THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



155 



separated, the raisins fall together on screens of wire with various size 

 <^~ meshes, through which the smaller berries are separated from the larger 

 1 berries, while the refuse and broken stems are blown away by a fan. 

 The most perfect stemmer and grader is the one on the Butler vine- 

 yard. The raisins are first dumped into a hopper below the floor, 

 and from there they are run automatically on a belt to the top of the 

 stemmer, where they enter the drum. From the drum they fall on 

 the separating screens, which grade them in three grades, each one 

 falling in a box of its own. Somewhat similar stemmers are seen in 

 all the large vineyards, all run by steam and large enough to stem and 

 grade from forty to sixty tons of raisins a day. There is considerable 

 difference as to the ingenuity with which these stemmers are built, 

 some requiring many more hands to run them than others. The 

 Butler stemmer requires, part of the time, only one man for its success- 

 ful running. The Forsyth stemmer stands under a shed in the open 

 air, apart from the packing-house, in order that the dust may be freely 

 carried away. The smaller vineyards have stemmers run by hand, and 

 have separate graders also run by hand, large enough to stem and 

 grade from five to eight tons of raisins per day. 



Raisin Lever Press. 



