Journal of Agriculture. [ii Jan., 1909. 



are jn'acLicalh unknown. In Si>,iin, (> in Fr.niv. iIk- o-nl) iurni of 



raisin largeU consunH-d is the tlcsstTl .\lalag;i, w liicli is, oi course,, 

 alwavs eaten raw. One really needs to lun'e resided in Latin countries 

 to realize this radical difference frtni the customs of English speaking. 

 peoj>les. ll is .1 feature which has a good deal of bearing on the Denia 

 raisin industry, which has thus no home market for it.s produce but has 

 to rely entirely on export, chiefly to London and Liverpool, but these 

 raisins are also largely shipped to Canada, Germany and Baltic ports. 



In this respect Spanish conditions differ absolutely from ours. \n 

 Australia it is the home market on which we rely and which our growers- 

 are making every effort to preserve, with the result that far higher re- 

 turns are lx*ing obtained than would be jjossii)le in competition with out- 

 side ]>rices. Don Juan Morand is not very hopeful as to the future.- 

 Faced as he is with the pros])ect of reronstitution on American .stocks at 

 an early date, this is not perhaps surprising, but he complains of other 

 unsatisfactory features. The life of the vine, he says, is shorter than 

 it used to be. After twenty years, even ungrafted \ines seem to be 

 worn c/Ut whereas in ofden times they used to last for a century. Smaller 

 \ields are also complained of. Twenty arrobas per hanegada (not quite 

 a ton and a half per acre^ is now considered a good crop of raisins 

 wdiereas in olden days 30, 35 and even 40 were (X)mmon. He explain.s. 

 all this bv saying that the land is tired of vines. Possibly insufficient 

 manuring or the use of fertilizers not thoroughly suited to the soil, may 

 be responsible for the trouble. In spite of all this, raisin production 

 appears to be profitable in Spain for the average price of non-irrigable 

 land, planted with raisin vines, is 80 dotiros jx^r hanegada or a little 

 over ^90 per acre. 



Don Juan referred on several occasions to .Australian competition. 

 To my query whether he did not ratlu^-r fear that of California he pointed 

 out that the increasing home demand of the United States is absorbing 

 all the Caiifornian raisins — so much so that last year a couple of thousand 

 tons of Denia raisins were sold in New York in spite of the hostile tariff 

 and freight charges amounting to 30s. per ton. Our Victorian raisins 

 are becoming a frequent topic of conveisation among Denia merchants, 

 who view our recent shipments to London with a certain amount of 

 alarm. 



1 had an interesting conxersation \\\\\\ Mr. Alfred Rogers, an 

 Englishman who has for many years been interested in the raisin business- 

 in this part of Spain. He knew something of Mildura shi[)ments and 

 had only recently been w'arned by a Liverpool friend that Australian 

 raisins were likelv to spoil the spring trade in the Denia article. 



The raisin trade is most .active, in England, about Chri.':tmas time when- 

 the new^ season's fruit arrives from Spain. Some sto:"ks usually remain- 

 over from the December sales and the demand lixcns up for the.se in the 

 English spring. Fresh .Australians, arriving at this time of \ear, are 

 naturally ])referred to the 6 months old Denias. Tn this way our shi|)- 

 ments, small though the\ were, liad a disturbing ell«:Tt <in the trade and, 

 according to Mr. Rogers, created a certaii; amount of alarm in English 

 raisin circles. 



