AGEICULTUKE. liOl 



There are many vineyards in the mining counties, but they 

 are small and young. In 1858, an acre of bearing vineyard was 

 worth a thousand dollars ; but since then the supply of grapes 

 and native wines has increased to such an extent, that the vine- 

 yards have depreciated fifty per cent. The profits of wine- 

 making several years ago, induced the vine-growers to make 

 their wine hastily and carelessly, and much of it is poor stufli", 

 that has brought all native wines into discredit. The wine- 

 business, just now depressed, will in a year or tw^o become 

 better, and then vine-planting will take a new start, and vine- 

 yards will rise in value. 



§ 152. Wine-makiJig. — The making of wine is considered a 

 a branch of agriculture. In 1861, California probably made 

 about a million gallons of wine, and the amount Avill increase 

 within five years to three million gallons. The best wines are 

 made from foreign grapes, of which, however, not many are as 

 yet produced in the state ; so that the Mission grapes yield 

 the chief supply. The principal classifications of wane are into 

 red and white, light and heavy, still and sparkling. 



Wine making commences with the ripening of the grapes, 

 about the middle of September. The berry is considered to 

 be fully ripe when the heart has taken a tinge resembling the 

 darkness of the skin ; when the berry is perfectly sweet, and 

 comes off easily from the stem, leaving no juice upon it; and 

 when, on holding a bunch up to the sun, the fibres running 

 from the stem into the berry are nearly or quite invisible. 



The branches are cut off w^ith a knife, after the dew or fog 

 (if any) has been dispelled, put into a basket, and carried to 

 the press. Here the rotten and unripe berries are carefully 

 picked, out, and the bunches are then thrown upon a coarse 

 wire sieve. A man presses the bunches upon this sieve, 

 through which the grapes fdl, some broken and others un- 

 broken, while the large stems and leaves will not pass, and are 

 thrown away. Below the sieve is the masher, composed of 

 two rollers, ten inches in diameter and three feet long, made 

 of iron or wood. These rollers, turning toward each other, 

 9* 



