The Crop.
—The grapes begin to ripen in the middle of August, or from the middle of August to the first of September, and at the latter date the first boxes of cured and packed raisins are generally heralded through the press. The first grapes dry in from seven to ten days, but the later grapes require three weeks or more. The drying continues through September, and for the second crop through October and even in November, or until the rains set in. The grapes are dried on trays two by three or three by three feet. The sweatboxes are generally two by three feet and from six to eight inches high. A large number of brands are packed, such as Imperial Clusters, Dehesas, Layers, Loose and Seedless. The common price for raisins in sweatboxes is from three and a half to six cents, five and five and a half cents being the average for good layers. Good land for raisin purposes can be had for one hundred dollars per acre, but nearer the town of Fresno is held higher. Bearing raisin vineyards have changed hands at as high as $1,000 per acre. From one hundred to two hundred and fifty boxes of raisins are realized per acre, and the profits vary from seventy-five to two hundred and fifty dollars per acre, according to location, soil, management, etc. From thirty to fifty dollars per acre is spent yearly in many vineyards. Few dipped raisins are produced. Some dipped Sultanas have brought seven cents in the San Francisco market. Last season about four hundred and seventy-five thousand boxes were produced in the Fresno district, and some twenty thousand boxes more in the other parts of the San Joaquin valley.
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY AND RIVERSIDE.
Location and Acreage.
—San Bernardino county, California, is entirely an inland county, sheltered by low and high hills from the ocean. Fogs and dew are rare, in places unknown, and the county offers unusual advantages for raisin-growing. The vineyards are widely distributed through the county in different localities or raisin centers, all of which are greatly similar as to climatic conditions, except as regards altitude. The San Bernardino vineyards are the highest elevated above the sea of any in California. Below will be found a list of the raisin centers in the county, with the number of acres and their altitude above the sea. It must be understood that each locality has a large extension as regards altitude, and varies in many instances several hundred feet; this fact being indeed a characteristic of the San Bernardino county vineyards. The raisin centers in San Bernardino county are:
| Riverside, | 1,500 | acres. | Altitude | above | sea, | 900 | to | 1,000 | feet. |
| Redlands, | 800 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 1,200 | “ | 1,600 | feet. |
| Highlands, | 400 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 1,500 | feet. | ||
| Ontario, | 500 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 983 | “ | 2,350 | feet. |
| Cucamonga, | —— | “ | “ | “ | “ | 900 | “ | 1,500 | feet. |
| Etiwanda, | 700 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 1,200 | feet. | ||
There are several other localities where raisin vineyards are found in smaller quantities, and it is safe to estimate the number of acres in the county at over five thousand. Nearly all these vineyards are situated on mesa lands, by which is meant the lands situated between the river bottoms and the foothills. As a consequence, the surface water is never near the top, but generally far down, and even continued irrigation would not be liable to raise it much higher, as the water will as rapidly drain off through the substrata, which generally consists of sandy soil and gravel. The land is in fact well drained, and differs in this respect from the plains of the San Joaquin valley. In Riverside, the surface water is from thirty to fifty feet down, and only in one or two vineyards situated deep down in the arroyo is the surface water as shallow as ten feet. These latter vineyards are never irrigated. In Redlands the surface water is at an average of thirty feet on the mesa lands. In Ontario the surface water is even deeper, and found at from seventy to eight hundred feet, and the shallowest water in the district is, according to Mr. W. E. Collins, twenty-five feet below the surface. It is the general belief in the San Bernardino district that deep water is necessary for, or at least beneficial to, raisin grapes, and that shallow surface water is conducive to all kinds of diseases. In this I cannot agree, as contrary to my own experiences and to the experiences of the Spanish growers.
Climate.
—As regards temperature, there is some difference in the various districts. A true comparison between them and other districts is almost impossible, as the signal service thermometers are placed at unequal heights above the ground, and in localities with very different characteristics. It can, however, be said that the winter climate of the district is much milder during the winter than that of the plains of the San Joaquin valley, and very similar to the Orange county and the San Diego districts. In Riverside and Redlands, the thermometer seldom reaches one hundred and nine degrees Fahrenheit in the shade during the summer, and in winter seldom goes below twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit, while twenty-eight or twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit is no unusual occurrence once every year, but is considered the extreme of the season. It may thus be seen that raisin vineyards and orange orchards may be and actually are grown side by side in every part of San Bernardino county, and this is a distinct characteristic of the district, which, however, it shares with Orange and San Diego counties. The warmest months are August and September, and October is generally fine for drying. So is November, and only twice (in 1885 and 1889) has there been any serious difficulty in drying the grapes. In two other years the crop has suffered slightly, but during the majority of seasons in the months of November there has not been any rain on the mesa lands, and it is this absence of fall rains which makes it possible for the raisin-grower to dry his crop without any other appliances than raisin-trays. Dew and fogs are very rare, and occur only very seldom during the summer months. When they do occur at this time, they are of but short duration, and last perhaps only from five to seven o’clock in the morning. In the fall of the year, in October and November, the desert wind blows warm and dry, and hastens the drying of the raisins. It may blow three or four times during the season, but has also been known to be entirely absent. The rain in the winter season is light, in Riverside twelve inches being an exceptionally wet season. From six to eight inches are the usual rainfall, while again the actual average for Riverside is six and one-fourth inches. In Ontario the rainfall in 1887 was 8.21 inches, and in 1888 9.23 inches.