cloudless skies, with a system controlling the moisture as effective as this, 

 may be said to have mastered the forces of nature. The quality of the 

 fruit has improved immensely since the California methods were perfected. 

 Every fruit-grower realizes that the profit in his business comes mostly from 

 the first grade of fruit. Scientific irrigation makes it possible for him largely 

 to increase the percentage of the best fruit, and the difference which this 

 makes in the earning capacity of his acres is surprising. Other methods 

 of furrow irrigation have been devised which are scarcely less perfect than 

 those used in the California orange districts. One of the best of these is 

 the result of the labors and experiments of Professor A. E. Blount, of 

 the Agricultural College at Las Cruces, New Mexico. In this case the water 

 is carried in small open ditches, and the furrows are extended in circles 

 around each tree, but the water is never allowed to touch the bark. This 

 method is, perhaps, better adapted to the general needs of the arid region 

 than the more expensive plan of the Californians. 



Grape-Growing For Wine 



FREDERIC T. BIOLETTI 



AFTER the vintage of 1904 the grape-growers and wine-makers of 

 Bordeaux were patting one another on the back. Everybody was 

 happy. The crop of Chateau Margaux had just sold for $8 a gallon. 

 Less famous cellars had sold in proportion. I tasted several of them 

 and they were good. They reminded me of some of the best wines 

 I had tasted, grown on the red hill sides of California. They had rea- 

 son to be proud of them. 



At the cellars of Chateau Margaux they were bottling the vintage of 

 1902. In 1902 the wine was poor and was not sold. The grapes did not 

 ripen properly and no offer sufficiently high to tempt the owners could be 

 obtained. 



On inquiring for the cause of the great difference in quality betweer> 

 the wines of these two vintages I was told that the wine of 1904 was of 

 such excellence because the grapes ripened thoroughly, and that the grapes 

 ripened thoroughly because the summer had been hot and dry. 



Our summers in California are always hot and dry. 



After the vintage of 1904 in the south of France there was no patting 

 of backs. Everybody was grumbling. Whole cellars of wine were selling at 

 6 cents a gallon. Many were not sold at all. 



At a meeting of grape-growers in the Herault, the various diseases of 

 the vine were being discussed. Peronospora and Black Rot, Phylloxera and 

 Pyrale each in turn received its share of abuse. But none of these could 

 be blamed for the low price of wine. At last it was unanimously decided 

 that the worst enemies of the vines of the Midi were not the diseases, which 

 could be controlled, but Algeria and the beet sugar factories. The wines 

 of the Midi were too thin and watery to compete with those from Algiers. 

 and the cost too high to compete with the sugar wines. Only one remedy 

 was proposed that seemed to offer any hope of improvement. This remedy 

 was to concentrate their grapes or their wine until they would reach the 

 standard demanded by the trade. If they could offer wines to the trade 

 with full body, high alcohol and rich color they would receive remunera- 

 tive prices. 



These are just the qualities which characterize the wines of California. 

 Our wines have full body, high alcohol and deep color. 



With the fertile soil and favorable climate of California, with little to 

 fear from fungus diseases, summer rains or imperfect ripening, we have 

 everything in our favor for the production of unlimited quantities of good, 

 cheap wine of the kind most in demand in the markets of the world. 



For producing the finer qualities of wine we are almost equally fav- 

 ored. In Burgundy, in Medoc, on the Rhine and in all the districts where 



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