THK RAISIN INDUSTRY. 187 



eighty acres, bordered by a wonderfully beautiful row of umbrella 

 trees, with crowns as even as veritable gigantic umbrellas, and through 

 the foliage of which not a ray of light can penetrate. A little farther 

 on, also to the left, is the Gordon vineyard, lined by fan palms and 

 fig trees. A large sign across the main road announces that we now 

 enter the Butler vineyard, the largest and most famous vineyard in the 

 State, with its six hundred acres nearly all in vines, the largest vine- 

 yard in one body and owned by one man in the world. Magnificent 

 avenues of poplars, magnolias and fan palms stretch in various direc- 

 tions leading to the outbuildings, of which the packing and drying 

 houses appear most prominently. Mr. Butler's home is one of the 

 most attractive, shaded by umbrella treesfattd "majeSticTfan palms, and 

 surrounded by flowers and evergreens. From his vineyard alone over 

 five hundred carloads of raisins have been shipped, the yearly product 

 being over one hundred thousand boxes of raisins, a thousand tons. 

 The vineyard now swarms with laborers ; the teams wait in long lines 

 to load the ready raisin-boxes, while the spaces between the vines, as 

 far as we can see, are almost covered with continuous rows of trays, all 

 loaded with Muscat grapes in all stages of drying. 



We travel constantly eastward ; on both sides are raisin vineyards, 

 large and small. The four hundred acres owned by the Fresno Vine- 

 yard Company are devoted to wine grapes, and large wineries and cel- 

 lars built of adobe show the wealth and extensive business of the place. 

 No vacant land anywhere, nothing but vineyards, the only breaks 

 being groves of trees shading the homes, wine cellars or packing- 

 houses of the proprietor. Farther to the north lies in an unbroken 

 row the well-known Eisen vineyard, where the first raisins were made 

 in this district, but where now principally wine is produced ; the Nevada 

 and Temperance Colonies, devoted mostly to raisins ; the Pew, the 

 Kennedy, the Forsyth, Woodworth's, Duncan's, Goodman's and Back- 

 man's raisin vineyards, all splendidly cared for and lined by fig trees. 

 Of these the Forsyth vineyard deserves more than a passing notice, as 

 it is more inviting to an hour's rest than any other. Containing 160 

 acres, nearly all in vines, it is one of the best properties of the county. 

 The place shows an uncommon taste" and refinement, and is beautified 

 by avenues of poplars and magnolias, by groves of acacia and um- 

 brella trees, by palms and flowers, and by roses and climbing plants. 

 A pond with its lilies, overhung by weeping willows and shaded by 

 stately elms, is an unusual sight even in this county of abundant irri- 

 gation. The packing-houses and dryer all display a taste and practi- 

 cal arrangement hardly seen elsewhere. A climb to the top of the 

 tank-house is well worth the trouble. The view becomes wonderfully 

 enlarged ; we overlook the level plains, all in vines, with houses and 

 groves scattered about like islands in a sea, no wild, unbroken 

 country anywhere. In the distance is Fresno City, to the north the 

 view is hemmed in by new vineyards and colonies, a mass of trees and 

 vines in straight and regular rows. The courteous owner conducts 

 us through his packing-house and shows us how the bunches are 

 placed in layers and carefully made to fit every corner in the box, * 

 how the boxes are covered with papers and artistic labels and finally *r 



