The Raisin Industry: A practical treatise on the raisin grapes, their history, culture and curingEisen, Gustavus A.
History
The Raisin Industry: A practical treatise on the raisin grapes, their history, culture and curing
Eisen, Gustavus A.
Raisins; Viticulture -- California
The average size of a colony lot is twenty acres. Many settlers own two
or three lots, a few owning four or five. But it must not be understood
that the whole of these lots are planted to raisin grapes. While most of
the larger tracts are almost exclusively planted to raisin grapes, the
smaller farms of twenty acres contain as a rule only a few acres of
vines, the balance being occupied by alfalfa, berries, garden, fruit
trees, and yard for houses and barns. From three to fifteen acres of
raisin-vines are found on every twenty-acre farm; none is without its
patch of raisin-vines. We step off and inspect many of the places, large
as well as small. Magnificent vineyards are owned by T. C. White, one of
the oldest and most successful vineyardists, and by other parties, only
second in importance to his. The vineyard of the late Miss Austin is yet
in its prime, the evergreen trees and hedges being as inviting as in
days of old. New vineyards which have not yet come into bearing are seen
on every side, while in places whole orchards or single rows of trees
have yielded to the axe to be replaced by the better-paying
raisin-vines.
Some of the best-paying and largest vineyards are found east of Fresno
City. From the very outskirts of the city we pass through raisin
vineyards, very few fields being planted with anything else. Near the
town some vineyards have given place to town lots, and whole villages
are growing up in the old vineyards. We pass by the large vineyard of
Frank Ball, containing about 120 acres, all in vines except a small
reserve for house, barn and alfalfa field. Adjoining on the same road is
the Bretzner vineyard of forty odd acres, the vines loaded with grapes.
We turn to the left and, passing the vineyards of Merriam and Reed, see
on our left the magnificent Cory vineyard of eighty acres, bordered by
a wonderfully beautiful row of umbrella trees, with crowns as even as
veritable gigantic umbrellas, and through the foliage of which not a ray
of light can penetrate. A little farther on, also to the left, is the
Gordon vineyard, lined by fan palms and fig trees. A large sign across
the main road announces that we now enter the Butler vineyard, the
largest and most famous vineyard in the State, with its six hundred
acres nearly all in vines,--the largest vineyard in one body and owned
by one man in the world. Magnificent avenues of poplars, magnolias and
fan palms stretch in various directions leading to the outbuildings, of
which the packing and drying houses appear most prominently. Mr.
Butler’s home is one of the most attractive, shaded by umbrella trees
and fantastic fan palms, and surrounded by flowers and evergreens. From
his vineyard alone over five hundred carloads of raisins have been
shipped, the yearly product being over one hundred thousand boxes of
raisins,--a thousand tons. The vineyard now swarms with laborers; the
teams wait in long lines to load the ready raisin-boxes, while the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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