80 



CALIFOENIA. 



trying to get rid of him. It is the wisest way 

 to admit the truth frankly, and the truth is 

 that white labor can not compete with Chi- 

 nese. Nor is it worth while to try and seek 

 reasons for this in some inferiority on the part 

 of John. It is sufficient that he can under- 

 work and underlive the Anglo-Saxon and Cel- 

 tic and all other races of European develop- 

 ment. The fact that he can do this is not to 

 his disparagement. There is no more virtue 

 in feeding upon beef and potatoes than in feed- 

 ing upon rice. As a matter of fact rice con- 

 stitutes the main support of a majority of the 

 human race to-day, and no doubt will long 

 continue to do so. Sneers at John because he 

 eats rice, or because he wears a special dress, 

 or because his habits are not like ours, are on 

 a par with the old English sneers at the French, 

 on the ground that they had brass money and 

 wore wooden shoes. All such arguments are 

 simply contemptible, and so are animadver- 

 sions upon the civilization of the Chinese. 

 There are probably not many members of the 

 Convention who know much about that civili- 

 zation, but those who have inquired into it 

 know that it has at least the merit of endur- 

 'ance, and that no other civilization extant has 

 stood the same test of time. All such talk, 

 moreover, is irrelevant. It is quite sufficient 

 to make it clear that competition with the Chi- 

 naman is beyond our capacity, and that amal- 

 gamation with such a people is out of the ques- 

 tion, to establish the fact that 'the Chinese 

 must go ' or that, if they do not go, the Amer- 

 icans will have to. By freely admitting all the 

 strong points of the Chinaman, moreover, it is 

 far easier to make out the case against him. 

 We wish to get rid of him because we fear 

 that he will drive us to the wall. That is a 

 perfectly good reason for excluding him, and 

 we believe that it will prove far less difficult 

 to solve the problem on that line than by at- 

 tacking his morals and talking about his diet." 

 Sufficient was known before the close of the 

 year to make an approximate statement of the 

 grape harvest and wine product. The State 

 now produces more grapes than any other in 

 the Union, and nearly as many as all the others 

 combined. In a good season her product ot 

 wine alone has aggregated about 7,000,000 gal- 

 lons. Besides this product, she has put large 

 quantities of the fruit of her vines into raisins, 

 and has distilled a considerable quantity of the 

 juice into brandy. Grape culture for the year 

 1878 has not been remunerative in the State, 

 because of a short crop and the low price of 

 the fruit in the market. The yield was less 

 than one half of what it should have been. 

 In the Sonoma Valley the yield was one third 

 of a crop, and in the Napa region about the 

 same. It is estimated by competent judges 

 that there are 40,000,000 vines in bearing in 

 the State. These vines ought to yield not less 

 than 12,000,000 gallons of expressed juice; or, 

 more exactly, every three vines should yield 

 one gallon of wine. But this yield has never 



been secured. Three years ago, when tho 

 vines were much more immature, the produc- 

 tion was 7,000,000 gallons, which was found 

 to be in excess of the demand. Nevertheless, 

 the effect was to establish a price for Califor- 

 nia wines which, notwithstanding the great 

 improvement since made in their quality, it 

 has been found impracticable to advance ; so 

 that now, when the wines challenge the highest 

 commendations of the most critical Eastern 

 experts, and are even favorably considered by 

 French connoisseurs by the side of their own 

 most approved products, the producers are 

 compelled to accept prices for their wines 

 which barely pay the cost of production. The 

 product for the year will be about 5,000,000 

 gallons, or less than half a crop. This is part- 

 ly owing to the heavy volume of rain that fell 

 last winter, but more doubtless to the unex- 

 plained causes which forbid a full yield of any 

 fruit, and especially grapes, except at intervals 

 of three or more years. The quality of the 

 fruit, however, has been excellent. Never be- 

 fore have the grapes of California been so rich 

 for wine-making. The light red wines are 

 pronounced not only superior to any hereto- 

 fore produced, but equal to the best French 

 production. The white wines are also much 

 improved over the product of former years. 

 This improvement is attributable to the age of 

 the vines, and also to the greater knowledge 

 of the vineyardists in treating them and in 

 handling the grapes. 



The increase in the demand for California 

 wines is very marked this year, especially for 

 export. It is estimated that this export will 

 reach 2,000,000 gallons, against 1,500,000 gal- 

 lons last year, and the prospects are favorable 

 for a still larger foreign trade in 1879. Sweet 

 wines are now very scarce, and command a 

 high price in the market. Wines of this class, 

 which sold last year for 40 cents a gallon, now 

 readily command 50 cents, and are hard to 

 find. On the whole, the wine interests of Cali- 

 fornia are considered to be in a very promising 

 condition, and the industry has reached a stage 

 where it is capable of taking care of itself, if it 

 can only be let alone. There exists, however, j 

 an anxious looking toward Washington, from 

 a fear of some alteration of the tariff which 

 might disturb or destroy the interest altogether, 

 or some commercial- treaty arrangement with 

 France which might be equally injurious. The 

 ravages of the phylloxera have been mainly 

 confined to the Sonoma Valley, with some 

 slight manifestations of its presence in the Napa 

 Valley. No traces of it have been found in Los 

 Angeles County, or other grape regions. In 

 the Sonoma Valley it has killed out from five 

 to six hundred acres of vineyards. It has been 

 observed that this pest prefers the more com- 

 mon or ordinary vine. It selects the Mission 

 grape in preference to all others when it can 

 find it to feed on. Experiments to destroy it 

 have been made with tubes of sulpho-carbon, 

 and if taken in time that is, before the vine 



