But the summer is one long holiday, as there is little to do
to the vines from early May until August. Then comes picking time. From
all the country round gather men and women, boys and girls, and the work
begins.
To be a successful raisin grower and packer, one must take care in all
little things. The workman who neglects to cut from the branch the
imperfect or bad grapes, or who lays the fruit in the trays so that it
will be in heaps or overlapped, is apt to be soon discharged. After
about a week of exposure to the sun and air, the grapes are turned by
placing an empty tray over a full one, and reversing the positions. Then
after a few days longer in the sun, the fruit goes to the sweat-box, a
hundred pounds to the box, and is placed in a room in the packing house,
where it lies about ten days. The bunches go into this room unequally
dried, with still a look and taste of grape about them, but after this
sweating process they come out uniform in appearance, rich, sugary,
tempting,--the raisins of commerce, with little suggestion of the fruit
from which they came. Then they are boxed.
There are generally three grades: very choice clusters, ordinary and
imperfect bunches, and loose raisins.
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