AMERICAI^ AGRICULTURIST. 
[Februaey 
66 
The Chick-Pea.—“ Coffee Plant.” 
The Chick-pea (C'icer arietinwn), one of the oldest 
of cultivated plants, every now and then is sent us 
to know what it is, or by some one who has re¬ 
ceived it as the “ eolfee-plant,” to know its value 
as a substitute for coffee. The Chiek-pea was 
hardly known in this country until about twenty 
years ago, when some enterprising person adver¬ 
tised it as the “coffee-plant,” and advised every 
one to grow his own coffee. The Chick-pea is re¬ 
lated to the common pea, and like that, is an annual. 
THE CHICK-PEA {CiceraHetinum). 
It grows about a foot and a half high, and is cov¬ 
ered with fine hairs. The engraving of a small 
branch shows the shape of the leaves and the small 
pods, which contain one, or at most, two seeds. 
These are rather larger than common peas; they 
are so strongly wrinkled that they have been com¬ 
pared to ram’s heads. This has given the plant its 
specific name, arietinum. The Chick-pea is culti¬ 
vated in all warm countries. In India it is sold as 
a food for horses under the name of “ gram.” It 
is cultivated in Mexico, where as “ garabanza,” 
the Spanish name, it is esteemed as a luxury. 
We have eaten it there and found it a very 
coarse food, far inferior to the fnjoles, or beans 
of the country. The reputation of the Chick¬ 
pea as a substitute for coffee has not yet died 
out, and we are often asked about it. There 
is no substitute for coffee. It is either coffee 
or no coffee. Still, for a warm, colored drink. 
Chick-pea is just as good as roasted rye,' brown- 
bread crumbs, or parched Indian corn—and no bet¬ 
ter. Any starchy grain, when roasted, will give a 
colored infusion, but it is not coffee. As the 
Chick-pea belongs to a warm country, and its yield 
is small, it is not likely to gain a prominent place 
among our crops for “ coffee ” or other purpose. 
Eaisin Making in California. 
Mr. George Husmann, so long identified with 
grape culture in Missouri, a few years ago removed 
to California, where he manages a large vineyard. 
In preparing a revised edition of his “ Grape-Grow¬ 
ing and Wine-Making,” he has given several chap¬ 
ters upon grape-growing and wine-making in Cali¬ 
fornia, which add materially to the size of the work, 
and essentially increases its value. Very few are 
aware of the vast proportions the making of raisins 
has assumed in California. Some persons have sev¬ 
eral hundred acres in vines, the fruit of which is con¬ 
verted into raisins, and many more vineyards 
planted for the same purpose, will soon come into 
bearing. The following extracts from the chap¬ 
ter on “ Raisin-making,” will give an idea of the 
manner of carrying on this important industry: 
Raisins are made from the Muscatella, Gordo 
Blanco, and Muscat of Alexandria, preferably of the 
former; also a seedless raisin, highly esteemed, is 
made from the seedless Sultana. The grapes 
should be allowed to remain on the vine until quite 
ripe, and show a yellowish or golden color, and 
are more translucent than when too green. Then 
they should be carefully picked and placed upon a 
drying tray (usually two by three feet in size), and 
exposed, with an inclination toward the sun, in 
some convenient place, generally between the rows 
in the vineyard, or in some contiguous open land. 
After having been exposed a sufficient time to be¬ 
come about half dried, they are turned once in this 
manner, viz : two workmen taking an empty tray, 
place it upon a full one, holding them firmly to¬ 
gether, and with a swinging motion turn them 
over, and replace the now turned grapes in their 
former position. The turning should be done be¬ 
fore the dew is quite off of the grapes in the early 
morning; then, when the grapes have become so 
dry as to lose their ashy appearance, some being a 
little too green and some quite dry enough, they 
are, after removing those entirely too green, slid 
from the tray into large sweating boxes, having a 
thick sheet of paper between about every twenty- 
five or thirty pounds of raisins; then removed to 
the store-room,where they should remain two weeks 
or more. When ready to pack, it will be found 
that the too moist ones have parted with their sur¬ 
plus moisture, which has been absorbed by the 
stems and drier raisins. The stems are now tough 
and the raisins soft and ready to pack. They are 
carefully placed in packing frames made of iron or 
steel. The large and fair ones 
being placed carefully in the 
bottom of the frames, the 
surplus stems and imperfect 
berries cut away, then the 
average raisins are arranged in 
and weighed, placing five 
pounds in each frame, pressed 
enough to make them firm in 
the frame, but not enough to 
break the skin. They are then 
transferred to the packing- 
boxes by the aid of the mova¬ 
ble bottom to the frame. 
The complaint is sometimes 
made that the California rai¬ 
sins have tough skins, too 
large and too many seeds, lose 
flavor iu cooking, lose their 
bloom, and do not keep well. 
The most of these objections 
arise from an imperfect 
knowledge of the best varie¬ 
ties from which to make 
them. If Californians would 
confine themselves to varie¬ 
ties which centuries of ex¬ 
perience have proved to be 
best in Europe, there would 
be more satisfaction in the re¬ 
sult. Cultivation, irrigation, 
local climate, kind of soil, and 
exposure to the sun, all have 
an influence in modifying the 
characteristics of any one va¬ 
riety. Virgin soU and vigor 
of vine may make the seeds 
fuller,as it does in the cereals, 
but it should not, other things 
being equal, make skins thicker, but the contrary. 
As a soil for raisins, a rich, sandy loam is pre¬ 
ferred ; the climate should be warm ; the soil 
moist; winter irrigation in average years is quite as 
important as summer in our dry valleys. For 
safety against many kinds of insect pests, the 
phylloxera especially, a location is desirable where 
water is plenty and evenness of land surface permits 
winter submersion. In such favorable locations a 
larger berry, thinner skin, better yield, etc., will be 
the result. The vines are planted eight by eight 
feet in many locations, but growers of the greatest 
experience prefer a greater distance apart; some 
plant eight feet by ten feet, some ten by ten feet, 
thus giving greater vigor to each vine, enabling it 
to resist enemies of all kinds much more surely. 
An Almost Forgotten Fruit—The Apricot. 
One need not be very old to recollect when the 
apricot was a common fruit, and, in its season, 
abundant even in small places. Some thirty years 
ago the Apricot grew less common, and is now so 
rare that when occasionally offered in the City 
fruit stores it arrests attention, and many even 
ask the name of the strange fruit. Indeed the few 
offered come chiefly from California, and bring a 
very high price. The cause of this disappearance 
of the apricot iuthe older States, is not due to any 
conditions of climate, but to the prevalence of the 
curculio, which has so interfered with the cultiva¬ 
tion of the plum. Means were at once taken to save 
the plums, but it was not known that the same in¬ 
sect was destroying the aprieot, and the remedy 
was not applied. Now that we can have plums in 
spite of the “Little Turk,” the apricot should be 
restored to its former place among our fruits. The 
apricot was formerly placed in a distinct genus 
(Armeniaca), but botanists now include the plum, 
cherry, peach, and aprieot, in one large genus, 
Prunus, and the apricot is named Primus Armeniaca. 
The present specific, and the former generic name, 
both indicate that Armenia was thought to be the 
native country of the apricot. Recent travellers 
have failed to find any evidence that the tree is in¬ 
digenous to that country. In the latest work on 
the origin of cultivated plants (Decandolle, L'ori- 
gine des Plardes Oultivies), the author finds that the 
weight of evidence is in favor of China as the orig¬ 
inal home of the apricot. While the fruit is men¬ 
tioned by the early Greek and Roman writers, the 
records of China, some three thousand years before 
the Christian era, show that the fruit was known 
to the celestials at that early period. The apricot 
forms a small tree, not over twenty feet high, and 
is readily distinguished from the related peaeh, 
plum, ete., by its large, glossy, heart-shaped leaves. 
These are shown in the engraving, and also the 
general appearance of the fruit. It is the earliest 
of all fruit trees to flower, and on this account its 
fruiting is sometimes prevented by late spring 
frosts. In bloom it is very showy; its flowers, 
either pure white or tinted like those of the peach, 
are in great abundance. The fruit varies from 
an inch and a half to two and a half inches in di- 
ameter^ with the general aspeet of the peach, and 
THE APKICOT. 
