Malaga.
—This is not a real raisin grape, but of late years raisins have been made from it and found both fair in quality and profitable to the grower. The Malaga is a heavy bearer of one crop of very large but loose bunches. There is no second crop. The berries are large, oval, not tapering, the flesh is meaty and solid, very sweet, but with no decided flavor. The skin is thick and green, when ripe amber yellow, with thick bloom. Raisins made of this grape are very large, and the bunches are also large and solid, and the berries are not easily torn off. When sweated, the skin becomes thinner, and the quality improves generally. The Malaga is a very hardy vine, not particular about soil, a strong grower, bears well, and its grapes ripen at the time of the Muscats. But, as there is no second crop, the vintage of the Malaga will be over long before that of the Muscats, and out of the way of rain or fog. This is what makes this grape so valuable. Four cents per pound has been paid for these raisins in sweatboxes for the past two years, and at that price this grape pays better than the Muscats. The Malaga raisins are also very heavy and solid. I am satisfied that there will be a good demand for this raisin, especially among consumers, who prefer a bunch raisin, but who do not care to pay for the expensive packing which is necessary to preserve the Muscat bunches. The Malaga raisin could be sold in bulk, and still would not break up. The Malaga grape is grown in many places in California, and is used principally as a table grape; it has only been cured and dried into raisins in Fresno. According to A. B. Butler, this grape is grown in Malaga for table purposes.
Feher Szagos.
—Feher Szagos raisins have been in the market for several years, and have brought in sweatboxes from three to three and a half cents per pound. This grape is a heavy bearer and grower, branches erect but slender, leaves glossy, entire, bunches medium to small, pointed and solid. The berries are greenish amber, medium, oval, pointed, with thin skin, and few and small seeds. The flesh is not firm, but dries well, and when dried the raisin is very good, with a peculiar flavor of its own. They are only used for cooking, but are nevertheless rather good raisins to eat, and their seeds are so soft that they are not objectionable. The bearing quality of the Feher Szagos is very heavy, as much as sixteen tons of green grapes having been raised to the acre, and from ten to twelve tons is a common yield. It ripens with the Muscat, and the vine bears only one crop. At three cents per pound, the Feher Szagos is a profitable grape. The native home of this variety is Hungary or Southern Austria, the name meaning, in Hungarian, White Jack. In Fresno it is grown quite extensively, having originally been planted as a wine grape. As such it is highly valued, producing an abundance of highly flavored sherry.
Other Raisin Grapes.
—In Asia Minor, the Grecian Islands, Morea, Italy, Spain and Morocco, there are grown a number of varieties of grapes which are cured into raisins and sold as such. Many of these are little, if any, better than our dried grapes, while others again are superior, more resembling the regular raisins. Among the latter we have the Spanish Black and Red, and the Smyrna and Turkish Black and Red. Some of them belong to the Muscat family, probably resembling Black and Red Muscats, but of these varieties we have no particular information, and our growers will probably not lose much by avoiding a more intimate acquaintance with them.
DISEASES AND INSECT PESTS.
The following short account of the diseases and insect pests is not intended to be exhaustive, and is only intended to refer to the raisin districts of our State. I have not included accounts of the phylloxera nor of other insects or fungi which do not exist in these districts, but which may be troublesome in other parts of the State. Strictly scientific descriptions have purposely been left out, but I have endeavored to make the popular account as correct and as condensed as possible. Of insects and fungi I have only enumerated those which are of importance through the damage they occasion from time to time. Those which prey on the vines, but which cause no great damage, and which the grower need not prepare himself to fight, have here been left out.