STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 187 



stated, while we in California, who cure them on boards or canvas, 

 are usually twice as long. I would, therefore, call your attention 

 particularly to their drying floors, which will be described. 



Their grapes commence to ripen by the first of August, and are 

 usually gathered by the fifteenth of that month. They are not all 

 picked at the same time, but only those that are perfectly ripe. 

 Much judgment is required in this matter, as unless the grapes are 

 perfectly ripe they will not make good raisins. They are picked 

 from the vines very carefully, taking care to handle them by the 

 stems, and are placed upon willow trays and carried to the drying- 

 floors. In every subsequent operation care is taken not to disturb 

 the bloom, which is very important to the higher grades. 



We will now describe the drying floors, which are constructed as 

 follows: Where the country is a little hilly, as it usually is, advan- 

 tage is taken by some slope with a southwestern aspect. When this 

 is not obtainable, an artificial slope is sometimes made by building 

 a strong wall for the back and sides and filling in with dirt. Some- 

 times they are perfectly level. They like to have them with such an 

 inclination as will allow the water to run freely from the covers. 

 The length of these floors, which depends upon the inclination of 

 the land, is usually about forty-five feet, where the angle is about 

 forty-five degrees. Where it is steeper, they can be longer. The 

 width is fourteen feet. Between each bed is a path of three or more 

 feet. Around the outside of these beds is a row of tile to prevent 

 the water from entering from the paths. These are properly cemented, 

 as it is very important that no water should enter. In the middle 

 is a row of tile to support the center of the covering, which is of 

 boards fourteen feet long by one foot wide. They are laid across the 

 bed, and are lapped one over another, so that no rain can get in. 



The bottom upon which the grapes are placed, is of the natural 

 soil, and is always loose and dusty, the vinyardists contending that 

 the dust rather protects, than disturbs, the bloom. The grapes are 

 placed quite closely upon this floor, but not so as to cover each other. 

 Every one who has grown grapes knows that there is on one side of 

 a bunch of grapes that shows the stem more than the other. This 

 side should be placed upwards. 



The covers should not be placed on at night, until the grapes have 

 shriveled a little or in three or four days. At the end of eight days, 

 if the weather is good they will require to be looked over, to take out 

 such grapes as have dried in advance of the others, and these are 

 clipped out with a pair of scissors. If allowed to remain they would 

 become hard and worthless. A man commences at one end of the 

 bed and selects those that are dry or nearly so*, placing the remainder 

 back just as they were before, not turning them over as is the uni- 

 versal practice here. The reason for this is that the side cured on 

 the ground, presents a more attractive appearance than the other. 



At the end of the next seven days the raisins are fully cured. 

 Here let me state that no substance has ever been found that will 

 cure a raisin so well as the ground, and no plan have I ever seen 

 that seemed to me to be more fitted to accomplish the object sought 

 than the Spanish sidehill drying floors. 



Those made upon level ground require a few days more to cure the 

 fruit, and are sometimes covered with cloth or corrugated iron. The 

 superiority of this method over the ordinary California way of using 

 boards or canvas is so marked that I hope some of our vineyardists 



