24 Annals of Horticulture. 



value of an acre, the immense total of $9,817,200 is reached 

 for the entire grape crop of 1894 off the vines now planted. 



''Of the 5,600,000 acres cf land comprising this county 

 (Fresno) at least a fourth may be classed as agricultural land. 

 Owing to the absence of water in sufficient quantities, however, 

 only one-third of this amount, or about 400,000 acres, is suit- 

 able for the culture of the grape. But these 400,000 are here 

 awaiting the coming of the enterprising capitalist and the in- 

 dustrious home seeker. 



"The California horticulturist finds it hard to procure 

 laborers. The case was well stated by Mr. W. H. Mills, in 

 his State Fair address. He says : 'The vineyard owned by 

 Senator Stanford is the largest in the world. It covers 3,900 

 acres of bearing vines. It is operated under a single control, 

 and is the largest operation of its kind known. The statisti- 

 cal facts relating to it would be the equivalent of statistical 

 facts relating to thirty-nine vineyards of 100 acres each, and 

 the facts are as follows : Exclusive of any labor employed in 

 planting or grafting old vines, the operations of the vineyard 

 require the labor of 135 men for six months ; that is the 

 maximum requirement of the period of cultivation ; then 

 comes the vintage. This requires the steady employment of 

 500 men every part of two months, but for three weeks of 

 that period the demand will be for 700 men. For steady 

 annual employment, but 70 men are required. Here we 

 have a minimum of annual employment equal to 70 men, 

 for the period of cultivation 135 men, and a maximum during 

 the vintage of 700 men. The maximum is ten times the 

 minimum in this case. There are about 200,000 acres of 

 bearing vineyard in this state. Carrying the proportions de- 

 rived from an exhibit of the great vineyard into the entire 

 vineyards of the state, and the 200,000 acres of vineyard in 

 this state would give us annual employment for 3,500 men. 

 It will at once be seen that, if grape- growing was the sole in- 

 dustry of the state, the 3,500 men who would find in it steady 

 employment would be the only available labor for the vintage, 

 and they would be grossly inadequate. As has already been 

 shown, the vintage requires ten times as many men as the in- 

 dustry affords annual employment. It would be impossible to 

 have the labor of nine men available for a few months in the 

 vintage season for one man who might find steady employ- 





