VALUE OF CALIFORNIA GRAPE PRODUCTS 285 



wine and brandy, which are given at the close of Chapter VI. The 

 California Board of Viticultural Commissioners reports the quantities 

 and products of California grape products in 1913, as follows: 



Table grapes, 7,363 carloads at $950 per car $ 6,994,850 



Wine and brandy, 42,134,988 gallons, estimated selling for 15,000,000 



Raisins, 65,000 tons (below normal), estimated selling for 4,840,275 



Total $26,835,125 



THE GRAPE AREA OF CALIFORNIA 



The grape has a very wide range in California. If the immediate 

 seacoast and the higher altitudes on the mountains be excepted, the 

 grape may be planted with a good chance of success anywhere if soil 

 and local topography be suitable. As has been shown in Chapter I, 

 the vine can approach quite close to the ocean if some shelter from 

 prevailing cool winds be afforded, and quite high on the mountains if 

 one keeps out of depressions where late frosts are frequent. In plant- 

 ing the grape in doubtful situations much depends upon choice of 

 proper varieties. For example, in the cool air of the coast region and 

 the short summer of the higher altitudes, early maturing varieties must 

 be the main reliance, for late sorts will not receive heat enough to bring 

 them to full maturity. 



Away from immediate coast influences, and up to perhaps three 

 thousand feet or more on the sides of the Sierra, the grape is success- 

 fully grown both upon the floors of the valleys and upon the hillsides. 

 But there is still need of choice both of special locations and of varieties 

 according to the purposes which the grower has in view. The coast 

 valleys of the upper part of the State produce good table grapes, but 

 they are unfavorable for the raisin industry because of the deficient sun- 

 shine and excessive atmospheric humidity of the autumn months. The 

 best raisins are made in the dry, heated valleys of the interior, and the 

 conditions which there develop the fullest quality of the raisin grape 

 also develop the sugar in some kinds of wine grapes beyond a desir- 

 able percentage. Here again the choice of suitable varieties intrudes 

 itself, for the varieties which yield light table wines in the coast valleys 

 may yield heavy "heady" wines in the interior. Valleys, too, as a rule, 

 although they yield larger crops of grapes and greater measure of 

 wine than similar area on the hillsides, must yield the palm for quality 

 to the warm soils of the slopes. And here enters the business proposi- 

 tion whether large amount and less quality is better than less amount 

 and higher quality. To this there can be no general answer. It de- 

 pends upon the disposition which is to be made of the crop, and the de- 

 mand for it. 



The coloring of certain varieties is a matter underlying their profit- 

 able production for fresh shipments and this is determined by local 

 conditions concerning which the best information is actual observation 

 of their effects. These few facts out of many which could be stated 

 will serve to enforce the fact that wide as is the range of the grape, both 

 localities and varieties for certain purposes must be intelligently chosen. 



