_Packing Layers, Top-down Method._--This method I advocate as the most proper one to use. Thin galvanized-iron trays with a drop bottom are used. On the top of the drop bottom is placed a heavy follower of metal. White’s facing-plate, turned over, can be used to great advantage, even where no facing is required. The choicest bunches are now selected and spread evenly on the bottom of the tray; other bunches are placed on top of them, and so on until the tray is full. Great care must be taken in packing so as to make the bunches fit each other and lie solid; otherwise they are very apt to be disturbed, or they will require too heavy pressure to be kept in place. When the tray is full, it is gently pressed, and the pressure kept up for a few seconds. A loose zinc plate is then placed over the tray, the latter is turned over and placed over the box, in which the necessary wrapping papers have been previously placed, the loose zinc plate is quickly withdrawn, and the contents fall into the box. The heavy follower keeps the top layer steady, and with a little care the raisins are not disturbed. The top-down method for packing layers has the following advantages over the top-up method. It gives a smooth surface on which to pack the top layer, without necessitating pressure to first create such a surface, the packing being done on a hard plate. The wrappers are not soiled, as they are not first placed in the frames. The packer is enabled to pack and select his choicest bunches for the top layer while he has plenty to select from, and any odd berries and broken or smaller bunches come naturally in the bottom of each layer. In the top-up method all such odds remain for the top, where they _must_ go in, in order to make up the required five pounds. A raisin-packer averages seventy-five trays of five pounds each per day, for which she is paid two cents each. Some pack more than this; but very excellent packing proceeds slower, and a packer of very choice layers can only pack twenty-five trays of five pounds each per day, for which a correspondingly higher price is paid. In Malaga, a trained and expert packer receives between two and three dollars per day. In California, they do not receive any more. In our raisin district, the girls are rapidly becoming expert packers, and the same ones are reëngaged year after year by the same packing-house.