40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



"With all these appliances and facilities for usefulness well managed, 

 the published reports of the transactions of the society would become 

 most interesting and authentic exponents of the agricultural capacities, 

 the mineral wealth, the manufacturing enterprise, and the general 

 resources of the State. Distributed among our own people, they would 

 furnish constant incentives and valuable guides to improvement. Dis- 

 tributed in the Atlantic States and in the rich and populous countries of 

 the Eastern continent, they would serve as the most economical and 

 effective agents to attract immigration to our State that could possibly 

 be em])l()yed. Teach the skilled cultivator of the vine and the expe- 

 rienced manufacturer of wine in the agricultural portions of Germany, 

 France, Italy, and other old wine growing countries, that the wine crop 

 has never proved a failure in California since its first introduction by 

 the priests, one hundred and fifty years ago ; that owing to the peculiar 

 adaptation of the soil and climate of our State to the growth of the 

 vine, and the average annual product per acre here, under good cultiva- 

 tion, is six hundred gallons, while that of the German States and France 

 is not over one hundred and seven tj'-five. and that of Italy — the best 

 wine producing countrj^ in the world outside of California — is less than 

 four hundred and fifty gallons. Teach them that there is in California 

 over twenty millions of acres of the ver}^ best of land for vineyards, 

 and that each head of a familj^ can become the owner of one hundred 

 and sixty acres of the same, by coming here and settling upon and 

 improving it; and will not such information, rendered authentic by our 

 official rejjorts, turn their heads towards California i* Will they remain 

 longer than necessit}' compels them in their own countr}^, where but 

 few of them have any interest in the soil, and can obtain but a poor sub- 

 sistence as the reward of their dailj' labors? Teach these facts to foreign 

 capitalists and enterprising and skilful manufacturers, and they also 

 will seek our shores for the profitable investment of their means, and a 

 more adequate return for their enterprise and skill. We should soon 

 have springing up in the various favorable localities of our State exten- 

 sive wine cellars, the owners of which would purchase the grapeor must 

 from the producer, and after subjecting it to careful and skilful treat- 

 ment for the proper length of time necessary to convert into an article 

 of that superior quality rendered susceptible by the unequalled wine 

 properties of the grape, and not till then, it would be found in the mar- 

 ket for sale and consumption. 



The immediate effects of this change in the management of our wine 

 interests would be a certain and reliable increased demand for the grape 

 and must, and a proportional increased production. The mere grape 

 juice of from four to six months of age, made by those professing but 

 very little skill in its manufiicture, and possessing perhaps less, would 

 disappear from among us, and our home and foreign demands would be 

 supplied with the various kinds of wines, equal, if not superior, to the 

 most excellent and high priced foreign brands. 



A very large portion of the sugar consumed in the southern countries 

 of Europe is now manufactured in France from the common white sugar 

 beet. It is a demonstrated fact that this article can be produced in rich 

 alluvial soil of our valleys and tule lands in greater quantities per acre, 

 and M'ith less labor, than in any other portion of the civilized world. 

 B}' cliemical analysis, science assures us that, owing to the peculiarly 

 favorable properties of our soil, the California jiroduction possesses a 

 greater quantit}"" of saccharine matter than the same ariiele produced in 

 any part of France. Taken in connection with the present and prospec- 



