AND WINE MAKING. 171 



I prune with low heads and short spurs of two fruit 

 buds each. Any variety that will not )deld from four to 

 six tons per acre is pruned in this manner: I leave from 

 two to four canes of 2-feet each, and about as many short 

 spurs of two buds each, for long canes the next year, 

 when the long ones are to be entirely removed. The 

 Riessling, Muscatel, and some others, will yield twice 

 as much by this method of pruning, as the other. Oc- 

 casionally there are instances reported of a single variety, 

 or a small vineyard, yielding 10, 12, 14, and even 20 tons 

 on irrigated land, but such crops are a positive injury to 

 both fruit and vine. My vineyard of 120 acres yielded 

 in 1878, 5 1 /, tons per acre, on 30 acres of which the vines 

 were only three years old, but this season, on account of 

 cold rains, alternated by extreme heat, while the vines 

 were in bloom, the same vineyard only had an average of 

 4 tons. The crop throughout the State is about one- 

 fourth short. 



In 1876 the business dragged heavily, nearly bankrupt- 

 ing numbers. Wines were in large stock and had to be 

 sold to distillers and vinegar factories, at 10 to 15 cents 

 per gallon. Savings banks refused to make loans on 

 vineyard property, considering that vines added no value 

 to the land whatever. Even many small vineyards were 

 dug out. Mission grapes sold from $8 to $10 per ton. I 

 could only get an offer of $13 per ton for a lot of 300 

 tons of grapes of choice foreign varieties, delivered at the 

 cellar and payable in three, six, and nine months. There 

 was no market for our wines. They were in bad repute, 

 due mainly to adulterating processes which were carried 

 on to a very great extent in the interest of importers, and 

 for the purpose of crushing the wine and brandy manu- 

 facture here. But since that time the business has 

 steadily increased. The report of the Surveyor General 

 of the State for the year 1876 gave 35,000 acres of vine- 

 yards ; the next year 41,000 ; the next 77,000 ; and this 



