GRAPE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA 



BY F. T. BIOLETTI. 



WORK OF THE STATION. 



The growing of grapes and the industries based thereon are in a 

 peculiar sense Californian. California produces, approximately, all 

 the raisins, three quarters of the wine, and a large share of the ship- 

 ping grapes of the United States. 



All these industries have increased in importance with a steady and 

 healthy growth during the last thirty or forty years, and during the 

 last ten years the increase has been about 75%. The new plantations 

 have been particularly numerous and extensive during the last five 

 years. At present there are over 200,000 acres of vineyard in the State, 

 and the prospects of continued expansion are favorable. 



The growing of grapes has many practical and sentimental attrac- 

 tions both for capitalists and small farmers. No other branch of 

 agriculture offers more certainty of steady, profitable returns for 

 invested capital, and none offers superior inducements to the owner 

 of a few acres of land in his effort to make a pleasant and adequate 

 living by his own labor. 



There is very little of the arable land of California which is not 

 capable of producing abundant crops of good grapes, and the future 

 output will be limited only by the demand and extent of the market. 



The very attractiveness of viticulture and the peculiar suitability 

 of California for its development involve dangers which must be 

 avoided if we are to reap the best results from our advantages. A 

 very large proportion of our new arrivals and settlers engage in 

 some branch of grape-growing. Most of them have no knowledge of 

 the business, or have preconceived ideas which are incompatible 

 with our conditions. These conditions are so different from those 

 of the Eastern States, and even from those of most of the grape-grow- 

 ing regions of Europe, that grape-growers from New York, Bordeaux, 

 Burgundy or the Rhingau often fail to obtain better results than 

 those who have had no previous practical experience in cultivating the 

 vine. 



