Raisin Culture In South California

Few people are a ware of the amount of labor, expense and pains required to grow, piek and properly cure the raisin, to say nothing of the packing after it is cured. As aome oL your readers may be interested to know how it is done, I will endeavor to give a description- short enoagh to fied a space in the columns of your paper - of the manner in which it ia done on the Boston ranch, in Cajon valley. The vines on this ranch are planted in rews, ten by twelve feet. The most of the vines are three years old, and the first erop was picked last year. The ground between tne rows is plowed in the winter, and from that time until July, the one, two and three-horse cultivators are kept moving, to keep down the weeds, and to keep the soil mellow. The finer the soil is pulverized and the more it is stirred, the more moisture it will retain. Hand hoes are used twice during the summer, or latter part of the winter, and in May all the shoots, or "suckers," which hive no grapes, are pulled off. In June the vines are " summer-pruned," or cut back. PICKINO. In the latter part of July the grapes begin to ripeo, but pickin? does not begin until the seoond week in Saptember. The buncbes are cut from the vine, and placed on wooden trays, which measure two by t iree feet In size. These trays are placed on the ground between the vines, and they are allowed to remam expoaed to the aun until the grapes change from a greenish yellow to a brown color. An empty tray is then placed, bottotn side up, on a filled iray, and, taking a finn hold of both trays, two men turn them bottom side up, and the tray which was filled is taken off emp'y. When both sides of the bunches are brown, the sorting begins. Tne bast clusters are pickol out for " London layers," and the smaller buoches which are dry enough ai e taken to tha packing house, where they are run through a " siemmer," a machine which breaks all the raisins off the sterns. From the stemmer thsy go to the fanning milis, which blows out the sterns, and sorts the raisins into different sizes and qualities. They are then sorted over again by hand, and all remaining ttems and such raisins as are not sufficiently cured are thrownout, and a sheet of paper being plaoed in the bottom of a box, covenng bottom and sides, fifteen paunds of raisins are weighed into the box, and fise pounds placed in a "fortn," with fancy picturtd paper in the bottom, which is placed in a press and slightly presseddown, and then transferred to the box, already partly filled, by drawing out the bottom of the "fortn." The paper folds over the top, and the "loose Muscatela" are ready tor the box closer and stenciler. The ''London layrs" are placed in "sweat-boxes," wh;ch are two by three ieet, and from eight toten inches deep, when they are piled and allowed to remain from tweuty-four hours to a week, to go through a process of sweating which softem and toughena the stem and fits them for packing. The best grade is oalled "London layeri," but this ranch also packed a second grade of layers, under the brand of "Two Crown layer," which was equal to the "London" in quality but slightly inferior in size. The layers are carefully sorted, and all poLr grapes clipped out with ehears, and the clusters packed in forms holding five pounds each, with paper in each form large enough to fold over the top. The contents of four forms are then dropped into a box, by placiug the "form" on the box and puiling out the sliding bDttom, A chromo is tben placed on top and the box nailed up. GRADES. There are three grades of "loose Muscatels" packed on this ranch, and two grades of layers. There are five hundred and eighty-five (585) acres of vines on the Boston ranch, and over forty acres of orange trees have been planted this season, besides thousands of olive trees along the avenues. It required a forcé of from twenty-five to fifty men to attend to the vines and trees this summer, and it will require a small army to do the work in picking, curing and packing, and the erop will nearly doublé every year for several years to come. Charles Dudley Warner, on his recent trip to South California, said of the L1 Cajon raifcin : "They were the most delicious raisin I ever tasted and I have had a great desire to see the valley where they were produced. The skin is so thin, and the flavor so delicious that I cannot see why the packers have not taken advantage of the superiority of their product to have it widely known by the name of their beautiful valley, by dropping the name of "London layers" and calling it "El Cajon layer." Some time in the future I may give a description of ranch hfe, etc, in these parts if you have spaoe and think it will interest your readers.