343 



since which they have received no artificial irrigation. Tlie vines have been 

 trained about 18 inches high, with bearing buds from 3 to 30, varying accord- 

 ing to the strength of the stalk. Last year (1865) some of these stalks produced 

 70 pounds of well-matured grapes. The vineyard contains 28,000 vines, 12,000 

 of which will bear this year, and 2 1,000 cuttings were set out this spring. All the 

 vines look well, and the bearing vines promise an abundant yield. They expect 

 tomakeatleast 10,000gall()ns of wine next fall. There is nothing peculiar about 

 making the wine. The grapes were permitted to get very ripe iipon the stem, 

 were then picked, crushed between two rollers, and dropped into a vat holding 

 about 600 gallons, where they were left to ferment in the skin and stem from two 

 to three days, when the juice was expressed and put into tanks of 600 gallons 

 capacity to complete fermentation. From these tanks the sample was taken. 



From B. N. Bugby, of the Natoma vineyard, at Folsom, nine varieties of wine, 

 with a sample of brandy are received. The Beni Carlo is fermented on the 

 skins for ten days to give it color and aroma. The other varieties are made by 

 pressing out the juice and fermenting in the casks. The samples are as follows : 

 White Muscat; Yerdelho, white; white Malaga; black Zuifindol; Beni Carlo ; 

 white Reisling; white Pincaux ; red Tramiuer. The vineyard contains about 

 48,000 vines, or about 56 acres, all of it biokeu and uneven. Not one rod of 

 level land is contained in the vineyard. The soil is very shallow; the bedrock 

 is of slate and "stands vertically." 



Four bottles of Mission grape wine were received from J. AV. Griswold & 

 Suns, of the vintages of 1864 and 1865. Their vineyard is located in Calaveras 

 county, on a southern slope, 1,000 feet above tide-water, near the great copper 

 leads. Its soil is of a red color, very similar to that which is so common among 

 the foot-hills of this section. 



An analysis will be made of these wines and soils, and a report upon them 

 will be given hereafter. 



CATTLE IN TEXAS. 



The table showing an estimate of the live stock in the southern States at the 

 present time, (which is found 'on another page,) places the number of cattle in 

 Texas at 3,111,475, against 3,535,768 in 1860. No other State on the list 

 comes so near the standard of 1860. All kinds of farm stock have been main- 

 tained in a similar ratio, while sheep have been increased, according to this es- 

 timate, about twenty per cent. Immense numbers of cattle are already col- 

 lected for driving or shipping to a market. Our correspondent in Calhoun 

 county (on the Gulf coast) reports as many cattle as in 1860, held at prices re- 

 markably low, as compared with prevailing rates in this section of the country. 

 Beeves may be had for $15 (in specie) per head, and steers at $4 to $5. It 

 has been estimated that 81,000,000 worth of stock is ready to go to market 

 from Texas at the present time. 



INSECTS. 



The following extracts from correspondence will serve to illustrate the losses 

 incurred through these pests of agriculture : 



Tiimhh coiinfy, Kentucky. — " The tobacco-worm is the most formidable ad- 

 versary the farmer has to contend against in the culture of the weed, and this 

 season many planters in this county, and elsewhere, are providing and adminis- 

 tering poison to the fly which lays the egg. The process generally pursued is 



