The following sketch of a Fresno packing-house, where already cured
raisins are bought and packed, may prove interesting to those of my
readers who have not had time or opportunity to visit any similar
establishment. The same kind of work is going on in each packing-house,
whether it be large or small, except that the number of hands are
varied. In the two or three largest packing-houses in Fresno, as many as
four hundred hands are sometimes employed at one time when the work is
pressing; as it slackens, less hands are used. These large city
packing-houses are all situated close to the railroad; they buy the
raisins already cured and dried from the colonists, who bring them in
sweatboxes to town. The time of the greatest activity is from the last
week in August to October 15th. The largest of these city packers are
Messrs. Cook & Langley, who own packing-houses both in Riverside and
Fresno; Schacht, Lemcke & Steiner, successors to George W. Meade, the
oldest packing-house in Fresno, superintended by H. W. Shram; Chas.
Leslie & Co., Griffin & Skelley, etc.
The pioneer packing company of Fresno, known as the Fresno Raisin &
Fruit Packing Company, is doing at this time a large business. Every day
five or six carloads of raisins are sent away, while a string of from
twenty to thirty, two and four horse teams are waiting outside of the
weighing shed to have their raisins weighed and received. These raisins
come both from large and small vineyards from all over the country, but
principally from the colonies, where they are the products of
twenty-acre vineyards. Some of the best raisins in fact came from the
smallest vineyards, where they had the best care, and where the owner
has given the vineyard all his time. Mr. H. W. Shram, the superintendent
of this large and old packing-house, has had years of experience in the
packing business, and has followed the Fresno raisin business from its
infancy. As soon as the raisin boxes are unloaded they are immediately
weighed. It takes eight men to attend to this part of the business, one
weighing and one clerk to keep accounts. The dried wine grapes, such as
Zinfandel, Malagas, and even Sultanas, are immediately wheeled into the
stemmer-house to be separated from the stems and cleaned. This stemmer
is one of the largest in the State, and the only one of its kind as
regards construction. It stems, cleans and assorts, in from three to
four different grades, sixty tons of raisins a day. Nine men are
working this machine, some feeding, others pushing wide but shallow
boxes under the spouts, others again wheeling them away when full. The
steam engine of ten horse-power and boiler are fired principally with
separated stems, refuse raisins, and stones of peaches and apricots. The
separated dried grapes are packed and shipped in eighty-pound sacks, and
go in this way to the East, or even to Europe. Every day one or two
carloads of these dried grapes are shipped. The Muscatel layers,
however, go first to the sweating-room, before anything is done with
them. This sweating-room is one hundred by fifty feet, and has the walls
and floor filled around with one foot in thickness of sawdust, so as to
prevent the outside air from entering. This sweating room is constantly
filled with raisin boxes from floor to ceiling, and seldom contains less
than forty tons of raisins at one time. It takes from ten to thirty days
to equalize the moisture in the raisins as well as to properly soften
the stems so that the grapes will not fall off. This is of the utmost
importance. If it is not done the stems will break and the berries fall
off, and instead of a first-class layer raisin we would only get a
first-class loose.
After having sweated for several weeks the raisins are brought out to be
assorted. We see several rows of oblong tables, each one with a border
around like a deep and large tray, and with a hole at each end in which
the loose raisins are pushed. It takes eighteen of these tables to
receive the grapes to be assorted, and as it also takes six girls at
each table, it is evident the work is one of great importance. Only
girls are used, as boys and men could not as properly do the work. It
takes a girl’s nimble fingers to handle the raisins, so that none break.
They are also more patient, and are, in every way, suited for the work.
As the raisins are being assorted, the different grades are clipped from
the same bunches, and placed in different trays. Thus one and the same
bunch may contain four different grades of raisins. Each one is
separated at these tables, to make different brands of raisins. The
trays, with five pounds of raisins each as they leave the graders, are
placed in large piles on the floor, and are from there taken away at
leisure, first to be packed and afterwards to the press. This is a
department of its own. It takes great experience to press the raisins
just so much, that they will look well, but not so much as to burst. A
broken raisin will sugar and spoil, and would cause complaint and
dissatisfaction. The public is constantly being educated as to what fine
raisins are, and now wants only the best. Each tray is pressed, and it
takes four trays to make up a box of twenty pounds. A tray is placed
over the box, the sliding bottom is pulled out, and the whole cake of
raisins with paper and all drop in the box below.
After the raisins are assorted they have to be packed. Twenty girls are
occupied with this, the most pleasant, but also the most skillful, work
in the packing-house. No bad raisins go in here, and if any there should
be, they are separated and placed with a lower grade, as even one or two
raisins would spoil an otherwise good box. This requires a great deal of
care and attention, but the girls are being educated, and the same ones
are re-engaged from year to year. Fresno is getting an army of girls
educated for the business, and we find much less trouble now to get the
raisins well packed than a few years ago, when everything was
comparatively new. Now there is hardly a girl in any of the colonies who
does not know something about raisin-packing, and who is able to make
good wages during packing time. Several cents a tray are paid for
packing, and many girls earn two dollars a day, while none earn less
than one dollar a day. The first quality raisins are packed under the
Lion Brand, while the second quality goes by the name of the Golden
Gate. Both brands are equally popular and are readily sold. The loose
raisins are as important as the bunches and layers. The American
housewife has learned that she gets more for her money if she buys loose
raisins than if she buys layers, which always contain a large percentage
of stems. Loose raisins are therefore now very popular. The loose
raisins have all been sweated, and the best of them have come from
large, fine bunches, from which they have simply dropped off, and
magnificent they look indeed as they are separated and graded into
several grades, the largest of course to make the very choicest brands.
The process of packing is quite different from that of packing layers.
In loose, the boxes are simply filled with fifteen pounds of loose
raisins; then a tray containing five pounds, and which has been faced,
is placed on top, this making up twenty-pound boxes.
The facing is a most important and interesting work. It takes from forty
to fifty girls to do it, and only expert hands are allowed at the facing
tables. The facing consists in placing large, fine and flatted raisins
in layers on top of the box, as an advertisement that the contents
underneath are equally carefully assorted and choice. A careful and
skillful facer can face forty boxes a day, while from twenty to thirty
boxes is a low average. Mr. Shram buys raisins and dried grapes from
every one who has any that are really choice. For Feherzagos three to
three and one-half cents are paid, for Malagas four cents, and for
Muscatels three and one-half to five cents, according to quality. All
the work in the packing-house is done by piece work, and from two to
five cents are paid for different qualities of the work, such as
assorting, picking over, picking and facing. Four hundred girls and boys
are daily employed. The present raisin pack, Mr. Shram affirms, is the
best of any he has ever handled. They are shipped to every large town in
the East, and are constantly increasing in demand. Besides raisins, Mr.
Shram handles peaches, figs, apricots, and in fact any dried fruit we
have. Tons and tons of Adriatic figs are brought from the colonies every
day at six cents per pound, an enormous price when we consider the yield
of a fig tree. But, says Mr. Shram, they are in demand, and as long as
we can sell them again when packed and sweated to advantage we can
afford to pay a good price.
When sufficient boxes are packed, they are loaded in cars and made up
into trains exclusively loaded with raisins. The various packing-houses
combine to do this. Generally during the packing season two such
train-loads are sent away every week, each one consisting of from ten to
fifteen cars of raisins, each car containing one thousand boxes. Five
hundred and thirty such cars were shipped from Fresno last year (1889).
Some of the packers packed one hundred thousand boxes each.