State Agricultural Society. 395 



France and Germany. In the valley wine is almost exclusively grown; 

 year by year it improves in color, in flavor, and in popularity. The day, 

 if not already at hand, is not far distant, when the dry wine of Sonoma 

 may challenge comparison with the Johanisberg, Hochheimer, and other 

 world famed brands of the Bhenish provinces. The valley and the 

 sloping hills on either side in a few years more will be as one great 

 vineyard. In Autumn, during the vintage, the scenery in Sonoma can- 

 not be surpassed. The leaves on some varieties of vines turn golden 

 yellow, on others a brilliant scarlet. This contrast with the blue and 

 purple peculiar to all California mountains is simply gorgeous (we don't 

 like the word but there is no other just suitable). In Sonoma Valley 

 there are orange trees sixteen years old and twenty-four feet high, liter- 

 ally loaded at this time (December) with ripening fruit. Statistics of 

 production appear elsewhere. 



SONOMA MOUNTAIN. 



As the traveler passes through the valley on either side of Sonoma 

 mountain it presents a sharply defined outline along its summit. This 

 is an optical delusion. "Distance," the poet says, "lends enchantment 

 to the view." In this instance the poetic simile does not hold true, for 

 the nearer you approach the summit the greater is the charm. It is, in 

 fact, an elevated plateau or mesa, as if the plain had been pushed up so 

 generally that the strata was undisturbed and the surface of the soil 

 unbroken. The growth is identical with that in the valley, the spice- 

 wood, the oak, and the madrona. The grasses are the same, the wild 

 oat, alfileria, and the clovers. Its highest point is a wheat field upon 

 which the grain is now green. There are brooks and springs on all 

 sides, and lakes of considerable size, on this elevated table, which is, at 

 its greatest height, over two thousand feet above the valleys on either 

 side. The whole length of the mountain is about twenty-five miles from 

 its spring on the bay shore to its termination near Santa Eosa. Its 

 average width is about eight miles from the valley on one side to the 

 foothill on the other. Much of the land is under cultivation, and there 

 is not an acre too steep for grazing either sheep or cattle. There is 

 one other peculiarity of this mountain worthy of notice; no streams of 

 any size flow from it on either side. Except in freshets but little water 

 from this great area of upland finds its way to the plain. It absorbs 

 the greater part of the water which falls upon it. Just opposite, on the 

 north side of the Guilucos mountain, not much higher, three large 

 streams arise, two of which flow across the Santa Eosa plains to the 

 Lagoon, a tributary of Eussian Eiver, and another southward to San 

 Pablo Bay through Sonoma Valley. Each of these streams might for 

 half the year be classed as rivers, while from the opposite mountains 

 there is no flow of water of sufficient volume to be classed otherwise 

 than as a brook. The face of the Sonoma Mountain overlooking Sonoma 

 Valley, from foothill to summit, is grape land of the choicest kind; the 

 opposite side, facing the plains of Santa Eosa and Petaluma, is too much 

 exposed for grapes, but is equal to any for dairying and grazing land 

 and for seed and stone fruits. 



TOWNSHIP SUBDIVISIONS. 



We have given above the geographical subdivisions of Sonoma County. 

 The county is divided into townships for official purposes. Sonoma 



