88 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



continue the habit would be to merely recapitulate what already appears, 

 as though but a copy of the stereotyped record of many previous years' 

 exhibitions. The greater attention, however, to varieties which are 

 valuable, more on account of their intrinsic merits than because of size 

 or showy appearance, is a favorable indication of improvement in this 

 department. 



The present season has been one of extraordinar}- productiveness in 

 every branch of pomology. Indeed, the market for green fruits has been 

 so abundantly supplied that no people in the world have had such lus- 

 cious fruits, and at so little cost. This excess of supply over demand has 

 set a great number of orchardists to work in drying their surplus fruits, 

 and this has been carried on to so large an extent as to render the profit- 

 able importation of dried fruits to this coast a matter of hazard for the 

 future. The rich saccharine qualities contained in our peaches, apricots, 

 nectarines, and plums, with the certainty of abundant annual crops, 

 should lead our farmers to go largely into the planting of orchards,' for 

 the sole purpose of drying the fruit for export. Nevada Territory, with 

 its giant strides in population and development of mineral wealth, as 

 well as the various countries along the Pacific coast, already afford a vast 

 market for the surplus products of California, and none are sought for 

 with greater avidity than our preserved and dried fruits. Among the 

 features of this year's exhibition there were two articles which rendered 

 it remarkable, if there had been nothing more. These were dried prunes 

 and raisins. The prune and raisin of commerce have long since been 

 considered a necessity of civilized life, and the ease with which both of 

 these are raised and cured in this climate foreshadows that in no lon<r 

 time they will take their place among our list of extensive exports. The 

 samples of dried prunes on exhibition were of the German variety, and 

 were cured b} r simply being spread on tables and exposed a few days to 

 the sun. Even in this way they retained the rich bloom of the green 

 plum, and the dried pulp was soft, and plastic, and rich in that sharp acid- 

 ity which constitutes the great value of this fruit for culinary purposes. 

 It would be at but a trifling cost, and cause a delay onl} T of a couple of 

 years, for our orchardists to turn their many nearly valueless plum trees 

 into prunes, by budding and grafting, so that, instead of witnessing tons 

 of rotting fruit on the ground, which is worthless because the kinds are 

 not valuable for diying, they could make the annual sale of their prune 

 crops one of the most important items of their orchard receipts. 



Heretofore there has been at our annual Fairs much inquiry for a grape 

 which was every way suitable to make raisins; and on more than one 

 occasion dried grapes have been exhibited for which a claim has been 

 set up to have accorded to them the name of raisins. Any grape can be 

 dried so as to give it the character, in outward appearance, of the raisin 

 of commerce; but it is not every grape that will cure so as to be even 

 an approach to the Malaga raisin. The only grape which has as yet 

 been dried in this State so as to become a raisin at all resembling the 

 Malaga raisin, is the White Muscat of Alexandria. This grape, after 

 being dried, has the same color and soft pulpy body and rich aromatic 

 flavor which so eminentl}' distinguishes the raisins of Malaga. It- is 

 true, that any kind of grape, when dried, will be valuable for cooking 

 purposes; but soft-fleshed grapes shrivel awaj - to such an extent that 

 when properly cured there is little left of them but skin and bones. On 

 soft-fleshed grapes from one third to three quarters of their weight 

 shrinks away under the process of curing, while of hard-fleshed kinds 

 the loss of weight is only from one third to one half. 



