From San Bernardino to Redlands is but half an hour’s ride through the bottom lands of the Santa Ana river. We approach rapidly the upper end of the valley, where the elevated mesa spreads out all around like a perfect ampitheater, backed by the loftiest mountains in Southern California. The mesa is now in close view, and Redlands, Lugonia, Terracina, Crafton, all different points of the same settlement, lie in front of us at an elevation of about fifteen hundred feet above the sea, like a map or extensive panorama, where roads, orchards and houses are so clearly and distinctly seen that they can be observed at a glance. The mesa land here slopes about four hundred feet to the mile, and the different orchards or settlements lie apparently one above the other, all in full view. If I am asked for the place in this part of the country with the finest view, with the freshest air, with the purest water, and with the coolest breezes, and where business and the comforts of life can be combined, I will say, and say it again, Redlands. In all these points there is nothing here that surpasses it, and few are the places indeed that even can pretend to equal it. From whatever point we stand, be it at the lower end of the railroad depot, at any orchard or home in the center of the settlement, or at the upper end close to the rolling hills, from every point we see every other point, some below, some above us, all equally distinct. And this extensive and magnificent view, that requires no tedious and tiresome climbing to see, extends away down the valley for sixty miles, over slightly rolling hills, over level mesas with their dark-green orchards and vineyards, over the steeper hills, over the lofty Sierra Madre range in the northwest. If we turn to the right we are immediately met by the snowy peaks and the bare walls of the San Bernardino range, here and there cut by the cañons and gorges of the tributaries of the Santa Ana river.
The business part of Redlands is as neat and tasty as any,—brick blocks and cement sidewalks, horse cars, and water under pressure.
No explanation is required to be made of the quality of the Redlands climate and soil. A trip over the settlement will reveal all to any one with open eyes. Orange orchards, young of course, but thrifty, on every side, alternating with Muscat vineyards, according to the taste of the owner; beautiful homes of the horticulturists, the stately mansions of the bank presidents and those that became wealthy quickly, and the grand view common to all,—these are some of the good things this settlement enjoys. The water for irrigation is all under pressure, either coming to the surface in open flues or in iron pipes. The orange orchards are being irrigated everywhere, in a way which should make a San Joaquin valley man stare. Iron pipes are laid all over the orchard, and at the beginning of every row of trees there is a faucet. These faucets are all opened at the same time, and a tiny stream of water issues forth and runs on each side of the young orange trees down to the other end of the check. It is left to run for several days at a time. At the other end of the check the water is not wasted, but runs into a little wooden spout at every row of trees and through the same into a cement ditch which carries the water to another place. The system of irrigation is simply perfect; if it were not so, the land could not be irrigated. With this system there is no waste, no weeds, no malaria, no hoeing nor other work of any kind. Irrigation is here as easy as the washing of your hands in a patent washstand: you open the faucet and let the water run. The general opinion by people not acquainted with the colony is that water here is very scarce; this is a mistake. There is water enough to irrigate all the land; most of it is now only running to waste to the sea; to be utilized it must only be stored. The Bear valley reservoir, when perfected, as it soon will be, will hold water enough to irrigate over twenty-six thousand acres of ground, which is about all the irrigable land tributary to Redlands. There are other reservoir sites in the mountains, and the possibilities of future irrigation can hardly be comprehended. Although young, only four years old, the upper San Bernardino colonies produce already considerable quantities of fruit. Six thousand acres are now under cultivation, eight hundred of which are in Muscat grapes, the balance mostly in oranges and other fruits. Last year they produced fifty carloads of grapes and forty carloads of raisins, and altogether about 149 carloads of fruit, dried or fresh. No better showing could be expected of any place, and there is no better advertisement of the resources of the country.
I have yet a thing to add, a thing to praise. Everywhere in the South magnificent drives are laid out, avenues are planted with shade trees, evergreens and palms, street cars take you everywhere, and the comforts of pedestrians and riders are always assured. The roads are all sprinkled, and the dust is an unknown quantity except in by-lanes and corners, where the sprinkler cannot reach. Riverside sprinkles the whole of her business streets, and her Magnolia avenue effectively and continually for about ten miles down the valley. Other places do the same, perhaps only not to as liberal an extent. In many places the tired pedestrian finds little wooden benches to rest on under a shady tree, close to a fountain of drinking water, all placed there by the kind society, W. C. T. U. Comparisons are not in place; but how many times I have wished such a thing had been met with in some other places I know of where the sun is just as hot, and where the dust is just as deep.
AN HOUR IN A PACKING-HOUSE.
The following sketch of a Fresno packing-house, where already cured raisins are bought and packed, may prove interesting to those of my readers who have not had time or opportunity to visit any similar establishment. The same kind of work is going on in each packing-house, whether it be large or small, except that the number of hands are varied. In the two or three largest packing-houses in Fresno, as many as four hundred hands are sometimes employed at one time when the work is pressing; as it slackens, less hands are used. These large city packing-houses are all situated close to the railroad; they buy the raisins already cured and dried from the colonists, who bring them in sweatboxes to town. The time of the greatest activity is from the last week in August to October 15th. The largest of these city packers are Messrs. Cook & Langley, who own packing-houses both in Riverside and Fresno; Schacht, Lemcke & Steiner, successors to George W. Meade, the oldest packing-house in Fresno, superintended by H. W. Shram; Chas. Leslie & Co., Griffin & Skelley, etc.
The pioneer packing company of Fresno, known as the Fresno Raisin & Fruit Packing Company, is doing at this time a large business. Every day five or six carloads of raisins are sent away, while a string of from twenty to thirty, two and four horse teams are waiting outside of the weighing shed to have their raisins weighed and received. These raisins come both from large and small vineyards from all over the country, but principally from the colonies, where they are the products of twenty-acre vineyards. Some of the best raisins in fact came from the smallest vineyards, where they had the best care, and where the owner has given the vineyard all his time. Mr. H. W. Shram, the superintendent of this large and old packing-house, has had years of experience in the packing business, and has followed the Fresno raisin business from its infancy. As soon as the raisin boxes are unloaded they are immediately weighed. It takes eight men to attend to this part of the business, one weighing and one clerk to keep accounts. The dried wine grapes, such as Zinfandel, Malagas, and even Sultanas, are immediately wheeled into the stemmer-house to be separated from the stems and cleaned. This stemmer is one of the largest in the State, and the only one of its kind as regards construction. It stems, cleans and assorts, in from three to four different grades, sixty tons of raisins a day. Nine men are working this machine, some feeding, others pushing wide but shallow boxes under the spouts, others again wheeling them away when full. The steam engine of ten horse-power and boiler are fired principally with separated stems, refuse raisins, and stones of peaches and apricots. The separated dried grapes are packed and shipped in eighty-pound sacks, and go in this way to the East, or even to Europe. Every day one or two carloads of these dried grapes are shipped. The Muscatel layers, however, go first to the sweating-room, before anything is done with them. This sweating-room is one hundred by fifty feet, and has the walls and floor filled around with one foot in thickness of sawdust, so as to prevent the outside air from entering. This sweating room is constantly filled with raisin boxes from floor to ceiling, and seldom contains less than forty tons of raisins at one time. It takes from ten to thirty days to equalize the moisture in the raisins as well as to properly soften the stems so that the grapes will not fall off. This is of the utmost importance. If it is not done the stems will break and the berries fall off, and instead of a first-class layer raisin we would only get a first-class loose.
After having sweated for several weeks the raisins are brought out to be assorted. We see several rows of oblong tables, each one with a border around like a deep and large tray, and with a hole at each end in which the loose raisins are pushed. It takes eighteen of these tables to receive the grapes to be assorted, and as it also takes six girls at each table, it is evident the work is one of great importance. Only girls are used, as boys and men could not as properly do the work. It takes a girl’s nimble fingers to handle the raisins, so that none break. They are also more patient, and are, in every way, suited for the work. As the raisins are being assorted, the different grades are clipped from the same bunches, and placed in different trays. Thus one and the same bunch may contain four different grades of raisins. Each one is separated at these tables, to make different brands of raisins. The trays, with five pounds of raisins each as they leave the graders, are placed in large piles on the floor, and are from there taken away at leisure, first to be packed and afterwards to the press. This is a department of its own. It takes great experience to press the raisins just so much, that they will look well, but not so much as to burst. A broken raisin will sugar and spoil, and would cause complaint and dissatisfaction. The public is constantly being educated as to what fine raisins are, and now wants only the best. Each tray is pressed, and it takes four trays to make up a box of twenty pounds. A tray is placed over the box, the sliding bottom is pulled out, and the whole cake of raisins with paper and all drop in the box below.
After the raisins are assorted they have to be packed. Twenty girls are occupied with this, the most pleasant, but also the most skillful, work in the packing-house. No bad raisins go in here, and if any there should be, they are separated and placed with a lower grade, as even one or two raisins would spoil an otherwise good box. This requires a great deal of care and attention, but the girls are being educated, and the same ones are re-engaged from year to year. Fresno is getting an army of girls educated for the business, and we find much less trouble now to get the raisins well packed than a few years ago, when everything was comparatively new. Now there is hardly a girl in any of the colonies who does not know something about raisin-packing, and who is able to make good wages during packing time. Several cents a tray are paid for packing, and many girls earn two dollars a day, while none earn less than one dollar a day. The first quality raisins are packed under the Lion Brand, while the second quality goes by the name of the Golden Gate. Both brands are equally popular and are readily sold. The loose raisins are as important as the bunches and layers. The American housewife has learned that she gets more for her money if she buys loose raisins than if she buys layers, which always contain a large percentage of stems. Loose raisins are therefore now very popular. The loose raisins have all been sweated, and the best of them have come from large, fine bunches, from which they have simply dropped off, and magnificent they look indeed as they are separated and graded into several grades, the largest of course to make the very choicest brands. The process of packing is quite different from that of packing layers. In loose, the boxes are simply filled with fifteen pounds of loose raisins; then a tray containing five pounds, and which has been faced, is placed on top, this making up twenty-pound boxes.
The facing is a most important and interesting work. It takes from forty to fifty girls to do it, and only expert hands are allowed at the facing tables. The facing consists in placing large, fine and flatted raisins in layers on top of the box, as an advertisement that the contents underneath are equally carefully assorted and choice. A careful and skillful facer can face forty boxes a day, while from twenty to thirty boxes is a low average. Mr. Shram buys raisins and dried grapes from every one who has any that are really choice. For Feherzagos three to three and one-half cents are paid, for Malagas four cents, and for Muscatels three and one-half to five cents, according to quality. All the work in the packing-house is done by piece work, and from two to five cents are paid for different qualities of the work, such as assorting, picking over, picking and facing. Four hundred girls and boys are daily employed. The present raisin pack, Mr. Shram affirms, is the best of any he has ever handled. They are shipped to every large town in the East, and are constantly increasing in demand. Besides raisins, Mr. Shram handles peaches, figs, apricots, and in fact any dried fruit we have. Tons and tons of Adriatic figs are brought from the colonies every day at six cents per pound, an enormous price when we consider the yield of a fig tree. But, says Mr. Shram, they are in demand, and as long as we can sell them again when packed and sweated to advantage we can afford to pay a good price.