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pieces prevents the fruit from getting crushed. After turning, the 

 drying will proceed more rapidly, and the raisins should be watched 

 to prevent them from becoming too dry. 



When sufficiently dry the raisins are removed from the trays- 

 A ready method of ascertaining whether the berries are ready to be 

 removed is to pick up a few and roll them gently between the 

 finger and thumb. If a drop of liquid exudes at the stem end, the 

 raisins require further drying, but if jelly only shows, the raisins 

 are dry enough. 



Stemming. The next process consists in removing the stalks. 

 These will be brittle if the raisins are taken up towards the after- 

 noon, and will then break off easily. This can easily be done over 

 a j-in. sieve, which will also let through some of the rubbish. 



Winnowing. This done, and ^before the stalks get limp, the 

 loose berries are run through a winnowing machine, which separates 

 a greater portion of the stalks and grades them in sizes. 



Winnowing Eaisin Machine. 



Sweat Box. The fruit must then be sweated for a fortnight or 

 so before being packed and put away. Sweating is an operation 

 which all dried fruit must undergo. 



If the raisins on the trays are examined, some of them will be 

 found dry enough, while some may be too dry and some not 

 sufficiently cured. At this stage the sweat-box is found useful for 

 equalising the sample and making the stems tough and ready for 

 packing. The sweat-boxes are 8in. to 9in. deep and contain about 

 Icwt. of raisins. The boxes are only about two-thirds filled with 



