Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
The cover image has been created for this version, and is placed in the public domain.
Muscat of Alexandria Raisin Grape, First Crop. One-half Natural Size.
THE RAISIN INDUSTRY.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE
ON THE
RAISIN GRAPES,
THEIR HISTORY, CULTURE AND CURING.
By GUSTAV EISEN.
SAN FRANCISCO:
H. S. CROCKER & COMPANY, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS,
1890.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by
GUSTAV EISEN,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PREFACE.
f late years the raisin industry has been prominently before thehorticulturists of California. Many people now make their living andacquire wealth by the cultivation of the raisin grapes, and many are nowstudying the methods of cultivation, pruning, curing and packing while waitingfor their vines to bear. The literature of the raisin industry is a veryscant one, and, with the exception of a few notices in works of travel, or intreatises on general fruit culture, we find not a single book in which thisimportant and interesting industry is made the special subject of study anddiscussion. A book on the raisin industry may, therefore, be consideredtimely. I have endeavored to so write it that it would contain somethingof interest to all those connected with the growing and curing of the raisingrapes, to those who have already succeeded in building up fame andfortune, as well as to those who have just begun the cultivation of thevine, and who have as yet only realized the pleasures, but not the profits,of the industry. The historical part of the book will principally interestthe former; for the latter the practical part on cultivation, pruning, curingand packing is intended.
As our climate and other conditions differ from those of any other countryin the world, so must our methods of cultivation and curing differ fromthose practiced elsewhere. Foreign methods, while interesting and, insome respects, of great importance to us, had to be greatly modified andimproved upon before our growers succeeded in producing raisins equalingthe best from the raisin districts of the Old World. It has cost years ofexperimenting and study to attain success, as well as much money and disappointmentto many who had nothing to guide them when they commenced.
These processes by which success was achieved can now become theproperty of all, and a safe guide to even the most inexperienced beginners.The methods advocated here are the result of practical experience of theauthor, as well