The color is also a valuable adjunct in determining the ripeness of the raisin grapes. Fully ripe and perfect fruit should be amber yellow, somewhat transparent and waxy. If this color is combined with great sweetness, and in Muscatels with absence of acidity, we can be sure that the grapes are ripe. Some grapes do, however, especially when too much exposed to the sun, acquire the yellow amber tint without being sweet, but they are readily distinguished from the ripe grapes by their being of smaller size and harder, tasteless and acid. Such grapes never develop into good, mature grapes, and do not make good raisins. I may also remark that not all ripe grapes become amber colored. Those that grow in the shade and on very damp ground remain always green, although they acquire a certain sweetness, and will make good raisins. The Muscat grapes will make salable raisins even if not fully ripe, but in order to make superior and good raisins all grapes should be “dead” ripe, especially so if the grapes are to be dipped in lye. If unripe or partially ripe grapes of Muscats and Sultanas are dipped, they make very poor and red raisins; it would have been better-if they had never been dipped. This is especially the case with the Sultana, which begins to ripen and is eatable long before the Muscat, but which only makes a good dipped raisin after the Muscat has been ripe for some time. Three or four days make a great difference sometimes in the amount of sugar in the grapes, and consequently in the quality of the raisins, and the experienced grower will keep his grapes on the vines as long as possible to attain the greatest possible amount of sweetness. But on the other hand it takes judgment to foresee how sweet the grapes will be, as in unfavorable seasons they will not attain their full sweetness even if allowed to hang long on the vines. To know the time after which the grapes do not increase in sugar requires much experience and acquaintance with the locality where they are grown. In this respect different years vary very much.