_Picking._--Many vineyardists pick their raisins too green or before they are fully ripe. Not all raisins ripen at the same time, and to make the best possible raisins out of the grapes, it is necessary to pick over the vineyard several times, each time picking only the ripest grapes. In places where there are two crops of grapes, at least two pickings are absolutely necessary, and in many places two pickings are enough. The green grapes of the first crop are then left to be picked with the second crop, at which time they will probably be perfectly ripe and very choice. But if the vineyard is small and manageable, and the owner wishes to realize the most that he possibly can, he should make at least three different pickings, each time taking care only to pick those grapes which are fully ripe and which would make a first-class quality of raisins. As long as the smaller vineyardists sell their raisins in bulk at a contracted price of so much a pound for any kind or quality of raisins, we cannot expect any great improvement in the too common mode of picking, where good, bad and indifferent grapes go on the trays together. But I am certain that in a few years this will or must change. Raisins in sweatboxes will bring the price they are actually worth, and it will be to the interest of every grower to pick his grapes at the time they will make the best possible raisins, even if extra labor is required for the work. The pickers generally use small, pointed knives for separating the bunches, and they are preferable to small shears, as better enabling the picker to reach farther in between bunches and branches, and to cut the former without injuring the branch.