72 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



containing mineral deposits, which will injure the vines, or by hard- 

 pans, which will cause the soil to dry out. Poor soils will not prove 

 profitable, and rather than plant vines on such soils it would be better 

 to plant no vines at all. The rich soils are not only the heaviest pro- 

 ducers, but the vines grown on them are stronger and healthier and in 

 every way better able to resist the attacks of insects and fungi and the 

 ravages of other inexplicable diseases. But regardless of these 

 advantages the various soils leave their effects on the grapes, some of 

 them producing sweet and very keeping raisins, while others cause 

 large berries and bunches, which bring the highest market price. 

 Thus the lighter and drier soils produce richer flavored and sweeter 

 raisins than the wet and rich soils, which again produce the largest and 

 handsomest grapes. On the latter soils the raisins when cured will be 

 found to be dark and covered with a heavy bloom, while the raisins 

 from the sandier or gravelly soils are lighter in color and with less pro- 

 nounced bloom. The keeping quality of the raisins from gravelly 

 soils is well known. In California the keeping quality of the raisins is 

 seldom inquired into, as our raisins keep remarkably well and are in 

 this respect superior to those grown in Spain. This may be from the 

 effect of our drier climate more than from any certain quality in our 

 soils. 



As a rule it may be said that poor soil causes the raisins to mature 

 earlier than the rich, heavy loams, and on this account the latter are 

 to be greatly preferred, as the earliest raisins in any district are never 

 as good as the bulk of the crop, and are in demand rather as a curiosity, 

 and for the purpose of supplying an early market, than through any 

 Superior qualities. In some districts there is such a great difference 

 in the time of ripening upon the various soils that the grapes grown 

 on the earliest soils are used only as table grapes fresh. In planting 

 a raisin vineyard, the future profits depend upon the choice of land, 

 and it is far better to pay a high price for the best land than to take 

 the inferior land as a gift. Few of those who now enter upon raisin 

 culture take the proper care in selecting the land, neither do they 

 sufficiently, if at all, realize the advantages of the rich soil, nor the 

 disadvantages of the poor land. 



Alkali Soils. While nothing but first-class land is to be recom- 

 mended for raisin vineyards, and alkali lands are of all soils those 

 least suitable for our purpose, still a consideration of these lands will 

 interest many raisin-grape growers. The best lands for raisin purposes 

 in California are often contiguous to alkali lands, or to land containing 

 more or less traces of alkali. A vineyard on the best soil contains 

 often spots charged with alkali, and it may be inconvenient for the 

 grower to allow these spots to lie idle, and he would prefer to fill them 

 up with vines. The first work must then be tt> get rid of the alkali or 

 reduce it to such an extent that it will not prove injurious. The gen- 

 eral alkali lands are classed in three kinds, according to the quality of 

 the alkali. 



ist. Alkali salts, such as carbonates and borates. These are greatly 

 detrimental to the vines, and no vines could be expected to do well in 

 such soils, as even the smallest percentage of this alkali is injurious 



