THE CALIFORNIA GRAPE. 



another's pollen. "While the mother plant is in bloom, care must be taken to keep oif in 

 sects, and the female should be some distance from any other grapevine which is in bloom, 

 for the pollen is a very subtle substance and a proximity might destroy all success. 



As this subject is of such paramount and national importance, you will perhaps think 

 these few hints of use to some of your numerous subscribers. 



Yours most respectfully, Wm. Chorlton. 



New Brighton, Statcn Island. 



THE CALIFORNIA GRAPE. 



BY R. G. PARDEE, PALMYRA, N. Y. 



There has been an unusual interest for some time past, to learn something definite re- 

 specting a grape growing in California, of which almost every return traveller speaks in 

 the most extravagant terms. 



During the State Fair at Rochester, I was privileged with an interview with an intelli- 

 gent officer in the U. S. Army, Capt. II , who, with his accomplished lady, spent a 



year or two in California, mostly at San Diego — and from whom I gained a more reliable 

 and particular account than I have hitherto seen. 



They assure me the grape is of richer flavor as a table fruit, than any of our foreign 

 vinery grapes, and we had just been eating some of those superior Black Hamburgh and 

 others, to which the first premium was awarded at the state fair. 



The grape is a reddish purple, but a trifle larger than a full size Catawba, and yet the 

 bunches are enormous — often weighing three pounds, and some twelve to eighteen inches 

 long. 



It is always cultivated in the vineyard mode, except each vine, instead of being trained 

 to a pillar, is allowed to fall in a heap on the ground, under which hangs three or four 

 enormous bunches of these unequalled grapes. They say as far as their observation ex- 

 tended in California, and certainly in the vicinity of San Diego, there is no such thing as a 

 native or wild growing grape, to be found. Capt. H. says the grape makes a fine wine, 

 very similar to the Tarragonna wine of Spain, and he saw some immense wine vats for 

 making wine on a vast scale, which were built a long time ago. 



The general impression seems to be, that the grape was imported from Spain many years 

 ago, and has improved in flavor by being cultured in the very genial soil of California, so 

 that now it cannot be identified with any foreign grape. 



AVhether these impressions are correct, could very soon be ascertained, if the cuttings 

 were sent across the Isthmus this winter, and placed in a process of cultivation. 



R. G. P. 



"We have heard before of this fine grape — which is probably some variety from the 

 South of Europe, not introduced into our collections. "Will not some of our readers who 

 have friends travelling through San Diego, take a little pains to get some cuttings of this 

 variety. In winter they might be carried in one's trunk, as easily as dry sticks. Ed. 



