between the rows of trees, I throw them off.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--Picking Oranges in California.]
Each picker carries a sack slung over one shoulder, and as fast as he
cuts off an orange, he drops it into the sack. The sacks are emptied
into the boxes, and these are loaded on to the wagon. Father pays five
cents a box for picking, and a good picker will gather about forty boxes
in a day.
We sell most of our oranges to fruit companies. These companies pack and
ship the fruit. At the packing houses the oranges are placed in tubs of
water and scrubbed with small brushes. Many women, girls, and boys work
at this. The washing is to take off dirt, and also _scale_.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Grading and Packing Oranges.]
After the oranges are washed, they are placed in a sort of trough which
is highest at the end near the tub. They roll down this trough to the
_grader_. This is a machine so arranged that the oranges pass through
different openings according to their size, and come out sorted.
In the warehouse close by they are wrapped and packed. Chinamen often do
this work. Each orange is wrapped in a separate piece of paper, which
has the brand of the company stamped upon it. It is then packed firmly
in a box. A certain number of oranges of each grade fill a box,
ninety-six of the largest grade, and about two hundred of the smallest.
Those which are too small, as well as the imperfect oranges, are
rejected. These are called _culls_. Sometimes these are sold for a low
price, and sometimes they are thrown away by wagon loads.
After the boxes are filled, they are placed in special fruit cars and
hurried to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Boston, and other cities.
Yes, the Weather Bureau is of great help to fruit growers. Of course we
have very little winter here, but oranges will not endure much cold. The
mercury falls below the freezing point but a few times each season. On
New Year's Day the temperature here was fifty-eight degrees. I looked up
the Boston temperature for the same day and found that it was only four
degrees above zero. When the Bureau predicts a sharp freeze, the farmers
build small fires in their orchards, or turn on a good deal of water.
The fires are built in small wire baskets. They make a smudge instead of
a flame. The people in the raisin districts watch the weather reports
pretty closely, for rain injures the drying grapes.
Growers have to _spray_ or _fumigate_ the trees to destroy the scale
that I spoke of which is a great enemy of the orange, to kill the
insects, and to wash off dirt. This is sometimes done by putting a great
piece of canvas over the tree, forming a sort of tent which prevents the
fumes from escaping. It was found that the ladybugs would eat the scale
and so they were brought into California from the East. They do a great
deal of good, but still we have to spray the trees.
Orange trees are raised from the seed, and the trees produced in this
way are called _seedlings_. By _budding_, a fruit much better than the
oranges grown on the seedling tree has been produced. There were five
acres of seedlings in our grove, and father budded the trees. He cut
off the limbs rather close to the trunk of the tree. Then he slipped
buds from _navel_ trees into cuts made through the bark in the end of
each limb left on the tree. He then wound cord tightly about the limb
and put on some wax. After a time a new growth started out where these
buds were placed. These new branches will bear much improved fruit.
We have a very fine variety of oranges called Washington Navels. Trees
of this variety were obtained by our government from Brazil. Two of
these were brought to Riverside, a town about seventy-five miles east of
Pasadena, and planted on a ranch belonging to a Mr. Tibbits. They did
well, and all of the trees of this variety in Southern California were
obtained from these two through budding. These trees are still living.
California and Florida are the two important orange-growing states of
our country. Father says the industry is much older in Florida than in
our state. Florida growers can ship their fruit to market much cheaper
than we can. It costs us ninety cents for each box.
Mexico, the West Indies, Italy, southern France, and Spain are also
orange producers. These countries have the advantage of cheap labor,
father says.
I wish that you could visit us. We would have fine times, I am sure.
The next time I write I will tell you about some of the other fruits
raised in California.
Your sincere friend,
FRANK.
A VISIT TO A VINEYARD
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, Oct. 1, 1902.
DEAR FRIEND WILL: Last week father went to Fresno, which is about three
hundred miles northwest of here, in the San Joaquin valley. He took me
with him, and we visited some of the great vineyards and raisin-packing
establishments near and in that city.
Raisins are simply dried grapes. Although there are many countries where
grapes grow, there are few where raisins are made. Dew, fog, and rain
injure the fruit, so that the San Joaquin valley, with its dry, hot
atmosphere, is well adapted to this industry.
There are a great many different kinds of grapes but only the green
variety is used in making raisins. The raisin grapes are called
_muscats_. If the grapes are left on the vines long enough, they become
raisins. I have picked some pretty good raisins from the vines. Of
course by being spread out, they dry quicker and more evenly.
The sugar that you find on and in the raisins is not put there by the
people who dry the grapes. It comes from the juice of the grape.
Grapevines grow from both roots and cuttings. Of course cuttings are the
cheaper. Often they may be had for the asking. Many think that it is
better to set out rooted vines than cuttings.
They are planted in rows from six feet apart to twelve or fifteen feet.
During the first year the young vines will grow several feet. In the
fall, when the flow of the sap has been checked by frost, the vines are
pruned. A vineyard in California looks quite different from one in the
East. During the winter it is simply so many rows of stumps several
inches in thickness and one or two feet high. During the summer the
branches grow from these stumps and produce their beautiful clusters of
grapes, only to be cut off in the fall or winter.
The trimmings are generally burned in the vineyard at the same time that
they are cut off. A sort of furnace made of sheet iron is fastened
between two wheels and drawn by horses up and down between the rows. A
man pitches the cuttings into it, and they burn as it moves along.
In the early summer men go through the vineyards sprinkling a coating of
sulphur on the vines. This is to prevent mildew, which damages the fruit
very much.
During the last half of August and September the grapes are picked.
Sometimes the harvest continues into October. Most of the grapes had
been gathered when we visited the vineyards.
When the juice of the grapes is one fourth sugar, they are ready to
pick. The grower generally tells the condition by the taste and color of
the fruit, although there are instruments for determining the amount of
sugar.
Like oranges, grapes are cut from the vines and not picked. We saw great
companies of Chinamen going through the vineyards cutting off the
beautiful clusters. These they placed on shallow, wooden trays to dry.
In a week or two, when the upper side of the clusters is pretty well
dried, the grapes are turned. We saw the workmen place an empty tray,
upside down, over the filled one. Then, holding the two together, they
turned them over, and the grapes dropped into the tray that had been
placed on top.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--Picking Grapes.--Notice the Mountains in the
Background.]
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--Drying Raisin Grapes.]
During this drying time the people watch the reports of the Weather
Bureau. In some places flags are displayed when rain is expected. As a
rule the grape season is over before the rains begin.
When the grapes are taken from the trays, they are placed in boxes
holding about one hundred pounds each. These are called _sweat boxes_.
Here the driest grapes absorb some of the moisture from the others, and
the mass becomes more uniform.
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--A Vineyard after being Pruned.]
After the drying process has been finished, the stems are rather
brittle. To make them softer and easier to handle, the grapes are next
placed in a cool room and left there for a time.
After visiting some of the vineyards, we drove to one of the great
packing establishments in Fresno. These packing houses are nearly always
in the cities and towns, because there help can be easily obtained. The
packing house that we visited employs four hundred people, mostly girls
and women.
The raisins are first placed on wooden or metal frames the size of a
raisin box. These are called _forms_, and the packers are paid according
to the number of forms filled. When these are filled, the raisins are
carefully transferred to the boxes.
A box of raisins weighs twenty pounds, but there are half boxes and
quarter boxes put up also. A paper is placed on the bottom of each box,
and over the raisins another is placed. On top of this there is a fancy
paper on which the name of the packer is stamped.
In most establishments there are three grades of raisins, Imperial
Clusters, London Layers, and the loose and imperfect stems.
Sometimes a second crop of grapes is gathered a little later in the
fall. Of course these do not dry so well because the days are shorter,
it is cooler, and rains sometimes occur. On this account they are dipped
in lye and then rinsed in water. The lye cracks the skin, and so the
juice evaporates more quickly. These are called Valencia raisins. There
is not a very good market for these, so that people do not dip them so
commonly now as they used to.
We saw the machine where the raisins are _stemmed_. They pass from a
hopper into a space between two woven-wire cylinders. The inner one
revolves within the other. In this way the raisins are broken from the
stems. They are then run through a fanning mill which cleans them, and
they are finally graded by passing through screens having openings of
different sizes.
Most of the seedless raisins are made from seedless grapes, but there
are machines for removing the seeds from the grapes which contain them.
The superintendent of the packing house said that nearly all of the
raisins that we import come from Spain, and that they are exported
chiefly from the city of Malaga.
The purple and other _wine grapes_ are taken to the wineries and sold by
the ton, to be made into wine.
There are many other things that I should like to write about, but my
letter is a pretty long one now, so I will close.
Your loving friend,
FRANK.
NUTTING
Have you ever gone into the woods on a beautiful autumn day? The bright,
warm sunshine floods the earth where the trees are far apart and sifts
down through the branches. All nature seems to invite you to lie down
under a tree and dream. It was on such a day that Rip Van Winkle fell
into his long sleep.
How pretty the trees look in their fall suits of yellow, crimson, red,
and brown! What a rustling is made as your feet tread the carpet of
leaves!
The breezes pass among the branches and whisper a message to the
bright-colored leaves. They understand and obey. Singly, in groups, and
in showers, they silently float downward. By night and by day they fall,
but soon this carpet will be changed for one of white.
Listen! The leaves are not the only things that are falling. You can
hear the _thump_, _thump_ of nuts as they drop from their lofty perches
in the walnut and hickory-nut trees.
Sit down quietly on that log and you will soon see the busy nut
gatherers. With their tails curled over their backs, they race up and
down the trees, or spring from branch to branch, carrying their precious
burdens to their homes in the hollows of trunk or limb. Now one sits up
straight, holding a nut between his paws, and turning it slowly as he
cracks and eats it. If he sees you, he whisks out of sight, or scolds
you from a safe place far above the ground.
When the winter winds are whistling through the leafless trees, and
snows are drifting over the ground, these little nut gatherers feast to
their hearts' content.
The squirrels do not gather all of the nuts. Children and grown people
enjoy nutting. When there are not enough nuts on the ground, the men and
boys climb the trees to shake them off. Then everybody hunts among the
leaves for the treasures.
Some of the most important nuts are walnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts,
almonds, chestnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, and peanuts.
Many of the hickory nuts fall out of their coverings bright and clean.
Walnuts generally have to be _shucked_, and the juice stains the hands
almost black.
As hazelnuts grow on bushes, they can be easily picked. They usually
drop out of their burs after there have been a few frosts.
Many nuts are gathered in the woods, but in some places the trees are
cultivated just as fruit trees are.
We usually eat nuts between meals, or as a dessert. They are not simply
dainties, but are very valuable articles of food. In some countries the
poor people depend upon them for food.
In almost any city of our country are to be found the nuts that I have
mentioned, with perhaps several other kinds. These have come from
different states, some from Canada, some from Brazil, and some from
Spain.
I am sure you will enjoy gathering nuts of different kinds, so let us
set out on a nutting expedition.
A WALNUT VACATION
How would you like to have your school close for two weeks, so that you
could gather walnuts? Every year many of the boys and girls of Southern
California are given a vacation just for this purpose. It is called the
"walnut vacation," and occurs in the month of October.
These children do not take their baskets and go off to the woods where
they can romp and play, watch the squirrels, and gather beautiful autumn
leaves. They gather nuts from the trees which their parents own, for in
Southern California there are many walnut ranches or groves. You see the
vacation means a vacation for work instead of for play.
Walnut trees are set out in rows just as apple trees are, but their
roots and branches extend to such a distance from the trunks that they
need to be about twice as far apart.
The walnut harvest, which begins about the first of October, is a busy
time. Men, women, boys, and girls may be seen in the groves, shaking the
nuts from the trees, picking them up, and putting them into sacks.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--A Walnut Grove.]
The men shake the trees, and there is a shower of nuts to the earth. Do
not go under the branches now unless you want to be pelted. A single
tree has been known to yield three hundred pounds of nuts in a season.
When the trees have been given a good shaking, there are still some nuts
clinging to the branches. These are obtained by shaking the limbs
separately, by means of long poles, to the ends of which wire hooks are
fastened. As all of the nuts do not ripen at the same time, the trees
are sometimes gone over two or three times.
Now the boys, girls, and women go to work filling pails and baskets and
emptying them into sacks, for they can do this work as well as men.
Usually the nuts drop out of their covering or _shuck_ when they strike
the ground; but if they do not, the _shuck_ must be removed. Sometimes
the covering is cut off. If you handle the nuts with your bare hands,
they will be stained almost black, and you will have to let the color
wear off.
The days are bright and warm, and this sort of nutting becomes rather
tiresome before sundown. The work must be done and the vacation is not a
very long one, so each does his part cheerfully.
When the nuts have been gathered, they are taken to the shed or place
where they are to be washed. Here they are poured into a large wire
cylinder which revolves in a tank filled with water. The machine is
turned by a horse walking round and round, and it both washes and grades
the nuts. The smaller ones pass through the meshes in the wire and are
called _second grade_. The larger ones are known as _first grade_.
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--Washing, Drying, and Sacking Walnuts.]
When the walnuts come out of the washer, they are spread out on shallow,
wooden trays to dry. Sometimes several thousand trays may be seen on
one ranch. They are loaded on to a small car and pushed to the part of
the field where they are wanted.
If there is no foggy or cloudy weather, they will dry in about five
days, but if there is, it may take ten.
After the nuts are thoroughly dried, the trays are placed on the car and
pushed to the _bleacher_. This is a large box made of tarred paper. It
is placed over the trays, and a quantity of sulphur is burned in it.
This is simply to whiten the shells, for they sell for a higher price
when they are bleached. Sometimes the nuts are whitened by dipping them
into a liquid preparation.
The nuts are now sacked and marked, ready to ship. Soon after the boys
and girls have finished their "walnut vacation," the nuts are on their
way to the eastern part of the United States.
Most of the walnuts raised in California have soft shells. Some have
such thin shells that they are called "paper shells." The walnuts that
grow in the woods of Indiana, Illinois, and other states have hard
shells. They are dark in color and are called _black walnuts_. The trees
are quite valuable, as the wood is used in making furniture.
CHESTNUTS
Let us go on a chestnutting expedition to the southern part of France.
We can gather the nuts in many of the states of our own country, but the
trip to a strange land will be enjoyed by all.
The chestnut trees, many of which are very old, spread their branches to
great distances. The nuts, as you see, are inclosed in a _bur_ or coat
which covers the shell. There are generally two nuts in each bur.
When _you_ eat chestnuts, you eat them as a sort of dainty, not as a
regular article of food. This is not the case in the home of Jean, the
boy who is helping his father fill those sacks. In his home, as in many
homes in southern Europe, the nuts form one of the chief articles of
daily food.
In the winter Jean sells the freshly roasted nuts on a street corner in
the city of Lyons. He gets a good many pennies each noon from workmen
and poor people generally, who use them for their midday meal. He sells
ten nuts for a penny.
This is not the only way in which they are eaten. Jean's mother boils
them with celery and mashes them as we do potatoes. The nuts are also
ground into a flour from which bread is made. They are often used in the
dressing for fowls.
Confectioners use great quantities of chestnuts. In Lyons there are
establishments where as many as two hundred persons are employed in
preparing them.
The nuts are first peeled, and then boiled in clear water, which removes
the thin coating next the kernel. They are then placed in a sirup
flavored with Mexican vanilla, in which they remain for about three
days. After draining, they are coated with vanilla or chocolate and
packed in attractive boxes. In this form they are worth forty-five or
fifty cents a pound.
A BAG OF PEANUTS
Last summer Harry's parents took him with them on a visit to Virginia.
Harry has always lived in New York City, and the country life of the
South was very interesting to him.
They visited friends who live on a beautiful _plantation_, as the farms
in the South are called. A driveway lined with grand old trees leads
through the flower-studded lawn up to the retired manor house, whose
wide verandas completely circle it round.
Beyond the house are the stables where work horses, driving horses, and
saddle horses are kept; and beyond these is the pretty little boathouse,
standing on the bank of a small river that winds its way through the
plantation.
The morning after Harry arrived, his friend Bert asked him if he would
like to go across the river to see the men harvest peanuts.
Now whenever Harry had wanted peanuts, he had always gone to a stand
and bought a sack. He had never thought about where they came from. He
had heard of shaking nuts from trees, so he supposed that they were
going to the woods.
He was therefore much surprised when Bert took him to a field across the
river where men were plowing vines from the ground.
"Do peanuts grow in the ground?" he asked.
"Why, of course they do," answered Bert.
"I thought that nuts grew on trees," said Harry.
"Father says that the peanut is not a _real_ nut," replied his friend.
"He says they should be called _ground nuts_ or _ground peas_." He
pulled up one of the vines, and the boys threw themselves down under a
tree to examine it.
When the small clods of soil clinging to the roots of the plant had been
removed, Harry saw a number of pods which he recognized as peanuts.
Opening one of the pods, Bert took out the kernels.
"These," said he, "are the _seeds_, and they are planted much as other
seeds are.
"Before they are planted the shell must be removed, but we have to be
careful not to break the thin skin that covers the kernel. If that be
broken, the seed will not grow.
"The kernels are planted about one foot apart, in rows that are, as you
see, about three feet apart. Sometimes they are planted by hand and
sometimes by machinery."
"I wonder if peanuts are raised in the country around New York," said
Harry.
"No, I think not," replied Bert, "for they are very easily killed by
frost. Great quantities are raised in North Carolina and in Tennessee.
Father says that the negroes of western Africa raised them long, long
before they were known in the United States. He says that they are a
very important article of food there, and that whole villages take part
in the planting and harvesting.
"After the vines blossom," continued Bert, "a very strange thing
happens."
"What is it?" asked Harry.
"The flower stalks bend downward and push themselves right into the
soil, and on these the pods develop. If the stalks do not enter the
earth within a few hours after the flowers fall, they die."
Harry now watched the plowing. The plows were drawn up and down the rows
and ran directly under the vines, lifting them out of the soil. After
they had been plowed out about two hours, men took them upon pitchforks
and piled them up. Harry noticed that some of the piles were covered
with corn fodder, and asked why this was. Bert told him that it was to
keep out the rain.
"What happens to the nuts after the vines have been piled up?" said
Harry.
"They remain in the piles fifteen or twenty days, and are then spread
out on the ground or hauled to the barn, where the nuts are picked off,"
answered Bert. "Sometimes they are picked by hand and sometimes by
machinery. Let us go to the lower field; we have an earlier variety
there, and the nuts are being picked now."
They found men, women, and children picking the pods one by one and
dropping them into baskets. These were emptied into sacks. Harry tried
to lift one of these, and was surprised to find it so heavy. Bert told
him that it weighed about one hundred pounds.
"Do you burn the vines after the nuts are picked?" asked Harry.
"No," said Bert, "they are fed to the cattle. We call the vines _peanut
hay_."
Bert explained that his father sold the sacks of nuts to the factory,
where they were cleaned and sorted.
The next day the boys went to town and visited the peanut factory.
The nuts were first put through a machine which removed the dirt. They
were then polished and sorted into four grades. The poorest grade is
used in making peanut candy. The nuts were then sacked, and were ready
to be shipped to the North.
Harry learned that an oil is made from the nuts which is used as olive
oil is used, and also that peanut butter is produced from them. He
found that many men were employed on plantations all through Virginia
and other states of the South, in raising the peanuts that are sold on
the streets of every city and town in our country.
ASSORTED NUTS
After the Thanksgiving dinner had been eaten, the nuts were passed, and
the children asked Uncle John to tell them something about a few of
them.
"All right," said he. "You pick out the ones that you want to know
about."
Frank handed him an almond.