STATE AGRICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 127 



the following are the average prices per ton asked in the several wine 

 districts mentioned : 



Los Angeles, for Mission grapes $14 to $15 



Napa Valley, Mission grapes 14 to 15 



Sono^na Valley, Mission grapes 15 



Stoekton, JMission grapes 10 



Except in Los Angeles, foreign grapes command from forty to sixty 

 per cent, higher for wine making. 



THE CROP PROSPECT. 



The crop will be larger than that of 1878, though by no means as 

 great as was anticipated at the beginning of the season. It is esti- 

 mated that not less than 6,000,000 gallons of wine will be made this 

 coming vintage. Napa Valley, on the same vines, will yield less 

 than last year. Sonoma will yield considerably more, and Los 

 Angeles County will also yield considerably more than in 1878. 

 From Sacramento and El Dorado we have no returns. Santa Clara 

 will also yield more. Relatively, throughout the State, there will be 

 a little over half a crop. 



PHYLLOXERA. 



The ravages of this insect, or pest, seem to be confined to Sonoma. 

 I have looked closely for some signs showing its presence in Napa 

 Valley, in Los Angeles, at the Mission San Jose, and in Tehama 

 County, but am gratified to state that in none of there places have I 

 found anything indicating its presence, and it is my sincere hope, as 

 it must be of every well-wisher of the vinicultural interest of our 

 State, that it may never spread or gain a foothold in any new local- 

 ity. Though great havoc has been created b}^ it throughout Sonoma 

 Valley, the people of that locality have to congratulate themselves 

 upon its very slow progress, compared to the devastating ravages and 

 the rapidity with which it executes these in the wine districts of 

 France. Numerous experiments are being made throughout the 

 Sonoma wine district, with the aim in view of either checking or 

 eradicating the pest; and it is to be hoped that some of these may 

 meet with success, and the results be made public. There is a belief 

 that if the vineyard be entirely abandoned — be left without pruning 

 or cultivation whatever — for two or more seasons, that the vines 

 attacked will recruit themselves, and, instead of dying out, as they 

 would otherwise invariably do in two additional years, would, on the 

 contrary, live and regain their pristine vigor. This fact I have 

 noticed to be in a measure true in one vineyard in Sonoma Valley — 

 the one known as the Butler vineyard. 



