Note 91 — Chapter II · AMERICAN GRAPES

A raisin is a dried and cured grape. Raisin-making is a simple process. The grapes are arranged on shallow trays, and placed in the sun to dry, being turned now and then by placing an empty tray on a full one and turning both over after which the top tray is removed. When the grapes are properly dried they are put in bins to sweat preparatory to packing and shipping. The finishing touch in the drying is sometimes given in curing-houses, however, to avoid injury from rain or dust. Seeding, grading, packing and selling are now separate industries from growing and curing. At present all raisins are made from varieties of the Old World grape, no American sort having been found suitable for raisin-making. A variety adapted for making a raisin, something better than simply a “dried grape”, must have a large percentage of sugar and solids, a thin skin, and a high flavor. American grapes lack in sugar content and have a skin so thick and tough that the fruit does not cure properly for a good raisin. The raisin industry in the United States is carried on only in California, the great bulk of the crop coming from the San Joaquin Valley and a few of the southern counties of that State. Formerly the raisins used in this country were wholly imported; now this product of the grape is exported and in increasing quantities. The annual production of raisins is in the neighborhood of 100,000,000 pounds.