10(5 SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



The grape phylloxera has been and continues as the most serious 

 menace to vinifera vineyards. Against this the vineyards are completely 

 insured, by establishing them on resistant stocks. 



Picking Grapes. Grapes for all purposes, except those converted into 

 raisins and dried grapes, are picked in boxes or trays and taken either to 

 the winery, syrup juice or canning plants or packing house. 



For wine, syrup and unfermented juice purposes, the vintage begins 

 when the grapes have about readied the ripening stage and continues 

 until all are harvested and those picked last are overripe and beginning 

 to shrivel. The higher the sugar content of the grapes, the richer the 

 unfermented juice and the finer the quality of the wines made from them. 



Table grapes for shipping purposes and grapes for canning and other 

 culinary purposes are picked at the stage of ripeness, which the purposes 

 they are used for demand; in each instance, however, earlier than for wine, 

 syrup and juice purposes. 



In the packing houses, table grapes for shipping purposes are care- 

 fully picked over, all decayed and inferior berries being carefully removed. 

 In the American Native grape region, they are then packed, shipped and 

 sold in grape baskets. 



In California, there are two distinct lines in the table grape business, 

 namely, grapes that are packed, shipped and sold in crates and sold as 

 generally are those from the American Native grape regions, without 

 being stored and as soon as the shipments reach their destination. 



The other line of California table grapes are the late ripening storage 

 grapes, which are packed with specially prepared red wood sawdust 

 into either drums or small barrels, holding from 30 to 50 pounds of grapes. 

 These may be shipped and sold directly, or after being picked, are some- 

 times placed in cold storage in California before shipment in refrigerated 

 cars, or shipped in such cars and placed in eastern storage houses on 

 their arrival, to be sold at the most opportune time. This line of packed 

 grapes already cuts into the shipments from foreign countries, reaching 

 this country as so-called Malaga grapes packed in cork dust. It is only 

 a matter of relatively short time when all such Malaga grapes will be 

 grown in and supplied by California. 



Almost all the raisins and dried grapes are produced in Caltfornia, 

 in the raisin belt of which the climatic conditions are ideal for sucn pur- 

 pose. The summers are usually rainless and the nights so free from dew 

 or moisture that a piece of tissue paper, after lying out all night, is crisp 

 and stiff the next morning without a particle of moisture showing. There 

 are some showers in October. Frequently it rains enough in November 

 to cause considerable damage to partly dried raisins or grapes. 



In California, picking raisin grapes commences the middle of August, 

 the season often lasting into November. It takes from three to four 

 pounds of grapes to make one pound of raisins or dried grapes. The time 

 necessary for drying and curing a tray of raisins is about three weeks, 



