JVotcs and G/caiinigs. 103 



eel the Concord to be a liybrid of Labntsca with cordifolia, and he would ac- 

 count for the strong resemblance of Mr. Moore's grapes to cordifolia by the 

 supposition that they had returned to that species. Of many seedlings which 

 he had raised from his hybrids, without artificial impregnation, every one had 

 returned to the wild type of the female grandparent. On the other hand, Mr. 

 Wilder, who has raised several seedlings from Rogers's hybrids, has found in 

 them no resemblance to their native grandparent, but they have appeared to fol- 

 low the type of the hybrids from which they were raised. 



This is a most interesting and important subject, and it is desirable to accu- 

 mulate all the data from which the laws governing the production of new varie- 

 ties may be deduced ; and to this end we record these facts and inferences. 



California Fruit and Wine. — 1 have already spoken of fruit. It seems 

 to me there can be no other country in the world lilce this. See the range : 

 oranges, lemons, limes, olives, pomegranates, pine-apples, bananas, figs, almonds, 

 grapes, pears, apples, peaches, plums, walnuts, apricots, cherries, nectarines, 

 strawberries, blackberries, currants. Isn't that variety enough } 



Oranges, lemons, and limes grow only in the southern part of the State — Los 

 Angeles County and vicinity. I have not been down there : reports are, that not 

 less than fifteen thousand trees are already in bearing condition, while seventy- 

 five thousand more are growing. Experiments are making farther north, but they 

 do not promise very well. A good tree produces from one thousand to tv>-o thou- 

 sand oranges each year, and trees begin to bear when they are eight or nine years 

 old. They blossom in April or May, and oranges ripen in December and Jan- 

 uary. Lemons and limes want about the same climatic conditions as oranges do, 

 but don't pay as well for the space they occupy and the labor they require. Ohves 

 and figs grow best in the south, but are raised, in favored localities, within thirty 

 or forty miles of San Francisco. I ate all the figs I wanted one afternoon at 

 Belmont, but twenty-five miles away ; on several trees the second growtli was 

 coming ; but that does not usually ripen except in the southern counties. Nothing 

 of consequence has yet been done in pine-apples and bananas, but a few have 

 been sent up from the lower border, and were found to be of full maturity and 

 excellent quality. I saw bananas growing in the open air at San Mateo in the 

 San Jose Valley ; but they cannot be ripened in that region. 



Grape growing, many men tell me, is overdone. I've seen many vineyards, 

 but have not been down into the vine country proper. Grapes are the fruit that 

 everybody eats in August, and September, and October — for all I know, in other 

 months also. They are so abundant that it is cheaper to eat them than to let 

 ihcm alone. There was a notion here, half a dozen years ago, that money could 

 be made in wine, and preparations were accordingly begun on a grand scale. 

 Something of a business is done, but the markets of the world do not yet take 

 vigorous hold of California wine. One finds it everywhere in the State, and a 

 great deal of it is used ; but, curiously enough, they tell me at the San Francisco 

 Custom House that there will be imported this year not less than eight million 

 dollars' worth of foreign wines and other liquors ; which shows that the Califor- 

 nians like something stronger than tea and coffee, — stronger than their own 

 home-made wines. Co7-respondent Boston Daily Advertiser. 



