13. _Faros_, from Algarve, in Portugal, not known in this country. _c._ _Dried in the shade._ 14. _Huasco_ raisin, from Chile. To this list might be added many more varieties of less importance. RAISIN DISTRICTS. _FOREIGN DISTRICTS._ RAISINS IN ANCIENT TIMES. Previous to the production of raisins in California within the last twenty years, the raisin industry of the world was entirely confined to the Mediterranean district of Europe and Asia. At that period, however, raisin grapes became more disseminated, and raisins were produced to begin with in small quantities in widely distant countries, such as Chile, Australia and California. By virtue of their climatic conditions, the Mediterranean countries were the only parts of Europe where raisin culture could be successfully carried on, though it is almost certain that the original home of the raisin grapes must be looked for elsewhere. In searching for the original habitat for the ancient varieties of raisin grapes, we must look further east to ancient Persia, or to the tablelands of Western Asia generally. In remotest antiquity, grape culture was carried on there, and in the ancient records of travelers in those countries we find mentioned dried and seedless grapes. We can trace the origin of two varieties of raisin grapes to the beginning of our era, which must then already have attained perfection. As has been mentioned before, Pliny spoke of a small, sweet and remarkable grape grown by the Greeks, evidently the “currant;” he also mentions _Uva Zibebae_ and _Uva Alexandria_. The Latins generally spoke of Uvae Apiariae or Uvae Muscae, our present Muscatels or dried grapes generally. This carries us back fully nineteen centuries. But we may well believe, even in want of records, that the drying of grapes was practiced centuries before. MODERN RAISIN DISTRICTS. Leaving remote antiquity, it was only in the Mediterranean basin, and in comparatively modern times, that the drying of grapes developed to an important industry, and in more recent times yet that grapes were exported to Northern Europe. While thus the industry is old, it was not until the eleventh century, at the time of the Crusades, that it became important. The returning knights brought with them taste for and acquaintance with the products of the East. Northern Europe became the consumers of raisins, regarding them as the greatest luxuries, only to be afforded by the rich. It has been reserved for our time to make the raisin a necessity even in humbler homes. The perfection to which the raisin industry has attained is of modern origin not yet half a century old.