THE PACKING-HOUSE. 



BUILDINGS AND MECHANICAL APPLIANCES. 



The Packing-house. The packing-house should be large and airy 

 and, whether it is made of lumber, brick or adobe, it should in 

 preference to anything else be large. Room is needed at every 

 operation in the packing-house, and it is hardly possible to get too 

 much of it. So far no very large and perfect buildings for packing- 

 houses have ever been erected in California ; the raisin industry is too 

 young for that, and even the best of our buildings are only temporary 

 ones. It is here not possible nor desirable to give any instructions 

 how to build and arrange a raisin packing- house, as every packer will 

 have his own ideas and his own necessities in this respect, and not two 

 packers would build alike. All we can do here is to refer to what is 

 needed in a general way, in order that the reader will get some 

 preliminary ideas of what he will require when his raisin vineyard 

 comes in bearing. 



The packing-house should contain the following apartments: 

 First, the general packing-room, in which the raisins are assorted and 

 packed. Then the sweating-house or equalizing room, in which the 

 boxes are stored for several weeks in order to equalize the moisture in 

 the raisins. Then the stemming-room, in which the stemming and 

 grading of the loose raisins is carried on. Then we have the weighing 

 room, where the raisins are received from the field, and where they are 

 weighed when this is required. There should also be an office and a 

 pasting room, where the labels are pasted on the lining paper, and finally 

 there should be plenty of veranda or shed room all around the building, 

 where boxes of all kinds can be received and temporarily stored, either 

 before the raisins are packed, or afterwards when they are ready to be 

 shipped. We might also wish to have a room for a box factory, where 

 boxes of all kinds are nailed up. This can in our climate best be done in 

 the shed or under the veranda. The packing-house proper should be as 

 large as all the other rooms together. It can hardly be made too large, 

 as during the lively packing season hundreds of hands will here be 

 busy, each one with his special work. The floor of the packing-house 

 should be of matched lumber, and slanting towards the center, along 

 which should run a small gutter. Any other material, such as cement, 

 may also be used, the only object in view being that the floor can be 

 washed from time to time and the dirt carried off through the gutter as 

 readily as possible. The packing-room should have places for long 

 narrow tables, at which the packing and assorting is done, and these 

 tables can most conveniently be run the whole length of the room. 

 At one end there should be room for the presses and the nailing tables, 

 as well as storage room for empty and full boxes. 



The Sweating-house. The sweating-house or sweating-room should 

 immediately adjoin the packing-room. It should be built either of 



