54 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



preferred. I am told that five per cent loss was unusual. It must be 

 remarked that the moister is the air the better it is for any kind of 

 cuttings. The moisture sustains and nourishes the wood while it is 

 making roots. As to distances, I remarked nothing new. Eight by 

 eight or eight by ten feet seems the generally adopted way. The 

 nature of the soil and climate make higher cultivation a necessity. 

 McPherson Bros., who packed the largest quantity of raisins and 

 owned the finest vineyards, told me that they plowed and cross- 

 plowed and cultivated from fourteen to sixteen times every season; 

 in fact they never ceased working the ground. The pruning was 

 begun in December, or as soon as the leaves began to turn and fall. 

 To begin with, only a few spurs were left on every vine, and on every 

 spur three eyes, including the bottom eyes, but experience taught that 

 that way was not the very best. Gradually more space was given the 

 vines, and now from fifteen to twenty spurs to a vine in full beaiing 

 is considered proper. Summer pruning is only practiced in some of 

 the vineyards where the ground is quite wet. The most profitable 

 vineyards were irrigated. The nearer the coast the more moisture 

 there is in the soil. Thus three miles west of Santa Ana the ground 

 is always moist enough to grow grapes, but as we come nearer the 

 foothills to the east, the moisture is farther down. At Tustin, Orange, 

 and especially at McPherson, irrigation was practiced in all first-class 

 vineyards. Some were irrigated in the winter only, and this was 

 considered the best; others again were irrigated also once in summer, 

 a practice the best vineyardmen considered unnecessary and even 

 injurious. I found land near the town of Santa Ana moist one inch 

 below the surface, where no irrigation had even been practiced. 

 Sulphuring was used everywhere to counteract the oidium. For this 

 purpose powdered sulphur was dusted through the vines as soon as 

 the grapes were as large as small shot. From three to four sulphur- 

 ings were used every year with a week between each. Sulphuring 

 for the colure or dropping of grapes was not known; in fact I am 

 informed that this colure was seldom known. Besides mildew, there 

 are few enemies to the vine here. Grasshoppers, leaf-hoppers and 

 grape moths have never been known to molest the vines. When the 

 late vine-plague struck the country the vineyardists were entirely 

 unused to fight any enemy of the vines besides the oidium. Sunscald 

 of the berries was not known. 



The Crop and its Curing. The grapes begin to ripen in the end of 

 August, say about the twenty-fifth, on the gravelly soil, but on the 

 cooler and richer bottom land very much later, or about the middle 

 of September. The harvest then begins; the grapes are picked on 

 trays two and a half by three feet and placed to dry in the sun; the 

 drying takes two or three weeks or more, *and is accomplished with 

 some difficulty. Two years the grapes had to be carried out to the 

 Mojave desert, to be dried there. The trays are placed among the 

 vines in such a way that the trays from three rows are placed in one. 

 To protect them from the fog and dew, they are covered with canvas. 

 This is done in two ways. One way is to put small pegs on one side 

 of the trays. The long canvas is furnished at intervals with rings, 



