BULLETINS OF THE ELEVENTH CENSUS. 451 



The choice varieties of the French and German types seem to come nearer 

 to reproducing themselves here than elsewhere. In this district are suc- 

 cessfully grown the finest varieties of French champagne grapes, which 

 yield a handsome profit to the producers. There is one cellar in this 

 district with a capacity of 800,000 bottles, producing champagne by natural 

 fermentation in the bottle. The champagne industry in California is a 

 growing one, and its future is bright with promise. While wine is the 

 leading viticultural product, fine table grapes are also produced in this 

 district. 



Some good, wholesome dry wines are produced in the second district, 

 but they are of a different character from the German and French types. 

 Grapes for table use and raisins are extensively grown, a large portion of 

 the new plantings being for raisins. 



In the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, and in the Southern dis- 

 trict, some excellent dry wines are produced, but these valleys excel in 

 their Port, Muscatel, Angelica, and other heavy sweet wines. 



For the purposes of this bulletin it is only necessary to treat of the 

 principal counties in each district where the heaviest viticultural products 

 are found. 



In Napa county, in the first district, there are 20,763 acres. Phylloxera 

 has destroyed many acres of vines in this county, but the acreage has been 

 kept up to about the same point by replanting on resistant stock and the 

 planting of new vineyards further up on the foothills, where a choice 

 variety of grapes is grown and phylloxera is not such a scourge. There 

 are 142 wine cellars in Napa, many of them of modern construction, con- 

 taining all the appliances for the manufacture and handling of wines. 

 There were 3,000,000 gallons of wine made in this county in the census 

 year 1889. 



Sonoma county, in this district, in 1889 had 21,683 acres of bearing vine- 

 yards. The same conditions exist here relative to the quality of grapes 

 and wines produced as in Napa. The ravages of phylloxera were felt in 

 Sonoma at an earlier day than in Napa, appearing about 1874, and a great 

 many vineyards were destroyed. It is now generally believed that the 

 destruction caused by the phylloxera can be stayed by growing the native 

 resistant stock and grafting upon that the foreign vinifera. 



In Sonoma county in 1889 there were produced about 1,756,300 gallons 

 of wine and 250,000 gallons of brandy. The quality of the dry white 

 wines was marked. 



Santa Clara county, in this district, contains some 12,500 acres of bear- 

 ing vineyards, and should enjoy a reputation for fine white and red wines 

 equal to Sonoma and Napa. This and Santa Cruz county in 1889 pro- 

 duced 2,544,000 gallons of wine. As yet the phylloxera has troubled the 

 vineyards but little in comparison with the counties before mentioned. 

 There is said to be a deep gravelly bed underlying this whole surface, in 

 which the growers say the phylloxera does not work with success. 



Alameda county, in the first district, has 6,500 acres of bearing vines, 

 and produces a type of wine resembling the white and red wines of 

 France, and in this part of the district, known as the " Livermore district," 

 a high grade of Sauterne and claret is produced. The geological forma- 

 tion of the valleys and slopes of the Mount Diablo range more nearly 

 reproduce the soil conditions that characterize the department of the 

 Gironde in France than any other section on the coast. In this district 

 there were produced in 1889 some 60,000 gallons of wine, noted more for 



