76 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



succeeded, with the aid of this phosphate, in raising the crop of an 

 acre of Sultana grapes from a very poor yield to over eight tons. 

 The grapes were grown on a piece of sandy soil of the kind well known 

 to Fresno vine-growers, and which is generally considered as less 

 suited to raisins, lacking in fact in more than one of the necessary 

 qualities of a good raisin soil. 



It is certainly a wrong policy to crop the soil until the grape crops 

 begin to fail. The soil will then be so exhausted of several of its ingre- 

 dients, that it will take the most scientific treatment to bring it back 

 again to what it was formerly, and it is even questionable if this could 

 be done in a way that would prove profitable. Experience in Spain 

 teaches that vineyards which formerly used to yield from eight to ten 

 tons of green grapes to the acre now, after years of neglect, only yield 

 two tons to the acre, and even with expensive manuring can in no 

 way be brought back to their former fertility. On the other hand, we 

 know that vineyards which have been fertilized from the beginning 

 have for fifty years been kept up in apparently as good condition as at 

 first; it is accordingly this method that must be recommended. The 

 manure or fertilizer must be varied occasionally. In rotation, phos- 

 phates, bone dust, guano, stable manure, sheep manure, lime and 

 plaster of Paris or gypsum may be used, but it is best to have every 

 variety of soil in the vineyard analyzed, and to apply from year to 

 year that kind of fertilizer which is particularly needed. The phos- 

 phates are those which will first give out in our California soils. 

 Phosphates must therefore be considered as the best fertilizers we can 

 use, but the quantity to be used must always be determined by a 

 practical chemist. Of these chemical fertilizers, it is dangerous to use 

 too much, as they might injure the vines, and from fifty to a few 

 hundred pounds to the acre may in some instances suffice and pro- 

 duce better crops than would four or five times as much. But, regard- 

 less of chemical fertilizers, the cautious raisin-grower should endeavor 

 to return to the soil as much as he possibly can out of the wastes of 

 his crop. The refuse of stems and berries, which are wasted at the 

 stemmer and in the packing-house, should not be burned, as is gen- 

 erally the case, but returned to the vineyard, and applied one year 

 on one piece of ground, and another year on some other piece. If, 

 however, these wastes must be used as fuel in the dryer, etc., the 

 ashes should be carefully collected and spread over the soil, and kept 

 dry and shaded until thus used. 



Another most valuable fertilizer generally wasted is the trimmings. 

 In our careless California farming, these trimmings of the vines are 

 put in piles on the roads, outside of the vineyards, and there burned. 

 Thus the ground loses the most powerful soluble salt, which would 

 greatly increase the yield of grapes and the 'profits to the farmer. 

 Where the vines are planted far enough apart, the trimmings may be 

 burned between the rows of the vines without injury to them, but, when 

 the vines are set close, there is no other way than to carefully collect 

 the ashes and spread them evenly over the soil. Some vineyardists use 

 large troughs made of galvanized iron and perforated with holes. 

 These vats are drawn through the vineyard by a team, and scatter 



