Views from Col. Wm. Forsyth’s Raisin Vineyard, Near Fresno: Residence, Lake, Raisin Dryer, Packing House.
All of the packing is done by women, while the men do the carting of the raisins from the vineyards to the packing-houses. During the balance of the year, when there is no more work in the packing-houses, these very men occupy themselves with the sardine fishery, while their wives then dress the sardines and pack them in oil. They have thus work all the year round,—an absolute necessity in a country where the wages are so small, and where the poor man has no chance to save up a capital. The wages paid for packing in Denia is only fifteen cents per day; while in Malaga the same work commands from forty to sixty cents per day. In some of the warehouses in Denia, from two to three hundred women are employed, as well as a number of men. The boxes now used are halves of twenty-eight pounds, or quarters of fourteen pounds each. The large or whole boxes of fifty-six pounds each are no longer in use. The raisins are all packed “off-stalk,” or, as we say, “loose.” Bunch or stem raisins, or “on-stalk” raisins, are seldom seen. This great improvement in packing is of recent origin, and is due entirely to the influence of English merchants. Some thirty years ago, the raisin industry of Valencia had so deteriorated, that it threatened to entirely cease. The cause of the deterioration was principally the habit of the buyers to pay for crops, not according to the quality of the raisins, but according to the quantity. The small farmer with a few hundred pounds of raisins carefully cured was paid less, or at least not any more, than the man who had hundreds of tons carelessly cured. As a consequence, it was to no one’s interest to take any particular pains in curing. The raisins deteriorated; no care was paid to packing; anything, almost, stalks, dirt and bruised berries were dumped in boxes together; brands, trade-marks and labels were unknown. The whole business was apparently going to ruin. The orders from England became less and less every year. Those from America almost ceased. The “equality price” or “average price,” which has been so much in vogue in California, actually ruined the Valencia raisin industry. We ought to take a lesson from them, and change this system in time, or we will be in the same bad fix as they were.
The improvement in Valencia raisins was entirely due to the energetic efforts of English gentlemen. Mr. George Graham, agent for an English firm, established himself in Valencia, investigated the raisin business, and, seeing the true cause of the ruin, set himself to work to remedy the same. He introduced better methods in growing, curing and packing; and through his efforts a better price was paid for a better grade of raisins, and it was not long before the raisin business was on an entirely different footing. The object of the grower was from that on, not only to increase the quantity, but to increase the quality as well. To begin with, the raisins were shipped off-stalk or loose; but the boxes were not faced. Now the raisin boxes are all faced, and the raisins are carefully selected and assorted. As a consequence, the Denia trade has of late years increased enormously, until at present all the land available has been planted to raisins. There is at present but little or no first-class raisin land left in Denia, and it looks as if the raisin production there could not be further expanded.
Export and Production.
—Although the raisin industry had long existed in the province of Valencia, it was only in late years that it assumed an importance. They were already known as Duracinae by the Romans. Re-introduced or improved by the Arabs or Moors, it soon became a prominent industry, and the export of raisins to England was already of some consequence in the time of William and Mary. In the year 1638, Lewis Roberts, in his merchant map of commerce, informs us that Denia raisins cost eighteen rials or three shillings per hundred weight. In 1664, Gandia raisins were quite famous, and were known as Pasas. At the end of the last century, the raisins from Denia and Liria reached forty thousand quintals, or two thousand tons, distributed as follows: Spain, six thousand; France, six thousand; England, twenty-eight thousand,—equal to one million, four hundred and thirty thousand boxes, forty thousand quintals, or two thousand tons. In 1862, the raisin export from Valencia had dwindled down to seven thousand tons. In 1876, it had again risen to nineteen thousand tons, and in 1883 to forty thousand tons. Of these, nine hundred and seventy-nine thousand boxes were exported to the United States, one million, three hundred and eighty-five thousand were sent to England, and four hundred and thirty-six thousand found their way to other parts of Europe and Spain. In 1888, the yield was two million, three hundred and sixteen thousand boxes of twenty-eight pounds each, equal to thirty-two thousand, four hundred and twenty-four tons. If packed in twenty-pound boxes, this crop would have equaled three million, two hundred and forty thousand, four hundred boxes, or four times as much as California produced at the same time. The crop of 1889 is calculated to have reached two million, eight hundred thousand boxes of twenty-eight pounds each.
When we remember that this class of raisins is as yet hardly produced in California, and that the nine hundred and seventy-nine thousand boxes or more imported could and should be supplied by us, it would seem that our fears of overproduction will not immediately be realized. The tendency of the raisin market is now to supplant these Valencia dipped raisins with California undipped or sun-dried raisins, the California Sultanas being considered superior for the same purpose that Valencias were formerly used.
CORINTH AND CURRANTS.
Historical and Geographical Notes.
—The principal and only raisins of any great commercial importance which are produced by Greece are the currants. We have already spoken of their name, and its supposed origin from the town of Corinth, and of their having been mentioned by Pliny in the year 75 A. D. The currants must thus very early have been of considerable importance as a commercial product, although the great increase in their production is of more recent date. The crusades which brought the nations of the North in contact with the Orient and the South also spread the knowledge of the Grecian currants to the distant parts of Europe. After the Latin conquest, currants became a commercial article, and we have every reason to suppose that, as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, currants had reached the English shores, and that in the middle of the fourteenth century the English trade was fully established. Raysins of Corauntz were quoted in 1374 at two pence and three farthings per pound, equivalent to one dollar and twenty-five cents in our money at its present value. In 1513, the first English consul was appointed at Chios, and from that time on a direct traffic was maintained between the Grecian Islands and the North of Europe. In 1582, Hakluyt writes that efforts had been made to introduce the coren plant or vine into England, but that the same failed to fruit. The first introduction of the Zante vine into England is supposed by Anderson to have taken place in 1533. In the end of the sixteenth century, the currant traders were in full intercourse with the Venetians on the Island of Zante, and the Turks on the mainland or Morea. In 1581, the Levant Company received a monopoly in the trade of the small fruits called currants, being the raysins of Corinth. According to Wheler, who traveled in the Ionian Islands in 1675, Zante produced enough currants to charge five or six vessels, Cephalonia three or four, and Nathaligo, Missolonghi and Patros one each. Some few were also brought down from the Gulf of Lepanto.