed any way almost, as long as they are not heaped on top of each other. The largest bunches should be placed with the stem side down, as this side will, when cured, become the finest and will eventually by the careful packer be placed upwards in the box. That part of the raisin which in drying touches the tray will also present, when cured, a flat surface with several concentric layers, which are considered a prominent feature in the perfect raisin.

The general method of drying is, however, to place good, bad and indifferent bunches together on the same tray, with no attempt at assorting. While this method may do when superior raisins are not required, and when no higher price is paid for better grades, it will be found a very inferior practice when the grower desires to pack himself, in order to reap all the benefit he can out of his crop. For all superior raisins, I therefore strongly recommend the assorting of the raisins on the trays as having the following advantages. It requires less handling of the large bunches. The large bunches dry the slowest, and by having them from the beginning separated from the small and the loose the latter can be brought away to the sweatboxes, when ready, without necessitating the reassorting and handling from the trays, which at this time, when the stems are very brittle, is always expensive as well as injurious to the fine bunches. The larger bunches, which are to produce layer raisins, require less drying, as they are to be sweated or equalized before being packed. The smaller and inferior bunches, on the contrary, must be stemmed and assorted by machinery before they are equalized, and immediately after they are taken from the trays. In order to “stem” readily these raisins must be rather overdried, as if soft they would tear from the stems instead of having the latter broken. We can therefore perceive the advantage of having the two grades on different trays. Without the necessity of assorting we can simply take up our “layer” trays when they are ready and allow our “loose” to remain as long out as necessary, without fear of having the layers overdried. By this assorting when green, each grade can be treated separately in a quick and effective way.

A tray two by three feet may be made to comfortably hold from eighteen to twenty pounds of grapes. The first crop should be placed pretty close on the trays, not allowing any part of the tray to be visible, as the reflected heat will be too great and may injure the raisins. The second crop should be packed less close, as the reflected heat from the surface of the tray will help to dry the grapes. This of course only refers to localities where the temperature during the first drying is very high. The warmer it is the closer should the bunches be packed on the trays, and on the contrary when later on in the season, or when the drying weather is unfavorable, plenty of space should be given the grapes. It is often said that grapes, to make good raisins, should not only dry, but cure. There is much truth in this. Good raisins should dry and cure at the same time, by which is meant that a chemical process is taking place, which is something else than the mere evaporation of the water in the grape. The heat necessary and favorable for drying the grapes is different in different localities. At certain temperatures the raisins will get cooked and spoil, assume a red color, lose their sweetness, become sour and hard, and covered with large, sharply defined corrugations,--signs of a very inferior or even entirely worthless raisin. In Riverside the grapes are said to cook at from 98 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. In Fresno the grapes dry and cure well up to a temperature of 105 degrees, and in El Cajon they do not spoil until 103 degrees are reached. I would think that from 90 to 103 degrees in the shade would be the best temperature for drying perfectly ripe and sweet Muscat grapes. When the grapes are very ripe, a much higher temperature will not injure them, while unripe and sour grapes, especially of the second crop, will burn or cook at a lower temperature than would be the proper one for ripe grapes.

It is not always advisable to stop picking when the heat becomes too great. A better method is to stack the trays in the field, so as to protect the raisins from the sun. When the heat subsides, the trays are again spread. The expense and trouble of stacking the trays is not as great as may be supposed, and a few hours will generally suffice to stack a large vineyard with the regular picking gang. Some packers have suggested that to secure good raisins the trays should be stacked for several weeks in the beginning of the period of drying. For the production of our usual dark-colored raisins this is not necessary nor even advisable, except when the heat is such that the raisins would cook and spoil. With a little experience this cooking of the grapes can be readily detected by the smell emitted by the grapes. As soon as they are in the least injured by the heat, a cooked flavor begins to pervade the whole vineyard. When this peculiar flavor is noticed, and when the berries begin to show small red and soft blotches on the side facing the afternoon sun, the stacking should be commenced as quickly as possible. If the trays are kept in piles for several days, the injured grapes will partially recover and at least to some extent regain their color. Greatly injured grapes will dry much slower, sometimes remaining several weeks behind those which were not injured by the sun. Slightly discolored raisins may partially regain their color by sweating, but they will not improve otherwise.

After the trays are filled with grapes, the best way is to put several rows of trays together, or rather to place the trays from three rows of vines along one of the spaces between the rows. This gives more compactness to the crop, makes it easier to handle the trays, and facilitates the stacking of the trays, their turning and reversing, or any labor with the trays that may be required. By thus clearing some of the spaces between the rows, admission for trucks and wagons is had close to the trays.

_Turning._--After the grapes have been exposed to the sun for some days, they must be turned. By this time it will be found that the grapes have dried principally on the upper side, while the lower side is yet comparatively green. The time when the turning of the grapes should be done depends entirely on the weather. One-half of the drying process should be over, and this requires a longer or shorter time. When the time for turning is at hand, it will be found that the under side of the grapes, or rather the side of each berry that was placed against the trays, has flattened out and shows concentric circles, which are considered of much beauty, and greatly valued in all good raisins. When they are well formed and established, it is generally time to turn. If the grapes are turned before these concentric circles are hardened, the latter will open and become less distinct. Another objection to turning too early is that the upper side of the grapes, if not properly dried before turning, will dry but very slowly afterwards, and often so slowly that the raisins may have to be turned a second time, which will prove both expensive and to the disadvantage of the raisins. One turning is always enough, and the only one proper. There are several ways to turn. The Malaga grower, with his raisin floors, must turn his raisins by hand. The great advantage of our trays is that we can turn much quicker. The turning is done in our vineyards by placing one tray on the top of another and then turning them quickly over, when in changing the tray the bottom side of the bunches will be found to be up.