State Agricultural Society. 499 



fifteen cents per gallon, renders the necessity of converting wine into 

 brandy the more urgent. Again, we have not the intermediate, the wine 

 merchant, with large capital at a reasonable rate of interest, ready to 

 purchase the wines of the producer, and to hold them until matured, and 

 to pjace them properly upon the market. 



Of late years Americans have become familiar with the habits and 

 customs of European people, and have learned that the most temperate 

 people of the world are those living amidst the vine and grape, and who 

 are accustomed to the use of wine. May we not appeal to those engaged 

 in the temperance cause, and ask them to assist in the repeal of all laws 

 that discourage the growth of the grape? 



While the foreign grape matures in October, the Mission grape does 

 not ripen before November or December, when the days are short, the 

 sun far to the south, and the nights cold. To create and quicken the 

 fermentation the roof over the wine tanks and the south side of the wine 

 house should be made of glass; thus the additional warmth will so 

 increase the fermentation of the wine by day as to carry it through the 

 night without interruption. 



The manner of pruning has much to do with the ripening of the grape. 

 Upon the sidehills, with proper exposure and warm soil, where alone the 

 vine should be planted, the grapes should grow near the ground; but in 

 rich, cold, valley land, affected yearly by the late Spring frost, the vine 

 may be raised to five feet with great advantage. Pfy this change in 

 pruning my vintage was increased from one hundred thousand pounds of 

 grapes to four hundred thousand pounds; and upon portions of my 

 vineyard, that had never yielded at all, I gathered over fourteen tons of 

 grapes. In France the average }deld does not exceed two hundred and 

 fifty gallons of wine to the acre; in California it exceeds three times that 

 amount, and as high as one thousand five hundred gallons of wine have 

 been made from a single acre. Here, two j'ears out of the five, the 

 farmer fails to have a crop. The vine yields most of a thy season. 

 AY by, then, should not every farmer plant ten ])er cent of his farm in 

 grapes, selecting the gravelly and most unproductive wheat land, and 

 thus be prepared for every emergency? In France the vineyards are 

 small, and do not average four acres. In the Cognac country every 

 vintner is a distiller, and with his primitive still he does not make more 

 than one or two pipes of brandy. 



Ilenesy sells his brandy after two years, during which time he emjdoys 

 no extraordinary means for ageing it, merely drawing it from time to 

 time from one package to another, and using felt covered with paper for 

 the purpose of filtering it. Although very important, this could not be 

 done under our revenue laws, the removal of the brandy from its original 

 package being prohibited. The laws of Congress were made to govern 

 the distillation of spirits from grain, and cannot be made to apply to the 

 distillation of brandy. This is admitted by the Commissioner and others 

 at Washington; but the whisky ring has proved so formidable that every 

 effort to pass laws especially applicable to the distillation of brandy from 

 the grape has been defeated. Sargent has always done everything pos- 

 sible, but without success. He has now additional strength in Houghton, 

 and another effort should be made with greater promise of success, the 

 importance of sustaining this great interest being much more appreciated 

 since the presence of many members of Congress on the Pacific Coast. 



There is no greater interest remaining undeveloped in the United 

 States than that pertaining to the grape. In California we appreciate 

 its importance. We acknowledge that it staggers under the difficulties 



