THE MONTHLY BULLETIISr. 511 



yards and create a world-wide market for their wines. Pliny, who is 

 so rich in precious information on the agricultural and social advances 

 of Italy, tells us that Italy opened her hills and plains to the triumphal 

 entrance of the god Dionysius about 120 years B. C, and the cultivation 

 of the grape has gone on uninterruptedly ever since. Every generation 

 has poured forth new capital to enlarge its inheritance of vineyards. 



Introduced by the Church. 



The vine was introduced into France by the conquering Roman 

 legions, and practically the same conditions as in Italy prevail there, 

 only that a small area of the north of France does not produce grapes, 

 while in Italy there is practically no section where grapes are not 

 grown and wine made. 



The viticultural industry of California, on the other hand, is really 

 only half a century old, although the Franciscan Fathers planted the 

 grapevine in California shortly after their arrival at San Diego in 1769. 

 As the other missions were established, small tracts were planted close 

 around their houses of worship. The padres guarded them jealously 

 with high adobe walls, cultivated the vines carefully, gathered their 

 fruit, and made wnne, which was used in their religious ceremonies, or 

 consumed by the good fathers, their occasional visitors, and their 

 . immediate retainers. 



Even after the arrival of Americans in 1849, and with them repre- 

 sentatives from every civilized nationality on the globe, but little 

 advance was made toward increasing the area of viticulture until 1859, 

 when, through the publication of vine articles in the reports of the 

 State Agricultural Society, and in the newspapers, a general and wide- 

 spread interest manifested itself in vine planting, and the area of our 

 vineyards became very greatly increased. A very large proportion, 

 however, of these new plantations consisted of table grape-producing 

 vines, and the remainder were almost exclusively composed of the old 

 Mission variety, which has now practically disappeared from Cali- 

 fornia's vineyard land. 



Fostered by Our Legislature. 



In the early sixties, our state legislature sent a commission abroad 

 to secure the finest varieties of grapes in Europe and Asia. This 

 resulted in the planting of better varieties for the table, for the wine 

 press, and for raisin curing; but it was not until about 1880 that the 

 foreign varieties of grapes were set out extensively, for up to that time 

 there were only a limited few who believed that any grapes could be 

 as good as the old Mission variety, which produced an ordinary, coarse, 

 heavy wine, taking an indefinite period to mature. 



Through the persistent efi'orts of a few enterprising viticultnrists, 

 small quantities of wine were produced from imported varieties, whose 

 character was so distinctive and so strikingly showed superiority over 

 those made from the Mission, that new faith in the future of California 

 wines was born, and the belief spread that under proper conditions our 



