856 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



are prepared, and although they transport the fruit with great care, it 

 suffers naturally ; the skin often breaks, which renders the drying diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible. 



To dry the grapes by the washing method they construct furnaces of 

 feeble draught, in which wood is used as fuel. A round kettle, varying in 

 capacity from 300 to 400 liters, receives a lye formed from the residue or 

 refuse of the grape after pressing. The lye used is either that obtained 

 from the present year or that which has been kept from' the previous 

 vintage. 



Placed in wire colanders with long handles, containing 2 or 3 kilo- 

 grains each, the raisins are plunged in this lye, boiling at a temperature 

 of about 212 Fahr. After this first immersion, the workmen examine 

 if the skins are sufficiently shriveled ; if not, they immerse the grapes a 

 second time, usually the last. Thus scalded, the grapes are carried to 

 the drying place, and from thence to the stores, where they are packed 

 in boxes. It is not difficult to imagine that the process of immersion is 

 very delicate and requires skillful watching, and great judgment on the 

 part of the workman who conducts it. In reality, according to the 

 quality of the skin, its resistance, which varies with the fruit, the im- 

 mersion should be more or less rapid, at the risk of having the grapes 

 burst j besides, much skill is necessary to recognize the fissures which 

 may appear. In cases where the heat has been too great, the raisins 

 too rich in sugar will mold shortly after being packed. This process 

 offers, among others, the inconvenience of exposing the raisins to fer- 

 mentation during transportation, necessitates expense for the construc- 

 tion of furnaces, and the necessary last drying in the sun ; besides, no 

 matter what grapes employed, or what care bestowed in the preparation, 

 the results will always be relatively inferior. 



The method of preparing raisins by steam is as follows : After having 

 been exposed nearly twenty-four hours to the sun's rays, the grapes are 

 carried on boards under cover to a building arranged with shelves 6 or 

 7 feet high. A heat is produced by steam that circulates in an iron tube 

 7 or 8 inches in diameter through the entire building. It is unnecessary 

 to submit the grapes to a jet of steam, which would injure them by making 

 them damp, but to a veritable heat of 160 Fahr. Valves, arranged on 

 the floor, cause an even temperature. At the end of twenty-fouV hours, 

 usually, the drying is finished, but as the immediate transfer from a 

 temperature of 160 Fahr. to the open air would injure the ultimate re- 

 sult, it is necessary to let raisins cool gradually in a room constructed 

 for the purpose adjoining the heated room, and only when the raisins 

 are entirely cool are they carried to the stores for packing. 



This is the process most generally employed in the region of Malaga, 

 a process they are trying to extend to other less favored climates. The 

 sun furnishes all the heat required ; it is enough to construct divisions, 

 of either brick or stone, exposed to its rays, in an inclined position, say 

 10 yards long and 2 yards wide; the divisions or apartments are built 



