HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 337 



tern of trade, it is only necessary to state that the so-called Cali- 

 fornia wine houses in Minneapolis that profess to sell a pure un- 

 adulterated article of wines at bed rock prices, charge from $2 

 to $2.50 per gallon for wines which I was informed by one of 

 the principal wine makers of Napa Valley, Cal., could be made 

 profitably at from 15 to 20 cents per gallon. The grapes cost 

 them from 815 to $18 per ton, which is the usual price, and they 

 realize from 20 to 25 cents per gallon for their wines at wholesale. 

 I do know, however, that the business is immense from the size 

 of the vineyards and wine houses which we saw almost every- 

 where in California. At Vina, where our excursion halted to 

 see Senator Stanford's place, there are over 3,500 acres in vine- 

 yard with a winery attached, having a capacity of 1,500,000 

 gallons. There were in stock at the time over 600,000 gallons of 

 last year's vintage. 



Horticulture in California may be classed under three separate 

 heads or divisions, viz.: First, the growing of grapes; second, 

 of citrus fruits; and third, of deciduous fruits, and no one pre- 

 tends to pursue more than one branch of those industries. It 

 stands us in hand as much to look after our needed supplies of 

 fruits as it does to procure a market for our own products. 

 Having glanced at the wine industry by way of illustration (for 

 I take no stock in it, believing it to be a greater curse than bless- 

 ing), I proceed to notice more particularly the class of deciduous 

 fruits. 



Minnesota consumes annually a large amount of canned and 

 dried fruits, and it is a satisfaction to know that they are pro- 

 duced so abundantly, and at so small a cost as to place them 

 within our reach. 



The largest orchards perhaps in the state are those around San 

 Jose, in fact the county may be said to be one entire orchard. 

 Most of them contain several varieties of fruits, but some plant 

 largely of only one or two kinds for a special purpose. Near 

 Walnut creek, in Conta Costa county, I saw a young orchard of 

 three hundred acres, all in Bartl^t pears. At San Le Andro, in 

 Alameda county, there is an orchard containing ten acres of 

 cherries, the fi^iest trees I ever saw, all of them of the Gov. 

 "Wood variety. The fruit is used at the canneries. Most of the 

 canned goods were formerly put up under the brand of Lusk & 

 Co., of San Francisco, who really were the purchasers aftid not 

 the producers. Very little in proportion is shipped to the east- 

 ern markets fresh as gathered from the trees. 

 Vol. IV— 43. 



