The story of Miss M. F. Austin and her success with the Hedge Row
Vineyard reads like a beautiful tale. A schoolteacher by occupation,
Miss Austin possessed many prominent qualities and elevated ideas, among
others that horticulture should become a business for women as well as
for men. Acting upon these ideas, Miss Austin removed to Fresno in 1878
in company with a lady friend and teacher, Miss L. H. Hatch, and she
began immediately to improve her Hedge Row Vineyard, a part of which had
been planted two years before by Bernhard Marks, the founder of the
Central California Colony. The vineyard was gradually extended until it
contained one hundred acres, nearly all in Gordo Blanco vines. Miss
Austin must be given credit for having improved upon many operations in
the vineyard and in the packing-house. She first discovered that under
proper conditions the sulphuring should be done in the flowers of the
grapevines. By this method she one year largely increased her crop of
grapes. In packing she showed her womanly taste and refinement, and not
only succeeded in producing superior Layer and Dehesa raisins, but made
several innovations in packing which to this day are imitated. Among
these we may mention the packing in cartoons, and in small ornamented
paper bags, which latter were again placed in paper boxes. Miss Austin
and T. C. White were the originators of fancy packing in this State.
The largest pack of the Hedge Row Vineyard was seventy-five hundred
boxes, while the total of one year’s pack reached sixteen thousand
boxes. Miss Austin built the first raisin dryer in Fresno, and
demonstrated that machine-dried raisins were a success if not a
necessity as regards the last crop. The pluck and intelligence of Miss
Austin soon became extensively known, and many were the ladies who,
imitating her, engaged in horticulture and in the raisin industry.
Fresno county and the State at large owe her a debt of gratitude for
what she has done. Those who had the pleasure and honor of her
friendship lost in her a dear and faithful friend, a brilliant and
intelligent companion, and a person who had few equals in any path of
life.