M THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



The object of the grower was from that on, not only to increase 

 the quantity, but to increase the quality as well. To begin with, the 

 raisins were shipped off-stalk or loose; but the boxes were not faced. 

 Now the raisin boxes are all faced, and the raisins are carefully 

 selected and assorted. As a consequence, the Denia trade has of late 

 years increased enormously, until at present all the land available has 

 been planted to raisins. There is at present but little or no first-class 

 raisin land left in Denia, and it looks as if the raisin production there 

 could not be further expanded. 



Export and Production. Although the raisin industry had long 

 existed in the province of Valencia, it was only in late years that it 

 assumed an importance. They were already known as Duradnae by 

 the Romans. Re-introduced or improved by the Arabs or Moors, it 

 soon became a prominent industry, and the export of raisins to Eng- 

 land was already of some consequence in the time of William and 

 Mary. In the year 1638, Lewis Roberts, in his merchant map of 

 commerce, informs us that Denia raisins cost eighteen rials or three 

 shillings per hundred weight. In 1664, Gandia raisins were quite 

 famous, and were known as Pasas. At the end of the last century, 

 the raisins from Denia and L,iria reached forty thousand quintals, or 

 two thousand tons, distributed as follows: Spain, six thousand; France, 

 six thousand; England, twenty-eight thousand, equal to one million, 

 four hundred and thirty thousand boxes, forty thousand quintals, or 

 two thousand tons. In 1862, the raisin export from Valencia had 

 dwindled down to seven thousand tons. In 1876, it had again risen 

 to nineteen thousand tons, and in 1883 to forty thousand tons. Of 

 these, nine hundred and seventy-nine thousand boxes were exported 

 to the United States, one million, three hundred and eighty-five thou- 

 sand were sent to England, and four hundred and thirty-six thousand 

 found their way to other parts of Europe and Spain. In 1888, the yield 

 was two million, three hundred and sixteen thousand boxes of twenty- 

 eight pounds each, equal to thirty-two thousand, four hundred and 

 twenty-four tons. If packed in twenty-pound boxes, this crop would 

 have equaled three million, two hundred and forty thousand, four 

 hundred boxes, or four times as much as California produced at the 

 same time. The crop of 1889 is calculated to have reached two million, 

 eight hundred thousand boxes of twenty-eight pounds each. 



When we remember that this class of raisins is as yet hardly pro- 

 duced in California, and that the nine hundred and seventy-nine thou- 

 sand boxes or more imported could and should be supplied by us, it 

 would seem that our fears of overproduction will not immediately be 

 realized. The tendency of the raisin market is now to supplant these 

 Valencia dipped raisins with California undipped or sun-dried raisins, 

 the California Sultanas being considered superior for the same purpose 

 that Valencias were formerly used. 



CORINTH AND CURRANTS. 



Historical and Geographical Notes. The principal and only raisins 

 of any great commercial importance which are produced by Greece 

 are the currants. We have already spoken of their name, and its 



