Читать книгу The Raisin Industry - Gustavus A. Eisen - Страница 25

—The raisins, when picked, are dried on so-called sequeros, or drying-floors, characteristic of the Malaga district. These floors are of different sizes and lengths in different vineyards, but everywhere constructed on the same general principles. Where an incline or a hill is found, the floor may simply be built on the slope, with no artificial elevation; but, where the ground is level, the structure of the sequero is different. The floor must always face the south, and the back is raised to give the floor the proper slope. The sequero thus consists of four walls, the front one of which is only a foot high, and the back wall from six to eight feet high. The side walls slope between these, generally with an angle of forty-five degrees. In length, these floors vary from forty to fifty feet, according to the different ideas of the vineyardists. The whole interior is filled with black gravel, and is tamped hard. These sequeros are divided in beds, fourteen feet or so wide, by tiles that are sunk, thus forming walks of several feet in width, and which also serve for leading off the rainwater. Around every little bed of this kind are small upright tiles to prevent the rainwater entering from the walks. Finally, in the center of the bed, is a long row of upright tiles, high enough to support either boards, mats, or more generally canvas, in order that they may shed the rain into the tile walks. The value of such floors is evident. Being covered with canvas, etc., every night, the heat is preserved, and every morning, when the sun rises, the grapes are yet warm. The drying on such beds has never, in fact, been interrupted. The drying-floors are also useful in case of too hot weather, when the grapes can be properly sheltered with canvas and prevented from being cooked; when finally dried, the covering, again, will serve to keep the moisture from too quickly evaporating.