78 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



grown with irrigation than without it, irrigation is justifiable and 

 necessary. In Spain, especially in the Denia district, irrigation of the 

 raisin grapes is practiced wherever water can be had, and the same is 

 the case in Greece and Italy. 



In California the tendency is now to irrigate wherever water can be 

 had, and wherever it is profitable to procure it. In Fresno, Tulare and 

 Kern counties, raisin grapes could not be grown without irrigation. 

 These same conditions are also found in San Bernardino county, 

 while in L,os Angeles and Orange counties all the best vineyards are 

 irrigated, and only occasionally do we find the conditions such that 

 irrigation is not absolutely necessary. In Northern California, raisin- 

 vines may be grown without irrigation, but the latter is considered of 

 such advantage that expensive pumping works have been erected in 

 places where no other means were had for irrigating the vines. In San 

 Diego county, especially in El Cajon and Sweetwater valleys, irrigation 

 is not absolutely necessary, in fact it is not practiced there at all, 

 although water could be had, but as a consequence the crops there are 

 not as large. In Smyrna, in Asia Minor, the largest raisin center in 

 the world, the raisin-vines receive no irrigation, but the unusually 

 heavy rainfall of this section makes the want of irrigation less felt. 

 Of course, outside of the raisin districts proper, Muscatels or other 

 raisin- vines may be grown, and are grown to good advantage without 

 irrigation, but the climate in those places is generally unsuited to the 

 drying of the grapes. 



Should we inquire into the reasons why raisin grapes may in some 

 localities be grown and actually prove profitable without irrigation, we 

 find the same to depend not alone upon the rainfall of the locality, but 

 principally upon such other circumstances as dew, fog, the nature of 

 the subsoil, and the moisture oi the air. In Smyrna the rainfall of 

 the wet season is from twenty-four to thirty-six inches annually, and 

 greater than in any other raisin district. In El Cajon the rainfall is 

 only half that much, and the moisture in this case must be sought 

 partly in the subsoil, which is especially retentive of moisture, as well 

 as in the dew, and the warm fogs from the ocean. The subsoil has 

 the greatest possible influence, as in other valleys near by, where the 

 fog and the dew are the same, but, where the subsoil is different, no 

 raisin grapes can be grown without irrigation. Malaga is in this 

 respect very similar to El Cajon and Sweetwater valleys, but it enjoys 

 more rainfall than the latter places, while probably the dew and fog is 

 about the same. Still in Malaga irrigation is used in a few isolated 

 localities where it can be obtained, the nature of that country being 

 such, that no general irrigation system is possible, and this is probably, 

 more than anything else, the reason why tKe vines are not more gen- 

 erally irrigated there. In Chile, in the valley of the Huasco, the 

 Muscat vines are grown both with and without irrigation, the condi- 

 tions there appearing to be very similar to those of El Cajon valley in 

 San Diego county. From the above we might draw a general conclu- 

 sion, that wherever the raisin-vines cannot grow without irrigation, 

 and wherever water can be had in sufficient quantities, irrigation is 

 practiced in order to increase the crops and to make the business more 

 profitable. 



