466 
California  Raisins. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1890. 
Muscat  of  Alexandria.  From  these,  and  especially  from  the  second, 
much  wine  is  made.  But  they  supply  also  the  raw  material  for  the 
millions  of  boxes  of  raisins  that  are  each  year  shipped  from  Cali- 
fornia to  the  markets  of  the  world. 
Where,  when  and  by  whom  raisins  were  first  successfully  made 
for  market  is  not  well  established,  but  it  was  probably  in  1863,  and 
the  grapes  used  were  Feher  Zagos  and  Muscat.  For  some  years 
thereafter,  however,  little  interest  was  taken  in  the  subject.  A  few 
raisins  were  made,  experimentally,  out  of  curiosity,  or  to  supply  a 
small  local  demand.  That  was  all.  Not  until  1873  was  the  work 
taken  up  in  thorough  earnest.  But  in  that  year  it  was  entered  into 
extensively  in  several  parts  of  the  State  at  the  same  time  and  the 
result  was  the  production  of  6,000  boxes,  or  120,000  pounds,  of 
pretty  good  raisins.  There  was  much  to  discourage  the  growers, 
however.  They  were  trying  to  make  raisins  according  to  the 
methods  practised  in  Spain  and  elsewhere  in  the  Old  World.  But 
these  methods  would  not  work  well  here.  Nor,  indeed,  were 
American  manufacturers  willing  to  follow  out  the  full  formula  of 
Spain,  which  involved  some  utterly  disgusting  details.  And  as  yet 
they  had  discovered  no  new  system  of  their  own.  For  several  years 
there  was  much  work  and  no  profit.  Sometimes  a  man  would  turn 
out  as  good  raisins  as  ever  were  seen.  Then  he  would  make  a  lot 
that  were  too  moist,  and  they  would  mould  and  rot ;  while  a  third 
attempt  would  result  in  dry,  shrivelled  things  that  rattled  about  in 
the  boxes  like  so  many  hickory  nuts.  Many  men  grew  quite  dis- 
couraged, and  either  rooted  up  their  vineyards  altogether  or  took 
to  making  wine.  But  there  were  some  who  stubbornly  persevered 
in  trying  to  make  raisins. 
Their  labors  were  at  last  rewarded  by  the  discovery  that  the  best 
formula  was  no  formula  at  all.  That  is,  that  raisins  were  to  be  made 
best  by  the  simplest  possible  process,  without  any  dipping  into 
strange  mixtures,  or  spreading  on  gravel  beds,  or  any  such  work. 
The  fruit  must  be  just  at  the  proper  point  of  ripeness,  and  the  less 
it  is  handled  the  better.  The  bunches  are  laid  on  wooden  trays, 
about  20  pounds  to  the  tray,  and  thus  exposed  to  the  sunlight  and 
sun  heat  for  several  days.  Six  to  eight  days  generally  suffice,  but 
considerable  skill  is  required  to  determine  when  exactly  the  proper 
stage  of  drying  has  been  reached.  Then  they  go  into  what  are 
called  the  sweat-boxes  for  a  week  or  so,  where  the  moisture  that 
