In picking the bunches, great care should be taken, much more than is at present in use. It is always best to begin picking in the poorest part of the vineyard, as it will take some time for the pickers to learn; they are almost certain to pick in the beginning too many green grapes. The poorest part of the vineyard is also apt to have the ripest grapes. The large, fine bunches should be handled with the utmost care, in order that the bloom of the grapes may not be injured. The bunches generally should be handled by the stems only, or, if this is impracticable, by the stem as much as possible. In separating a large bunch from the vine, the bunch should be cut as close to the stem as possible, and at the end of the stem of the bunch there should remain a portion of that broader part by which the bunch is attached to the main branch. There is nothing prettier on a bunch of raisins than this broad end of the bunch; it gives an idea of strength and oddity to the raisin cluster, showing the buyer at a glance that it is a cluster which was once solidly attached to the vine. Many raisin-packers place this broad end of the bunch so as to protrude above or between the berries, as if inviting the purchaser to take hold of it and thus lift the luscious bunch out of the box. With the poorer and smaller bunches, no such care in cutting need be exercised, and it would be to no benefit to so cut a small, poor bunch that it would cause the purchaser to believe it was a large bunch. Poorer bunches might therefore be cut with short stems. As to the handling of the bunches, the intelligent grower will soon learn how to instruct his men. If vine branches interfere with the lifting of the bunch from the vine, some of them may be cut without any injury to the vine, but too many branches cut this way will cause a new growth to start, which often is derived from the best fruit buds for the ensuing season, and which always is apt to be injured from frost. A picker should average not less than fifty trays a day of cleaned and assorted grapes. At this rate the picking of twenty pounds of grapes costs about two and a half cents. Some persons employing white labor claimed to have lowered the cost of picking to one and three-quarter cents per tray of twenty pounds, but I failed to learn how these grapes had been handled, cleaned and assorted. The picking of the grapes is facilitated by previous care given the vines. Neglected and entangled vines are much more difficult and expensive to pick than those which have been properly cared for and correctly pruned the season before. The same may be said as regards vines between the branches of which weeds have been allowed to grow. In picking from such vines, the grapes are always torn, the best bunches destroyed and many grapes wasted on the ground. [Illustration: Raisin Vineyard Truck.]