THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



In diversified farming by irrigation lies tne salvation of agriculture. 



PAN-AMERICAN LETTER. 



(Written by Herbert Shearer.) 



The lion's share of space in the Horti- 

 culture Building was assigned to the 

 State of California. The State govern- 

 ment deserves no credit because they 

 failed to make an appropriation, and it 

 became necessary for tbe fruit and busi- 

 ness men of California to come to the 

 front with both money and material or al- 

 low the state to go unrepresented at this 

 important exposition 



In the exhibit made by the business 

 men of Fresno County, that of raisins is 

 one of the most important, the extent of 

 which already Covers a territory of 55,000 

 acres; three-fourths being in Fresno 

 County. Until recent years we imported 

 all our raisins from foreign countries, and 

 it was the exception to get a product that 

 was satisfactory, as the methods employed 

 in packing were not only slovenly but in 

 many instances downright dishonest. 



The California product, on the other 

 hand, is systematically handled, packed 

 and shipped in a thoroughly straightfor- 

 ward business-like manner. Besides tbe 

 diffepent brands of selected raisins, rang- 

 ing from Imperial Clusters down to Two- 

 crown London Layers, I wish to call 

 especial attention to the seeded raisins 

 that are now being put up in such quanti- 

 ties, as well as the manner in which this 

 branch of the industry is being conducted. 



There are two grapes known as "raisin 

 grapes" the Muscatel and the Muscat of 

 Alexandria. The time of picking is de- 

 termined by the use of the sacharometer 

 in the following manner: About a peck 

 of grapes are picked promiscuously from a 



great many different vines and the whole 

 lot pressed to extract the juice. Sufficient 

 juice to float the sacharometer is placed in 

 a glass tube and the record taken, which 

 in order to be right must be about 25 per 

 cent, sugar. 



Picking begins about the first of Sep- 

 tember. The grapes are picked and 

 placed on wooden trays about 24 by 36 

 inches and left exposed to the sun's rays 

 for a week or ten days according to the 

 condition of the atmosphere. They are 

 then turned over by placing an empty tray 

 over the full one and inverting the two, 

 which empties the first tray, and this in 

 turn is used to hold the grapes that the 

 second tray contains, and so on down the 

 row; two men one on either side of the 

 row accomplish this turning very rapidly. 

 After the grapes have been turned and 

 exposed to the heat until about dry a 

 condition that requires some skill and 

 judgment to determine the trays are all 

 taken up and put in piles where they re- 

 main a few days until they "equalize." 

 They are then sorted out and divided into 

 "Clusters," "Layers" and "Loose," when 

 they are placed in the "Sweat Boxes." 



As the loose grade is what we are 

 especially interested in, we will not fol- 

 low the other and more extensive grades. 

 The cleanly, mechanical handling of the 

 loose California raisin grape marks an era 

 of progress in machine-manipulated edi- 

 bles in a very typical manner. 



As all grapes and raisins are more or 

 less dusty from exposure to the atmos- 

 phere during the growing period, they are 

 passed through a machine that brushes 

 the dust free and blows it out with an air 



