_Districts in Smyrna: Their Extent and Climate._--The port of Smyrna, so
famous for its dried figs, is hardly less renowned for the immense
quantity of raisins and dried grapes of different kinds which are
shipped from there to all parts of the world. While Smyrna figs are
better known than Smyrna raisins, the latter are by far the most
important industry. Thus from 1880 to 1881 the raisin crop exported from
Smyrna was valued at $4,602,388; while the value of the fig crop did not
exceed $1,646,998, or about three million dollars less than the former.
Since that time the raisin trade has yet further increased, until it
to-day reaches one hundred thousand tons of raisins and dried grapes.
Unlike the figs, which are only grown in the interior valleys some
thirty to sixty miles from Smyrna, the grapes which produce the raisins
are grown in the immediate vicinity of the town. The large territory
which exports the Smyrna raisins can, however, be divided into several
sub-districts, each one having some characteristics of its own, both as
regards quality of raisins, time of ripening, etc. These districts are:
Chesme, Vourla, Yerly and Carabourna. The principal variety of grape
grown in these districts is the Sultana, a seedless grape with enormous
bunches. Many other varieties are found there also, such as “black” and
“red,” the latter said to be identical with the Spanish Muscat of
Alexandria, which I doubt.
The Chesme district is situated to the west on the peninsula near
Smyrna, its principal port for exportation of the crop being the town of
Chesme. The Chesme raisins are considered inferior to those of the other
districts. Three-fourths of the raisins from the district are exported
to Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Amsterdam, and to Trieste in Austria. The
latter town is the main distributing point for most of the raisins grown
in the eastern Mediterranean raisin districts.
The Carabourna or Karabournou district produces the best raisins,--both
of the Sultanas, the red and the black. The district is situated to the
east and north on the same peninsula as Chesme. The district is rough
and hilly, but the whole is cultivated to vines. The Carabourna “Elemês”
go about one-half to Russia, the balance to England and Trieste.
The Vourla district consists of a fertile plain lying on the isthmus
between the Bay of Smyrna and Scala Nova or Ephesus. The export place is
the port of Vourla, one of the finest harbors on the coast of Asia
Minor, and often the meeting place for fleets of the Western nations of
Europe during their remonstrances in Turkish waters.
The Yerly district immediately surrounds the town of Smyrna, and extends
from Nymphio in the east to Tourbali in the south and Sivri-Hissar in
the west, thus bordering the Vourla district. Yerly Sultanas are the
earliest in the market, sometimes being ready in the first weeks of
August.
Small quantities of raisins also come from Tyra, Bairdir, Aidin and
other places in the fig districts in the interior. The Island of Samos,
off the coast of Asia Minor, produces raisins of several kinds, such as
Sultanas, black raisins, principally for distilling abroad, and Muscatel
raisins, the latter reaching three thousand tons in favorable seasons.
The Island of Cos or Stanchio is also famous for its Sultana raisins,
said to be the finest of any produced in Turkey.
The climate of the Smyrna raisin districts is very mild, allowing farm
labor to be performed the year round. The temperature seldom falls below
the freezing point, while from the middle of May to the middle of
September it ranges from 70 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade.
During the summer, the _Imbat_ or seabreeze tempers the heat and makes
the climate pleasant to live in. The grapes begin to ripen about July
first, the Sultana grapes being the earliest. The rainfall is abundant
during the rainy months of the year, September to April, and averages
twenty-five inches, varying from fifteen inches in dry seasons to
thirty-three inches in very wet years. The following table of the
rainfall is taken from the consular reports published in 1884:
_Table showing the monthly rainfall in the city of Smyrna, in inches and
hundredths of inches, during the nineteen years ending with 1882._
Compiled by W. E. STEVENS, Consul at Smyrna.
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+
YEAR| Janu-|Febru-|March.|April.| May. | June.|
| ary. | ary. | | | | |
| | | | | | |
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+
1864| 3.59| 1.53| .58| 3.75| 1.59| .80|
1865| 7.07| 9.05| 4.43| 1.42| .23| .34|
1866| 1.40| 1.78| 1.79| .20| .95| .63|
1867| 2.63| 3.14| 1.16| .37| 1.37| .67|
1868| 8.30| .32| 11.24| .92| .83| .67|
1869| 3.21| .74| 12.07| 1.78| .19| .59|
1870| 5.79| 2.81| 2.29| 2.24| .07| -- |
1871| 11.10| 1.19| 1.29| .66| 1.09| .39|
1872| 3.17| 1.46| .50| 4.18| 3.09| .60|
1873| 2.41| 5.64| 2.08| .50| 2.38| .16|
1874| .14| 5.82| 1.92| .40| .15| -- |
1875| 4.58| 9.48| 5.78| 1.36| -- | -- |
1876| 2.88| 1.45| 2.53| 3.12| .42| 1.76|
1877| 3.08| 2.92| 4.84| 1.11| 3.47| .94|
1878| 6.27| 2.10| 3.00| 4.97| .29| .13|
1879| 4.28| 2.69| 1.61| .35| 2.36| .01|
1880| 1.61| .30| 2.87| 1.69| 2.69| .18|
1881| 6.15| 3.92| 1.74| .80| 1.45| -- |
1882| 1.27| 1.17| 1.04| 3.45| .66| .09|
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+
Aver-| 4.15| 3.03| 3.30| 1.75| 1.22| .42|
age | | | | | | |
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+
=====+======+======+======+======+======+======+======
YEAR| July.| Au- | Sep- | Octo-| No- | De- | Year-
| | gust.| tem- | ber.| vem- | cem- | ly
| | | ber. | | ber. | ber. |total.
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
1864| 2.40| .50| 3.30| 3.51| 6.80| 1.49| 29.84
1865| .10| -- | -- | 1.27| 2.67| .10| 26.69
1866| .13| .06| .39| .08| 3.84| 3.91| 15.16
1867| | -- | -- | 1.54| 5.76| 7.08| 23.72
1868| .27| .07| .52| 1.30| 4.92| .84| 30.20
1869| .04| -- | .08| 1.81| 3.46| .80| 24.77
1870| -- | .47| 3.95| 4.45| .18| 6.73| 28.98
1871| -- | -- | .07| 1.36| 7.04| 4.58| 28.77
1872| -- | -- | 2.82| -- | 3.65| 4.76| 24.23
1873| -- | -- | -- | 2.50| 2.92| 2.62| 21.21
1874| -- | -- | .02| .30| 10.31| 8.99| 28.05
1875| -- | -- | .15| 2.87| 4.86| 3.96| 33.04
1876| .54| -- | .08| .94| 5.75| 8.48| 27.95
1877| .11| .36| .61| 4.00| 6.09| 5.98| 33.51
1878| .40| .63| 1.22| -- | .44| 8.50| 27.95
1879| -- | -- | 1.38| 2.71| 4.06| 1.81| 21.26
1880| .04| -- | 1.32| .60| 4.09| 2.49| 17.88
1881| .10| -- | -- | 5.47| .15| 4.72| 24.50
1882| -- | -- | -- | 1.02| 7.89| 4.56| 21.25
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
Aver-| .22| .11| .84| 1.88| 4.47| 4.34| 25.73
age | | | | | | |
-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------
As will be seen, most of the vineyards are situated within the reach of
the seabreezes, some even being almost on the edge of the waters of the
Mediterranean. The best vineyards are those which are situated inland
from seven to twenty miles from the coast. The vineyard districts are
all rough and hilly, except those in the Vourla district, which are on
comparatively level ground. While some vineyards stretch from the
seashore, others reach an elevation of four hundred feet or over. The
soil varies with the districts. The best soil for the Sultanas is
considered to be hippurite limestone soil, common in some districts.
This white, marly soil is in places mixed with a yellow-ocher-colored
loam, with sand and gravel. The abundance of the rainfall makes
irrigation unnecessary, and no vines are grown with irrigation.
_Care of the Vines._--While no general irrigation is needed, the young
vines are watered by hand in years of exceptionally light rainfall. The
vines are generally grown from rooted cuttings, which have been planted
in trenches the year before. Previous to the planting of a vineyard, the
soil is dug to the depth of three or four feet. If this can be done the
year before planting, it is considered better, as resulting in a quicker
and stronger growth of the vines.
In older vineyards, the vines are set in rows six or seven feet apart,
and with three or four feet between the rows. The vines are not grown to
standards, but from branching stalks from one to two and a half feet
high, with an average height of one and a half feet from the ground. No
stakes are used, and only occasionally is there seen a prop under
heavier loaded branches.
The pruning is done in the winter, when the vines are comparatively
dormant. The superfluous branches are then cut away, and the remaining
ones are cut to two or three eyes each. The cultivation was, until
lately, performed in the simplest way with pick and spade. The first
digging is done in January, at which time also the ground is manured.
This is done by digging pits and trenches in the vineyard, which are
filled with goat and camel dung. These trenches remain open for a month
or more, and are after that time filled in. The first digging in the
soil is done in November, the second one in January and February, when,
in leveling the ground, it is at the same time dug over again one foot
or more. The third or last digging is performed in March, when simply
the weeds are spaded under. Of late years, vineyardists from other
Mediterranean districts have settled in Smyrna and brought with them
better methods. Greek farmers have especially done much to improve the
old ways of cultivation used by the slovenly or ignorant natives.
In May, the young shoots are pinched back after the grapes have set well
and began to develop. The pinching of the ends produces a second crop,
which, besides being later, also consists of smaller grapes than the
first. All sterile and inferior shoots are then cut off, and this is
repeated during the summer in order that the vines may not be weakened
unnecessarily. The vines come into bearing in the third year, begin to
pay expenses in the fourth year, and leave a profit in the fifth year
after being set out. In the seventh and eighth years the vines are
considered in full bearing.
The Sultana grapes begin to ripen in July. The vintage begins towards
the end of July, and lasts until the middle of August. Other varieties
of grapes are later, lasting from the middle of August to the end of
September, their vintage seldom lasting as late as the first week of
October. The first raisins are ready about August 1st, and the last
Sultanas are all in by September 1st, the other varieties of raisins
coming in later.
_Dipping, Drying and Curing._--The curing of the grapes into raisins
requires great care, and nowhere is any more skill shown than in Smyrna.
Its raisins are the most beautiful of any, their splendid appearance and
transparency being due to the process employed. The drying is done on
drying-floors, which sometimes consist of the bare ground only, at other
times of elevated beds of earth a foot or so high. When the soil is not
naturally hard and suitable for drying-floors, it is first prepared by
cutting off the weeds, and is then watered and packed until a smooth and
hard surface is produced. This hard bed is sometimes left bare, and at
other times covered with matting. In other places the grapes are dried
on canvas, or on trays made of the Italian reed, or of grasses. These
trays are raised on props three or four inches above the ground, and are
loose so that they may be put on top of each other to exclude the sun,
rain or fog, according to locality and season. Great stress is laid upon
having the grapes fully ripe. Before thus exposed, the grapes are
dipped in a solution of lye and oil, and upon the skill in this
performance depends the beauty and value of the raisins. A potash is
made from the ashes of the vine cuttings of the previous year. About one
gallon of this potash solution is mixed with from twenty to twenty-five
gallons of water, making a weak lye solution of a strength of from five
to six degrees in Beaume’s “Lyeometer.” A similar strength would be
obtained by dissolving one pound of pearl ash in ten gallons of water.
Tubs of wood or zinc of the size of two and a half by two feet are used
for dipping. To every such tub of twenty-five gallons is added from
one-fourth to two gallons of olive oil. The latter quantity is used in
the Karabournou district, where the finest raisins are made. When of
proper strength as regards both oil and lye, the wash runs off from the
bunches smoothly; when, again, the wash runs off in small globules,
there is a deficiency of either oil or potash. The grapes are loaded in
small baskets of twenty-five pounds each, and immersed in the wash for
half a minute. They are then taken out and spread either on the ground
or on trays or canvas. In the interior, where the sun is hot, the reed
mats are placed on top of each other to exclude the sun. The same is
also done if rain or fog is feared. After a few days of exposure, and
when partially dried, the raisins are sprinkled every morning with the
same lye solution, but without oil. The Sultanas are dried in from five
to eight days. This dipping process is also used for the larger
Muscatels, but the lye is made stronger, probably reaching the
proportion of about one and a half pounds of pearl ash to five gallons
of water. The carefully dipped raisins have a pure greenish amber color,
and a peculiar flavor. They are worth twenty per cent more than undipped
fruit.
The Sultanas of the better grades are now sold off-stalk or loose. The
finest brands are the Chesme elemê, or Chesme select. Elemê means choice
or select, and is used both for raisins and figs. The yield of an acre
of Sultana vines varies in different vineyards, according to the quality
of the soil. A good yield is considered about seven tons of fresh
grapes, or about two and a third tons of raisins.
The price of the Smyrna Sultanas fluctuates considerably; but it may be
said that the best grades are always from twenty-five to thirty per cent
higher than the dipped raisins of Valencia. Thus, in 1843, dipped
Valencias brought six and a quarter cents, while the Smyrna Sultanas
brought ten cents. In 1844, the Valencias were quoted at ten cents,
while the Sultanas brought twenty cents per pound. Of late years, the
Smyrna Sultanas have fluctuated between four and a half and twelve and a
half cents per pound.
_Production and Export._--The production of Smyrna raisins and dried
grapes has enormously increased during the last few years. In 1844, the
average crop was only from six to eight thousand tons. In 1868, this had
increased to nineteen thousand tons, and in 1871 we find the export from
Smyrna to be forty-eight thousand tons. In 1881, this had grown to
seventy-five thousand tons (according to the consular report of
Consul-General G. H. Heap of Constantinople). Of the districts already
mentioned, Chesme and Vourla produce about three times as much as Yerly
and Carabourna. A somewhat varied estimate of the Smyrna raisin crop is
given by Consul W. E. Stevens of Smyrna, in his report dated February
28, 1884. According to him, the raisin crop of Smyrna should amount to
one million, nine hundred thousand hundred weight or ninety-five
thousand tons. These two consular estimates would give Smyrna as
follows: 1871, forty-eight thousand tons; 1872, thirty-one thousand
tons; 1879, seventy-five thousand tons; 1881, forty-nine thousand tons;
1884, ninety-five thousand tons. This, of course, includes all kinds of
raisins. As regards the Sultana raisins, the reports of the two consuls
also differ. By Consul Stevens, it is estimated to be thirty-two
thousand, five hundred tons, or sixty-five million pounds; while Consul
Heap puts the figures at only nineteen million, four hundred thousand
pounds, or only nine thousand, seven hundred tons. We have no means to
verify the statements, but are inclined to think the higher figure the
more correct. If it is true that the raisin yield of Smyrna to-day
reaches one hundred thousand tons, it would be absurd to think that only
ten per cent should be Sultanas, which is the principal raisin grape of
the district. It is more probable that at least one-third of the whole
crop consists of Sultanas. About eighty per cent of all the Sultana
raisins go to England, ten per cent are consumed by Eastern Europe and
Russia, a small part only going to the United States.
_Cost of Vineyards in Smyrna._--The cost of vineyards in the Smyrna
district varies just as it does elsewhere. Bearing vineyards change
hands at from three hundred to four hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
The yearly labor on an acre of vines, including pruning, cultivation and
drying, amounts to fifty dollars an acre or more. The average yield per
acre averages from about eighty-five to ninety dollars, leaving a profit
of from thirty to forty dollars, equal to from about eight to ten per
cent on the capital invested. I believe, however, that these figures may
be modified, and that the profit on an acre of average vineyard often
reaches from fifty to sixty dollars. The fact that an acre of vineyard
sells for four hundred and fifty dollars indicates that it must not only
give a fair but a good interest on that sum. The raisins from one acre
of a Smyrna vineyard are sold for $88. The interest on the par value of
an acre ($450) for one year at five per cent is $22.50. The other
expenses during the year amount to $50, leaving, as net profit, $6.50.
The above is a low estimate copied from English statements.
_Other Varieties of Raisins._--Besides Sultanas, Smyrna produces an
enormous quantity of raisins of other kinds. The demand for these has
been and is constantly increasing, the most being shipped to
manufacturers of wines, distilled liquors of all kinds, jellies, jams,
etc. These varieties are known as Large Black and Large Red. These
varieties are grown in all the Smyrna districts, and in quantity far
exceed the Sultanas. The following will give an idea of how this trade
has increased of late. Red and Black Smyrna raisins in tons: 1868,
12,795; 1876, 15,500; 1881, 40,000; 1883, 45,000; 1888, 60,000. The
price varies from three to four cents per pound in the local market.
Judging from the constantly increased export of these kinds of raisins,
it is not likely that the production of the same is likely to soon be
overdone.