170 Grcqyes and Raisins. 



intertwining tendrils, betoken home aflPection, home comfort, contentment, and must 

 bear profit in inspiring delicate thoughts, in invigorating good taste, in ameliorating 

 manners, in cultivating virtue. 



A beautiful custom obtains in the old countries which ought to be followed with 

 us. The birth of a child, the return of a wanderer, a notable visit from old friends, 

 or a distinguished personage, is often commemorated by the planting of a young tree 

 near the family mansion, which is cared for by zealous hands, and continues to be 

 ever regarded with tender interest, and called b}'^ the name of the person com- 

 memorated. Who will question its benefit, and the value of this custom to all 

 concerned ? — Dudley and Merrell, Ge^icva, N. Y. 



Grapes and Kaisins. 



ON reading the article taken from a correspondent of the Pacific Rural Press, from 

 Napa county, California, page 85, in your number for March, current volume of 

 The Horticulturist, etc., giving his plan (which is very good, as far as it goes) 

 for converting grapes into raisins — when we consider the abundance of fine grapes, 

 raised not only in California, but throughout the United States, there appears no 

 necessity for importing 300,000 cwt. of raisins into the United States annually. It 

 seems the process employed in Europe (Turkey and Spain) should be better known to 

 grape growers, and some things mentioned which said correspondent omits : 



" Sweet, fleshy, grapes are selected for maturing into raisins, and such as grow 

 upon the sunny slopes of hills, sheltered from the north winds. The bunches are 

 pruned, and the vine is stripped of its leaves, whe?i the fruit has become ripe ; the sun 

 then beaming full upon the grapes completes their saccharification, i. e., to convert 

 the pulp into glucose, or grape sugar, by expelling the superfluous water. This 

 accomplished, the raisins or bunches of partially dried grapes are plucked and cleaned 

 from defective portions, and dipped, for a few seconds, in a boiling lye of wood ashes 

 and quick lime, at twelve or thirteen degrees of Beaunie's areometer. This closes 

 the pores of the skin and tends to preserve them from further decay or change. The 

 wrinkled fruit is lastly drained, dried and exposed in the sun upon hurdles of basket- 

 work during fourteen or fifteen days. The finest raisins are those of the sun, so-called ; 

 being the plumpest bunches, which are left to ripen fully upon the vine, after their 

 stalks have been half cut through.''' 



Why should we not be able to succeed, under favorable circumstances, in this pro- 

 cess of drying grapes, as well as in Provence, Calabria, etc., of Spain and Portugal, 

 or like those imported from Smyrna, Damascus and Egypt ; especially in our South- 

 ern states ? Of the kinds (or names at least) of grapes, there seems to be a formi- 

 dable list, with which I shall not meddle; my object is simply to throw additional 

 light on the mode of converting grapes into raisins, as a hint might be desirable to 

 some who may not be acquainted with the process employed. J. S. 



