MISS M. F. AUSTIN.
The story of Miss M. F. Austin and her success with the Hedge Row Vineyard reads like a beautiful tale. A schoolteacher by occupation, Miss Austin possessed many prominent qualities and elevated ideas, among others that horticulture should become a business for women as well as for men. Acting upon these ideas, Miss Austin removed to Fresno in 1878 in company with a lady friend and teacher, Miss L. H. Hatch, and she began immediately to improve her Hedge Row Vineyard, a part of which had been planted two years before by Bernhard Marks, the founder of the Central California Colony. The vineyard was gradually extended until it contained one hundred acres, nearly all in Gordo Blanco vines. Miss Austin must be given credit for having improved upon many operations in the vineyard and in the packing-house. She first discovered that under proper conditions the sulphuring should be done in the flowers of the grapevines. By this method she one year largely increased her crop of grapes. In packing she showed her womanly taste and refinement, and not only succeeded in producing superior Layer and Dehesa raisins, but made several innovations in packing which to this day are imitated. Among these we may mention the packing in cartoons, and in small ornamented paper bags, which latter were again placed in paper boxes. Miss Austin and T. C. White were the originators of fancy packing in this State.
The largest pack of the Hedge Row Vineyard was seventy-five hundred boxes, while the total of one year’s pack reached sixteen thousand boxes. Miss Austin built the first raisin dryer in Fresno, and demonstrated that machine-dried raisins were a success if not a necessity as regards the last crop. The pluck and intelligence of Miss Austin soon became extensively known, and many were the ladies who, imitating her, engaged in horticulture and in the raisin industry. Fresno county and the State at large owe her a debt of gratitude for what she has done. Those who had the pleasure and honor of her friendship lost in her a dear and faithful friend, a brilliant and intelligent companion, and a person who had few equals in any path of life.