XiV INTRODUCTION. 



children, grand-children, great-grand-children, and great-great-grand-ehild- 

 ren to the State. The vine was watered from a mineral spring, and the 

 old lady said the grapes and the wine from it were better than any others 

 in the neighborhood, and that the superior excellence was due to the 

 mineral water. 



E. M. Smith, in Coloma, has an Isabella vine which is now in its fifth 

 year, and in 1866 it bore 1,500 bunches of grapes, which weighed 420 

 pounds. He estimated the yield for 186*7 at 2,500 bunches and 1,000 

 pounds. I visited the vine and started to count the bunches, but gave it 

 up in despair, and determined to accept Mr. Smith's estimate. 



The value of the wine exported in 1863 was $19,000 ; in 1864, $41,000 ; 

 in 1S65, $89,000; in 1866, $169,000; and in the first half of 1867, 

 $62,000. 



§ 9. Hop. — The cultivation of the hop on a large scale has been estab- 

 lished with profit. Several fields of cotton, of several hundred acres each, 

 were cultivated for two or three years during the war, but now the busi- 

 ness is less profitable, and most of those who engaged in it have abandoned 

 it. In 1866, 198 bales of Californian cotton were brought to San Francisco, 

 from Tulare and Los Angeles Counties. Flax-seed and the castor-oil are 

 both grown in the State now. 



§ 10. Silk - Worjns. — Extensive fields have been planted with the w-hite 

 mulberry, and the breeding of silk-worms has been commenced on an ex- 

 tensive scale, and a silk factory has been erected at San Jose. It is found 

 that the worms thrive wonderfully well in our climate, and are so heavy 

 that it is sufficient to feed them once a day, by giving them a big supply 

 in the morning. 



§ 11. Quartz Mining. — Quartz mining in California is in a very satis- 

 factory and progressive condition. The number of mines being opened 

 and mills being built is much larger than at any previous time ; and, what 

 is more important, the enterprises now in progress are in the hands of men 

 who, as a class, have more learning, more experience, and more prudence, 

 than those who erected quartz mills before the discovery of the Washoe 

 Mines. All the energy and capital of California were concentrated in 

 silver for four or five years, and we are now just getting to study gold- 

 quartz mining as a regular business. 



Among the principal quartz mines of the State are the following : — The 

 Princeton Mine, which has produced $4,000,000 ; the Pine Tree and Joseph- 

 ine, which together produced $350,000 from the 1st May, 1860, to the 1st 

 May, 1863; the Mariposa Mine produced $84,948 in 18G4. Those four 



