esides raisins, Fresno produced last year 2,500,000
gallons of wine, a large part of which was shipped to the East. The
railroad figures show the wealth that is produced here every year from
these old wheat fields. The dried fruit crop last year was valued at
$1,123,520; raisins, $1,245,768; and the total exports were
$8,957,899.

The largest bearing raisin vineyard in Fresno is that of A.B. Butler,
who has over 600 acres in eight year-old vines. The pack this year
will be fully 120,000 boxes. As each box sells for an average of
$1.75, the revenue from this vineyard will not fall far below a
quarter of a million. One of the finest places in the county is
Colonel Forsythe's 160-acre vineyard, from which 40,000 boxes are
packed. Forsythe has paid so much attention to the packing of his
raisins that his output commands a fancy price. This year he wanted to
go to Europe, so he sold his crop on the vines to a packing house,
receiving a check for $20,000. These, of course, are the great
successes, but nearly every small raisin grower has made money, for it
costs not over 11/2 cents per pound to produce the raisin, and the price
seldom falls below 6 cents per pound. Good land can be secured in
Fresno at from $50 to $200 per acre. The average is $75 an acre for
first-class raisin land that is within ten miles of any large place.
It costs $75 an acre to get a raisin vineyard into bearing. In the
third year the vines pay for cultivation, and from that time on the
ratio of increase is very large. Much of the work of pruning, picking,
and curing grapes is light, and may be done by women and children. The
only heavy labor about the vineyard is the plowing and cultivating.
Fresno is a hot place in the summer, the mercury running up to 110
degrees in the shade, but this is a dry heat, which does not enervate,
and, with proper protection for the head, one may work in the sun all
day, without any danger of sunstroke.

The colony system, which has been brought to great perfection around
Fresno, permits a family of small means to secure a good home without
much capital to start with. Where no money is paid for labor, a
vineyard may be brought to productiveness with very small outlay. At
the same time there is so great a demand for labor in the large
vineyards, that the man who has a five or ten acre tract may be sure
of work nearly all the year. In some places special inducements have
been held out to people of small means to secure a f