294 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ment, and his pai'tncr stayed on the land. Thc_y planted a vineyard and 

 cultivated the same. Thomas worked for me, the money he earned was 

 used to buy for the partner provisions, tools, etc. In this way they 

 went on to improve. The partner got the raining fever, sold out to 

 Thomas and lel't. Now Thomas went on the vineyard to cultivate the 

 same, and when he could spare time, he went to work for others. In 

 this way he made a living until his vine3-ard began to bear, when he was 

 all right. Thomas has now about thirty acres of vineyard, makes the 

 best wine in Sonoma, and is worth at least fifteen thousand dollars, with 

 an income of about two thousand five hundred dollars per annum, 

 increasing all the time. He has now brought out from German}^ his 

 sister and her husband, and is a well-to-do man. Such chances are open 

 for a million of men in California. 



Mr. Editor, it is with pleasure that I draw attention to a class of 

 people who are by circumstances poor, or with but limited means, but 

 are honest and good, and deserve to have happy homes. This is the 

 class of people that enrich the State, and the country, and Government, 

 generally honest, industrious, and frugal, always ready to defend the 

 country, whether native or adopted. 



J3ut I have wandered from my design, namely, to give you an account 

 of my present mode of planting vineyards, whenever I have to do it on 

 a large scale. To make it more intelligible, Ave take one hundred acres, 

 plant the rows fort}' feet apart; in the row the vines are planted four feet 

 apart; this will plant the first year twenty-seven thousand two hundred 

 and twenty on ten acres of ground, and roads included, twelve and a 

 half acres to cultivate; second year nothing is planted, but the above 

 vines cultivate; third year the same; but now this winter, from each 

 vine two layers are made, the layers are carried from the row, one each 

 way, four feet, in a ditch, and the top brought above ground and pruned 

 to two buds; these laj'ers and the main stem will bear this j'ear. This 

 operation is repeated every year with the exception that now but one 

 layer is made from each vine; the whole is completed in seven years, so 

 that in the named time the one hundred acres are closel}^ planted with 

 two hundred and seventy-two thousand two hundred vines. The advan- 

 tage of such plantation is this : that a person in the first three 5'ears cul- 

 tivates only the equivalent of ten acres, and after that he increases twenty 

 acres every 3'ear; but these twenty acres will bear the very year when 

 he makes the layers, and so he cultivates only paying vineyards. The 

 Buena Vista layers gave the last year two and a half pounds of grapes 

 in average. The mode is simple, and has the advantage of needing no 

 replanting, as layers never miss. The following calculations Avill prove 

 to you the economy of the new method. Both calculations below are 

 reckoned upon the same basis. 



Planting one hundred acres, by layers, four feet apart each way, when 

 seven years old : 



