from becoming entangled, thus breaking the fine large bunches when
removed. The sorter must be an expert. He takes the bunches by the
stem, placing the largest and finest in the first grade box, those
which are medium sized in the second grade, and all broken and ragged
bunches in the third class. When the boxes are filled they are hauled
to the brick building known as the equalizer. This is constructed so
as to permit ventilation at the top, but to exclude light and air as
much as possible from the grapes. The boxes are piled in tiers in this
house and allowed to remain in darkness for from ten to twenty days.
Here they undergo a sweating process, which diffuses moisture equally
throughout the contents of each box. This prevents some grapes from
retaining undue moisture, and it also softens the stems and makes them
pliable.

From the equalizing room the sweat boxes are taken to the packing
room. Here they are first weighed. The first and second grades are
passed to the sorter, while the third grade raisins are placed in a
big machine that strips off the stems and grades the loose raisins in
three or four sizes. These are placed in sacks and sold as loose
raisins. The higher grades are carefully sorted into first and second
class clusters. After this sorting the boxes are passed to women and
girls, who arrange the clusters neatly in small five pound boxes with
movable bottoms. These boxes are placed under slight pressure, and
four of them fill one of the regular twenty pound boxes of commerce.
The work of placing the raisins in the small boxes requires much
practice, but women are found to be much swifter than men at this
labor, and, as they are paid by the box, the more skillful earn from
$2 to $3 a day. It is light, pleasant work, as the room is large, cool
and well ventilated, and there is no mixing of the sexes, such as may
be found in many of the San Francisco canneries. For this reason the
work attracts nice girls, and one may see many attractive faces in a
trip through a large packing house. One heavy shouldered,
masculine-looking German woman, who, however, had long, slender
fingers, was pointed out as the swiftest sorter in the room. She made
regularly $3 a day. The assurance of steady work of this kind for
three months draws many people to Fresno, and the regular disbursement
of a large sum as wages every week goes far to explain the thrift and
comfort seen on every hand.

The five pound boxes of grapes are