266 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



taken out, assorted into the different grades, and placed in 

 trays holding 5 pounds each. The trays of the same grades 

 are then pressed and stacked away in piles ready for packing. 



" Pressing the raisins so that they look well and so none are 

 burst open is work requiring experience and good judgment. 

 It takes four pressed trays to fill a 20-pound box. The loose 

 raisins that have dropped from the cluster through handling 

 before they were equalized are also graded, the largest, of 

 course, making the choicest pack." 



Classes of raisins. 



"Previous to the consolidated organization of the packers 

 the three best grades of raisins on the stems were known as 

 'Imperial/ 'Dehesia,' and 'Fancy 'Clusters/ respectively. The 

 California Raisin Growers Association established classi- 

 fication and grades similar to those of the Spanish raisin 

 packers, on which the French trade names are also based. The 

 original Spanish, as well as English terms with which they 

 correspond, and the different grades in descending order of 

 quality are shown in the following table : 



" The grading is optical, as a result of experience, there being 

 no linear or cubic measurement standard. Thus, a nice cluster 



