Part 23

_Grading and Weighing._--The next step after the raisins have been equalized is to remove them to the grading tables. This should not be done by dumping the contents of a sweatbox on the table, as in this way but very few of the real choice bunches are saved for the packer. If, however, the raisins have been placed carelessly in the boxes, without sufficient or perhaps without any manilla papers between the layers, the only way is to dump out the contents. By first placing the sweatbox on the long side, and then turning it over, the raisins are but slightly disturbed. But to get these out afterwards from the chunk is the great difficulty, and many bunches must necessarily be broken. If, again, the raisins have been carefully handled and consigned to the sweatboxes, with four papers in every box, not counting in the top cover, the care and handling of the sweatboxes will be much simplified. The sweatbox is then placed alongside of the grading table, and each layer with its paper is lifted out carefully, and placed on the table. The assorting is now to begin. The bunches are taken up one by one, all inferior berries are clipped out, all soft ones are separated and placed in a box by themselves to be further dried. As each bunch is examined and cleaned, it is put in one of the weighing trays resting on small scales at either end of the table, and, when the scales indicate that five pounds of raisins are in the tray, the latter is removed to the packing table.

In the meantime all loose or inferior bunches are raked down through the openings in the grading tables and received in sweatboxes below, to be either further dried or to be stemmed and graded at once. In packing several grades of layer raisins, the grading of the bunches should be made at this table. No great choice in selecting the bunches should be left to the packer, as his time should alone be occupied with the packing of his box. The best way is to have differently colored scales for number one and number two layers, and when taking them out of the sweatbox assort them at once by placing them in different trays. The graders can never be too careful. No moist raisins, no small ones, no red and poor raisins, should ever be allowed among a better quality. They will lower the grade of the whole box, while the good quality of high-grade raisins will not raise the grade of a generally poor box. Thus, while the many good raisins in a poor box are not paid for according to their value, the few poor raisins which will be accidentally or carelessly smuggled in a good box will lower the value of the whole. Few packers will sufficiently understand this, which is really the principle of all good packing, and which should be scrupulously adhered to. Even inferior size berries, if otherwise ever so good, should be carefully clipped from the large-berried bunches. It is astonishing how quickly the buyer will notice a few small berries, and how readily he will ignore the value of the largest raisins in the box.

_Packing Layers, Top-up Method._--As with packing the loose raisins, there are two methods, the top up and the top down. The top-up method can be as little recommended in this case as in the former, but as it is used by many of the packers I will here describe it: The trays containing the five-pound layers are placed in front of the packer on the packing table, so as to be within easy reach of the packer. The trays or frames with the sliding bottom are now used. The first move is to place one of the inner paper wrappers in the tray, and next the layers are placed in the frame as carefully as possible. There are two ways in vogue in which this is done. One of them is to crowd the raisins to one side,--“bunch” them, so to say, beginning at one end of the tray and gradually working towards the other end. This is the _wrong_ way, which I am sorry to say is used by very many packers, who desire speed above everything, thus sacrificing care and quality and even appearance. Raisins packed this way point their ends upwards in a slanting way, which not only detracts from their appearance, but causes them to get entangled in each other. Such bunches when pressed will generally break, and, when lifted out of the box afterwards, will be very different from what they were when they were placed there in the first instance. The raisins, whatever method is used, should always be placed flat on the bottom of the tray. Care should be taken to arrange them so that they will fit, and only _very_ few broken bunches should be allowed to fill unoccupied corners or spaces in the box. It is better even to leave such spaces empty than to tear up good bunches in order to get the small quantities needed, or in using inferior berries to fill up the holes.

When at last the tray is full, and all the five pounds of raisins from the weighing tray are in, the upper surface should be smooth so as to require as little pressure as possible. When full the trays are taken to the press and stored on a side table until actually used. The presses are generally arranged for four trays. These are now placed under the press, a follower is placed on the top of every tray, and only sufficient pressure applied. Frequently too much pressure is used, and the raisins are flattened out to their greatest possible extent, many even crushed and so broken that the juice runs out. All such crushed raisins will sugar in a few months, and the whole box containing them will spoil and deteriorate in value. If, again, the raisins have been properly pressed, they will keep for months or even years. After the trays have been sufficiently pressed, which generally is accomplished in one minute’s time, the pressure is released, the follower removed, the folders turned over the raisins, and the trays removed to the boxing table, on which they may be allowed to accumulate until the boxer is ready to fill his boxes. On this table the final packing or “making up” of a box is done. It takes four of these five-pound frames to fill one whole box. Each tray is in its turn placed over a box, the sliding bottom is quickly removed, and the five-pound layer drops down in the box undisturbed. Every fourth frame should, in addition to the common paper wrapper, have labels and fancy paper pasted on the folders, or, as is sometimes done, an extra fancy folder or wrapper is placed on the third layer, and on the top or inside of it the fourth layer is dropped. Each layer will thus be found in its own wrapper, but the upper layer will have two, the outside one of which is fancy. Fine layers should have a waxed paper immediately above the raisins, in order that the moisture or sugar from them may not spoil the labels. On the top of the waxed paper the chromo or label is placed. The box is now ready for nailing.

_Packing Layers, Top-down Method._--This method I advocate as the most proper one to use. Thin galvanized-iron trays with a drop bottom are used. On the top of the drop bottom is placed a heavy follower of metal. White’s facing-plate, turned over, can be used to great advantage, even where no facing is required. The choicest bunches are now selected and spread evenly on the bottom of the tray; other bunches are placed on top of them, and so on until the tray is full. Great care must be taken in packing so as to make the bunches fit each other and lie solid; otherwise they are very apt to be disturbed, or they will require too heavy pressure to be kept in place. When the tray is full, it is gently pressed, and the pressure kept up for a few seconds. A loose zinc plate is then placed over the tray, the latter is turned over and placed over the box, in which the necessary wrapping papers have been previously placed, the loose zinc plate is quickly withdrawn, and the contents fall into the box. The heavy follower keeps the top layer steady, and with a little care the raisins are not disturbed.

The top-down method for packing layers has the following advantages over the top-up method. It gives a smooth surface on which to pack the top layer, without necessitating pressure to first create such a surface, the packing being done on a hard plate. The wrappers are not soiled, as they are not first placed in the frames. The packer is enabled to pack and select his choicest bunches for the top layer while he has plenty to select from, and any odd berries and broken or smaller bunches come naturally in the bottom of each layer. In the top-up method all such odds remain for the top, where they _must_ go in, in order to make up the required five pounds.

A raisin-packer averages seventy-five trays of five pounds each per day, for which she is paid two cents each. Some pack more than this; but very excellent packing proceeds slower, and a packer of very choice layers can only pack twenty-five trays of five pounds each per day, for which a correspondingly higher price is paid. In Malaga, a trained and expert packer receives between two and three dollars per day. In California, they do not receive any more. In our raisin district, the girls are rapidly becoming expert packers, and the same ones are reëngaged year after year by the same packing-house.

_Filling._--The filling of the raisins is a trick to make them appear larger than they are. This filling was invented in Spain, and is used there especially on Dehesa boxes and where very expensive packing is required. It is done in the following manner. The raisin is first flattened out as much as possible, then the edges are bent, making the raisins slightly concave. In placing the concave side downwards, a smaller raisin is slipped underneath so as to cause the manipulated raisin to keep its shape. These filled raisins are used for facing only. The Spanish filled raisins have been handled to such an extent that all the bloom is lost, and the raisin looks anything but attractive. The California method of filling is a great improvement on the Spanish way. When the facing-plate is used, the raisin is first placed in a cavity on the plate, then worked out by a pressure with the finger, and when sufficiently concave another raisin is dropped in the hollow and pressed tightly. The faced raisin is thus filled, and when seen from the other side will appear much larger than otherwise. When, again, the top-up method of packing is used, a small block of wood may be employed. This block contains a single cavity of the size, that a raisin when pressed will fill it. The counterpart of this block is furnished with a convex protuberance, and when the two halves are placed together with a raisin between, and pressure is brought to bear, the raisin flattens out and becomes concave just enough to receive the filling.

In this way no handling with the fingers is done, and the raisin keeps its bloom undisturbed. Nothing is more attractive than a raisin with its bloom untouched; similarly the raisin that has lost its bloom always gives the buyer an idea that it has been fingered. Its appetizing quality is gone. Spanish Dehesas are generally both faced and filled. Some objection to this method is that it deceives, but as long as people not only are willing to be deceived but are actually anxious to pay for the deception, there is no reason why the filling should not be used. The deception, besides, is a very innocent one. It has also another excuse: A well faced and filled box is really a work of art; it will help to educate the people up to the appreciation of what fine raisins and fine packing should be. Filling and facing combined are practiced but little in California, and it is doubtful if filled facing will ever grow in much demand here.

_Nailing and Trimming._--The boxes are next moved to the nailing table. Two nails are put in the short sides and two in the long sides of the cover. The boxes when nailed are passed to the trimmer, who with a drawknife trims the edges and cuts off the comers diagonally. The latter prevents the boxes or covers from splitting. The best nails are French wire nails for the sides and ends, one and one-quarter inches long, and for tops and bottoms one inch long.

_Labels._--I cannot finish this part without adding some words about our labels. It is of importance that our labels and colored lithographs should be appropriate. The time has come when our raisins should stand upon their own merits, and should be designated with appropriate names. I should wish to see only California names used, California layers instead of London layers, California scenes instead of foreign scenes, which give no idea of our conditions, and which do not help to advertise our State and its resources. Whatever our labels may represent, they should be distinctly Californian. Another point which is but seldom observed on these labels is the shape and color of our raisin grapes. The latter are often represented on the labels, but their shape is seldom observed. Nowhere have we seen on them a true Gordo Blanco or a true Muscat of Alexandria represented, the grapes there pictured being impossible as raisin grapes, or even well-known wine or table grapes, out of which no raisins could be made. The packer has a right to protest against such misrepresentations of our fair grapes, especially as the lithographer could just as readily and just as cheaply have followed the originals. A beautiful label is well worth its price. As a work of art, it is seldom thrown away, but is carefully kept and made to adorn the walls of many a humble home, in which the name and fame of our State will soon be a household word. Let these labels go out by the million yearly to tell of our climate and of our soil, and of the land where the luscious raisins are produced, with the same care as apples or garden stuff in countries less favored by nature.

STATISTICS OF IMPORTATION, PRODUCTION AND PRICES.

_Production of Raisins in California from to 1889:_

Twenty- pound boxes. 1873 6,000 1874 9,000 1875 11,000 1876 19,000 1877 32,000 1878 48,000 1879 65,000 1880 75,000 1881 90,000 1882 115,000 1883 140,000 1884 175,000 1885 500,000 1886 700,000 1887 800,000 1888 963,000 1889 1,000,000

The California crop, from 1885 to 1889, was divided between the various raisin districts of the State about as follows:

==============================+=======+=======+=======+=======+======= | 1885. | 1886. | 1887. | 1888. | 1889. ------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Fresno |107,000|225,000|350,000|440,000|475,000 Riverside and San Bernardino |129,000|195,000|190,000|270,000|265,000 Orange County and Los Angeles}|139,000|180,000| 85,000| 42,000| 8,000 County }| | | | | Woodland and Davisville | 67,000| 75,000|125,000 115,000|120,000 San Diego | 10,000| 25,000| 20,000| 40,000| 75,000 Tulare | 6,000| 8,000| 10,000| 11,000| 15,000 Kern | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4,000 Scattering | 12,000| 15,000| 20,000| 25,000| 25,000 +-------+-------+-------+-------+------- |470,000|723,000|800,000|943,000|987,000 ------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------

_Number of Acres in Raisin Grapes in California in 1890:_

Fresno district 30,000 acres. Balance of San Joaquin valley 10,000 “ San Bernardino district 5,000 “ San Diego and El Cajon 6,000 “ Yolo and Solano 8,000 “ Balance of the State 7,000 “ ------ 66,000 “

This includes grapes in bearing, as well as vines lately set out.

_California and Malaga Prices, Importations, etc., from 1871 to 1889:_

The following statistics of prices of California and Malaga raisins have been mostly compiled from various sources, such as the Fresno _Expositor_, the San Francisco _Journal of Commerce_, the _Fruit Grower_, etc. These statistics and notes will give a fair idea of the progress made by the raisin industry in this State since 1873, the year when our raisins first cut any conspicuous figure in the market of this continent. The first struggle of the raisin-producers of this Coast was directed against the importers of Malaga raisins, and against the prejudice of our own consumers. It took about ten years to supersede the Malaga product by our own. The following table gives the importation of Malaga raisins to this State from 1871 to 1884:

Twenty- pound boxes. 1871 16,534 1872 36,153 1873 27,692 1874 35,447 1875 22,228 1876 29,187 1877 13,357 1878 14,824 1879 10,884 1880 3,988 1881 1,719 1882 1,218 1883 633 1884 1,437 1885 800 1886 -- 1887 -- 1888 -- 1889 --

It will be observed that the imports began to fall off in 1875, being that year more than 13,000 boxes short of the preceding year. In 1876 the importations struggled back to 29,187, still being more than 6,000 boxes short of the importations of 1874; and then the battle was practically won, for in the succeeding years the importations dwindled away until in 1883 only 633 boxes were imported. The figures from 1886 to date are not obtainable, but are so insignificant as to be considered unnecessary to record.

_1873._--In 1873 the market was liberally supplied with Malaga raisins, which brought at wholesale the following prices: Layers, whole boxes, $3.00 to $3.75; half boxes, $3.62½; quarters, $3.75; eighths, $4.00 to $4.25; London layers, $4.50.

_1874._--Coming down to 1874, the Malaga still holds the fort, layers bringing $3.25 for whole boxes, and $3.12½ for half boxes, with the customary advance on fractions. In all this time the California raisin was too insignificant for notice, and was not quoted by commercial papers.

_1875._--On January 14, 1875, this significant comment appears in the _Journal of Commerce_: “A decided change is being wrought in the markets of this coast respecting the use of Malaga raisins, figs, Zante currants, Hungarian prunes, almonds, walnuts, etc. In fact, from this time forward Pacific Coast supplies of bunch raisins and dried fruits generally are to be produced here in large quantities, and in favorable seasons we will doubtless have a large surplus of almonds (hard, soft and paper shells), English walnuts, chestnuts, hickory nuts, raisins, figs, etc.”

On November 4, 1875, it was recorded that up to the 1st of November there had been received 6,000 boxes of California raisins, “the quality generally good,” worth from eight to ten cents per pound, say $2.00 and $2.25 per box of twenty-two pounds net; London layers, $3.50 and $3.75.

_1876._--In January of 1876 Malagas were quoted at $3.25 and $3.50, California raisins bringing ten and twelve and one-half cents per pound. The following comment was made at that time, which may be considered as another mile-stone in the progress of the California industry: “Malaga raisins have been imported to very much less extent the present than last season, owing to the large products of California cured, which latter have amounted to upwards of 30,000 boxes, about one-half of which have been of prime quality, suitable for table use, a portion being poorly cured and considerably inferior to the imported, but have sold at lower rates for ordinary cooking purposes.”

The California raisin was now fairly on its feet, so to speak, and was in lively competition with the Malaga dried grape. The market reports spoke well of Blowers’ California Muscatels and Briggs’ bunch raisins. The jobbers, however, were loth to give up the Malaga; but to sell that article they had to import an extra choice quality, as the public was beginning to show a marked preference for the home product. In proof of this the following extract, dated November 9, 1876, is given: “The quality of the Malaga raisins now here is superior to any ever before imported, and have a preference over our best California raisins. This, however, will not always be the case, as experience makes perfect, and in a few years we will be entirely independent of the Old World for all sorts of dried fruits.”

_1877._--In November, 1877, very complimentary notice is made of Blowers’ layer raisins from Woodland, which brought $2.75 and $3.00 per box. Briggs’ raisins were worth $2.25 and $2.70. This extract, dated January 18, 1877, is still another landmark in the raisin industry: “The consumption of raisins has been fully up to the average of past years, yet divided between Malaga imports and our own California production. Of the latter, upwards of 20,000 boxes have been already marketed; and, had it not been for the unusual and unexpected heavy rainfall in October, there is every reason to believe that our home crop of bunch and layer raisins would have reached 50,000 boxes of twenty pounds each. Blowers’ Muscat raisins were superior and in every way equal to the imported. Briggs, of Marysville, also turned out several thousand boxes of bunch, and others have made a creditable beginning. Enough has been done here in this line to satisfy our grape-growers that raisin-curing is to be, in the near future, a prominent California interest, and, to do it successfully, the sun-drying process is infinitely superior to that of machine-drying. Sheds must be erected and prepared in time to protect the fruit from early rain, and then the working process is sure to all who have the right kind of grapes. Then uniform weight in twenty, ten and five pound boxes, all handsomely put up in fancy papered boxes, and California then will be prepared to secure all the raisin trade west of the Rocky Mountains, and a good part of that of the Eastern States. As it is, those of our merchants importing Malaga raisins from New York confine themselves to London layers and others of the best and choicest quality, leaving the home market to be cared for, in a great measure, by those of our own production. As a result, raisins have ruled low all the winter, and are likely to do so for a long time to come.”

_1878._--In 1878 several carloads of California raisins were sent to Chicago, New York and Boston, and were well received by the trade. In October of that year, California layers were bringing $2.50 and $3.25. Imports had fallen away more than forty per cent from the figures of 1874.

_1879._--In 1879 the ruling prices for California raisins, in lots of 250 boxes and upwards, were: Common layers, $2.00 for wholes, $2.25 for halves, $2.50 for quarters, $3.00 for eighths; London layers, $2.25 to $2.50 for wholes, $2.50 to $2.75 for halves, $2.75 to $3.00 for quarters, $3.25 to $3.50 for eighths.

_1880._--In October, 1880, the following quotations were made: Briggs’ layers, $2.00 and $2.75 per box. California raisins, in lots of 250 boxes and upwards, common layers, $2.50 and $2.25 per box; London layers, $2.50 per box.

_1881._--In November of 1881, Malaga ruled high in the East, and in consequence prices were generally higher here, quotations for the California article running $2.50 for wholes, $2.75 for halves, $3.00 for quarters, and $3.25 for eighths, in lots of one hundred boxes. London layers, twenty-five cents per box more.