90 



ROEDING'S FRUIT GROWERS' GUIDE 



Sulphur houses. The car in the foreground is the tray transfer car for hauling the trays from the fruit shed to 



the sulphur houses. 



water. If it dissolves readily and without making suds 

 it is ready for use. For each one hundred gallons of 

 water use four pounds of caustic soda and a quart of the 

 emulsion. The dipping tank, which should be con- 

 structed out of galvanized iron, should hold not less 

 than two hundred gallons of the solution and this should 

 be maintained at a temperature of 200 to 208 degrees 

 Fahrenheit by either placing steam pipes in the bottom 

 of the tank or by having a fire under the tank to heat 

 the water. The grapes when processed in this manner 

 should not have less than twenty-two degrees sugar con- 

 tent by a saccharometer. They are immersed for a period 

 of fifteen seconds. This may be varied according to the 

 way the skins cut. The creases in the skin of the ber- 

 ries when the bunches are exposed to the air is an indi- 

 cation that the dip is sufficient. After the grapes are 

 dipped in the solution they are immersed in a tank 

 holding cold water (which is changed frequently) to free 

 them from the lye solution. 



To handle this quantity of grapes expeditiously it is 

 necessary to have the following equipment: first of all 

 there should be a shed or building to house the equip- 

 ment as well as for the men engaged in the dipping. A 

 revolving crane having a shallow tray made of heavy 

 galvanized wire mesh is attached to the arm of the 

 crane. A lever bolted to the upright post raises and 

 lowers the tray as it is moved from the receiving 

 station, then to the tank holding the solution. From 

 there it goes to the rinsing tank, and finally to the sta- 

 tion where the trays are lined up to receive the pro- 

 cessed grapes. The trays are then taken to the drying 

 yard on trucks running on tracks. All discolored grapes 

 and grapes which are badly mildewed, or which are 



partially dried, having a dark appearance, should not 

 be dipped. This is particularly important when mak- 

 ing the sulphur-bleached raisins. The time of exposure 

 of grapes treated in this manner is less by half than 

 those which are not processed. 



SULPHUR BLEACHED 



This method has been used more for processing the 

 Thompson Seedless grapes than for any other variety. 

 The demand for it arose from the endeavor of the Cali- 

 fornia growers to produce a raisin which would compete 

 with the processed Sultanina Blanche from Asia Minor. 

 This is the correct name for the Thompson Seedless . The 

 processing is the same as for the preceding, except in 

 this case they are exposed to the fumes of sulphur for 

 four hours. The trays are then spread out and exposed 

 to the sun on the drying yard for about the same 

 period, when they are stacked, and they remain in 

 this stack, the air circulating through them causing 

 the desiccating of the fruit. Before transferring 

 the raisins to the sweat boxes they are separated 

 into three grades. The first has a uniform light 

 straw color; the second is not quite so even in 

 color; and the third grade consists of imperfect 

 berries and those which are more or less discolored. 

 With a temperature ranging around one hundred degrees 

 in the shade during the drying period this type of raisin 

 is ready for the sweat box within fourteen days. The 

 raisins are beautiful to look at but when eaten they 

 have a decided taste of sulphur which militates against 

 them as an article of food. In spite of all this there is a 

 heavy demand for this class of goods and they sell for 

 a higher price in the market than any other raisins. 



