AGRICULTURE. 247 



for by the superior yield as compared with the varieties previ- 

 ously mentioned. The Black Hamburg is large, fine in flavor, 

 and well suited to transportation, but inferior to the Rose of 

 Peru. The Isabella and Catawba, several Muscatels, and 

 some varieties of the Chasselas, are good for the table, but 

 they do not bear shipment well. The Zinfindel, Malvoisie, 

 Riessling, Black Burgundy, and Traminer, are excellent for 

 wine, but are not in demand for the table. The Mission 

 grape, especially when grown in the Los Angeles district, is 

 very rich in sugar if plucked soon after ripening ; and if left 

 on the vine till November, the sugar changes to spirit, so that 

 it becomes highly vinous, and is for that reason preferred by 

 some persons ; but it could not be transported from the South- 

 ern Coast to the Mississippi Valley with profit, although it 

 could be obtained in any quantity at 2 cents per pound. 



176. Advantages. The advantages of California for the 

 cultivation of the grape are the following : 



1. Californian vineyards produce ordinarily twice as much 

 as the vineyards of any other grape district, if general report 

 be true. Here, twelve thousand pounds of grapes per acre 

 is a crop as common as six thousand in France, Germany, or 

 Ohio. Why our vineyards should produce so much more than 

 those elsewhere I know not, but the fact is indubitable. 

 Crops of twenty thousand pounds per acre have been seen here. 



2. The grape crop seldom fails, as it does in every other 

 country. This is owing partly to the fact that we have no 

 severe frosts, no hail, and no storms of rain and electricity 

 from the time the vine buds until the grape is gathered, each 

 of which often causes a total loss of the crops in Europe. 

 There is abundant time for gathering the grape ; while in other 

 vine countries the rain and frost destroy the fruit after it is 

 ripe. The oidium the disease which has done such great 

 damage in France appeared in 1859, but has done little in- 

 jury here. Certain kinds of bugs and insects, which do much 

 harm in European vineyards, have never appeared in Cali- 

 fornia. 



