grading of raisins, as upon this depends much of their marketable value.  The large packing houses have done good work in enforcing this rule, and the chief sinners who still indulge in careless packing are small growers with poor facilities.  Probably the next few years will see a great increase in the number and size of the packing houses which will prepare and market most of Fresno’s raisin crop.  The growers also will avail themselves of the co-operative plan, for which the colony system offers peculiar advantages.

Geometrical progression is the only thing which equals the increase of Fresno’s raisin product.  Eighteen years ago it was less than 3,000 boxes.  Last year it amounted to 1,050,000 boxes, while this year the product cannot fall below 1,250,000 boxes.  New vineyards are coming into bearing every year, and this season has seen a larger planting of new vineyards than ever before.  This was due mainly to the stimulus and encouragement of the McKinley bill, which was worth an incalculable sum to those who are developing the raisin industry in California.  Besides raisins, Fresno produced last year 2,500,000 gallons of wine, a large part of which was shipped to the East.  The railroad figures show the wealth that is produced here every year from these old wheat fields.  The dried fruit crop last year was valued at $1,123,520; raisins, $1,245,768; and the total exports were $8,957,899.

The largest bearing raisin vineyard in Fresno is that of A.B.  Butler, who has over 600 acres in eight year-old vines.  The pack this year will be fully 120,000 boxes.  As each box sells for an average of $1.75, the revenue from this vineyard will not fall far below a quarter of a million.  One of the finest places in the county is Colonel Forsythe’s 160-acre vineyard, from which 40,000 boxes are packed.  Forsythe has paid so much attention to the packing of his raisins that his output commands a fancy price.  This year he wanted to go to Europe, so he sold his crop on the vines to a packing house, receiving a check for $20,000.  These, of course, are the great successes, but nearly every small raisin grower has made money, for it costs not over 11/2 cents per pound to produce the raisin, and the price seldom falls below 6 cents per pound.  Good land can be secured in Fresno at from $50 to $200 per acre.  The average is $75 an acre for first-class raisin land that is within ten miles of any large place.  It costs $75 an acre to get a raisin vineyard into bearing.  In the third year the vines pay for cultivation, and from that time on the ratio of increase is very large.  Much of the work of pruning, picking, and curing grapes is light, and may be done by women and children.  The only heavy labor about the vineyard is the plowing and cultivating.  Fresno is a hot place in the summer, the mercury running up to 110 degrees in the shade, but this is a dry heat, which does not enervate, and, with proper protection for the head, one may work in the sun all day, without any danger of sunstroke.