REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 307 



Estimating a yield of say 60 tons of cellulose, after allowing for a certain 

 waste, and on the conservative assumption that the finished article should 

 sell at the price of the cheapest wood pulp, to which revenue should be 

 added the value of the cream of tartar and of the tannic acid extracted, 

 there would, after defraying the expenses of production, be left in all prob- 

 ability a profit, provided freight was not above $2 per ton, in the same 

 manner as there is a margin the working of esparto, a material having an 

 original cost from three to four times greater than the one I am speaking of, 

 but yielding, of course, about two and one-half times as much fiber. 



I have ventured the above as a suggestion, without going into the details, 

 for which I am not prepared. This suggestion appears to me, however, 

 worthy of being made the subject of further study and experiments, 

 especially where grape stems could be concentrated at one point by cheaper 

 water transportation. 



While such utilization, as proposed, would increase the revenue of the 

 winemaker and, by stimulating the elimination of the stems from the fer- 

 menting grapes, would improve the quality of the main product of the winery, 

 viz: wine; it would also, in wine producing countries, assist, to a certain 

 extent, in solving the engrossing problem of the scarcity of material suitable 

 to the manufacture of paper. 



I will conclude by leaving to the poet of the future the emotions of 

 writing his verses on such inspiring paper as one so akin, in its origin, to 

 the wherewithal he is wont to wet his lyre and to sing the success of this 

 new industrial achievement. 



RELATION OF THE MATURITY OF THE GRAPES TO THE 

 QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF THE RAISINS. 



By FREDERIC T. BIOLETTI, 

 University of California. 



During a lecture to grape growers in 1912 at Fresno, the center of the 

 world's raisin production, the speaker was asked: "At what degree of ripe- 

 ness should raisin grapes be harvested?" Though posing as an expert, the 

 speaker was obliged to acknowledge ignorance. The same question addressed 

 to the audience, composed of many of the largest and oldest raisin growers 

 of the region, met with a similar response. Opinions were advanced, but 

 not facts. 



According to some, the riper the grapes the higher the quality of the 

 raisins. According to others, the degree of maturity made little difference, 

 providing it had reached a certain minimum. In any case, it was claimed, 

 the harvesting of the crop before the first rains and when labor was avail- 

 ble, were the controlling factors and quite overshadowed any slight differ- 

 ence of price that might be obtained by any possible increase of quality. 

 No suggestion was made that the degree of maturity influenced, in any way, 

 the amount of the crop. 



