BTATE AGRICULTURAL BOCIETY. 241 



practically, to begin work. The boxes arc carefully layered, the work 

 being largely done by women and girls, bu1 all under the eye of the super- 

 intendent, who continually watches, every hour in the day, the packing as 

 it proceeds. 



Sixth — The boxes having been filled, they arc passed to the pressmen, 

 who place on the top labels and fancy papers, rapidly pressing them, and 

 passes them to the nailer and planer, who nails the boxes, trims the edges, 

 and then in tnrn passes them to the shipping clerk, by whom they are 

 distributed to all portions of the United States, in accordance with his 

 orders. 



Seventh — In Spain labor is paid for raisin packing at the rate of 15 

 to 25 cents per day. while in California it runs from $1 to $1 25 per day, 

 and it is mostly done by piece-work, girls and women being paid so mueh 

 for a full box, and as a good active girl can pack all the way from ten to 

 fifteen boxes per day, they realize wages as above named. 



Eighth — To counteract this cheap labor of Spain, however, we have de- 

 vised, at our factory in Fresno, machinery for stemming and grading, to 

 make loose muscatels, whereby they are run direct from the sweat-boxes 

 into a large hopper, which is run by steam power, and which neatly 

 removes the stems without blemishing or injuring the fruit. From this 

 stemmer, on large belting, they are carried to the fanner, which cleans out 

 all of the loose pieces or broken stems or chaff, and thence, on belts again, 

 they are carried to the grading machine. Thence they pass over a suc- 

 cession of sieves of different sized meshes, which grades them into three 

 different and distinct sizes. This entire machinery is all run, it will be 

 understood, by steam power, and with two men we can do the work of six 

 or eight in Spain, and do it much more quickly, better, and cheaper. 



Ninth — In Spain the process of layering loose raisins, from time imme- 

 morial, has been done by what is known as " thumbing;" that is to say, 

 taking each individual raisin and pressing it between the thumb and 

 finger. 



Tenth — This year, however, our firm has invented a machine whereby 

 they do the facing of a box of loose raisins almost automatically, and 

 much more even and finer than can be done by the "thumbing" process. 

 Besides this, we can face in this way eight or ten boxes of raisins while 

 they are doing one by the " thumbing " process. Samples of our machine- 

 packed raisins were on exhibition at the late citrus fair at Chicago, and 

 are also now on exhibition in New York, where they have excited, we 

 believe, universal interest, and with the Spanish packers especially the 

 utmost amazement. We, however, contemplate still further improvements, 

 and we shall not rest until we have seen the last box of Spanish raisins 

 driven out from the markets of America forever. California has the 

 grapes, the climate, and, above all, the ingenuity and energy to get away 

 with such a country as Spain any day in the week. 



Eleventh — The product of California raisins, for 1886, reached a total of 

 over 700,000 boxes, twenty pounds each; and we estimate for 1887 a pro- 

 duct of from 1,000,000 to 1,250,000 boxes, as a great many new vineyards 

 are constantly now coming into bearing. 



Twelfth — As a matter of interest, showing the productions year by year 

 of the California raisin product, we give a few figures, starting at the year 

 1875. A few raisins were produced here previous to that time, but they 

 really did not cut any figure until 1875, and even then there was no trade 

 for them outside of our markets here. We, therefore, submit this product 

 as named: 



