425 



and the plains to the east, must be dependent on mining or grazing, or the culti- 

 vation of 'the grape. The country must be settled by a mining and pastoral or 

 wine-making population ; and the whole legislation of Congress, directed here- 

 tofore so successfully towards the settlement of lands east of the lOOlh meridian 

 of longitude, must be remodelled and reorganized to suit the new phase which 

 life must assume under conditions so different fnmi those to which we are ac- 

 customed. 



" Southern California, the whole of the upper valley of the Gila, and the upper 

 valley of the del Norte as flir down as the Presidio del Norte, are eminently 

 adapted to the cultivation of the grape. In no part of the world does this luscious 

 fruit flourish with greater luxuriance than in these regions, when properly culti- 

 vated. Those versed in the cultivation, of the vine represent that all the 

 conditions of soil, humidity, and temperature are united in these regions to pro- 

 duce the grape in the greatest perfection. The soil, composed of the disinte- 

 grated matter of the older rocks and volcanic ashes, is light, porous, and rich. 

 The frosts in winter are just sufficiently severe to destroy the insects without 

 injuring the plant and the rain seldom falls in the season when the plant is 

 flowering, or when the fruit is coming to maturity and liable to rot from exposure 

 to humidity. As a consequence of this condition of things, the fruit, v/heu ripe, 

 has a thin skin, scarcely any pulp, and is devoid of the musky taste usual with 

 American grapes. 



"The manufacture of wine from this grape is still in a crude state; although 

 wine has been made for upwards of a century in El Paso, and is a very consid- 

 erable article of commerce, no one of sufficient intelligence and capital to do 

 justice to the magnificent fruit of the country has yet uiKlertakeu its manufac- 

 ture. As at present made, there is no system followed, uo ingenuity in mechan- 

 ical contrivance practiced, and none of those facilities exist which are usual and 

 necessary in the manufacture of wine on a large scale ; indeed, there seems to 

 be no great desire, beyond that of producing as much alcoholic matter as possi- 

 ble. The demand for strong alcoholic drinks has much increased with the ad- 

 vent of the Americans ; and in proportion as this demand has increased, the 

 wine has decreased in quality. On one occasion I drank wine in El Paso which 

 compared favorably with the richest Burgundy. The production of this wine 

 must have been purely accidental, for other wine, made of the same grape and 

 grown in the same year, was scarcely fit to drink. Cotton and corn grow with 

 luxuriance, where water can be brought to irrigate the soil, throughout the val- 

 leys of the Gila and Rio Bravo, and upon the lower Rio Bi-avo ; and upon the 

 Rio Colorado, below its junction Avith the Gila, sugar cane flourishes." 



IMPORTATIONS OF CLOTIiING MATERIAL. 



The importations of the year have been enormous, and are i-easonable cause 

 for alarm, with reference to the future value and profits of labor. The month 

 of November, it is true, has shown an import of smaller magnitude than Nu- 

 vember of last year, which was excessive. The manufactures of wool, cotton, 

 and flax used in the United Slates should be produced within the United 

 States, almost Avithoiit exception ; and tiiose of silk should eventually be added. 

 If the same rate of importation shall be continued, the accumulating surplus 

 of foreigji goods burdening the counters of country traders, from the St. John's 

 to the Rio Grande, will displace almost entirely the products of native wool. 

 "We are now producing three-fourths of all the wool we need. Excepting car- 

 pet and combing wools there is no occasion for introducing a single ounce of 

 foreign wool. We can easily produce all the clothing wool needed or to be 

 2 A 



