258 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



that good wine can be made by machine-aeration, but so long 

 as the business is conducted fraudulently as at present, it 

 would be foolish to expect any excellence in the product. The 

 wine is sold by the forged label, and not by its merit. We 

 want laws making the imitation of a label a crime, and requir- 

 ing a stamp on imitation articles showing their true quality- 

 Give us proper legislation, and let us see whether we cannot 

 do as well. The sparkling wine of our State is now far above 

 the average of France in quality, and ranks little below, per- 

 haps, half a dozen of the best French ; and we are fully pre- 

 pared now to profit from legislation to protect, not simply home 

 production, but common honesty. 



184. Apples. The Spanish Californians had a few apple 

 trees, but they were seedlings of a poor class. The first good 

 apples were imported from Oregon, in 1849 ; but the varieties 

 were few and the trees did not thrive. Either the stock was 

 not the best, or the change of climate had an injurious influ- 

 ence on them. In 1852 a few trees were imported by way of 

 the Isthmus of Panama ; other importations followed very rap- 

 idly, and now the State has millions of trees in nursery, and 

 about eight hundred thousand bearing trees in orchard, includ- 

 ing two hundred varieties, the best of Europe and the Atlan- 

 tic States, both standard and dwarf trees. 



Apple-trees are usually planted from twelve to thirty feet 

 apart, fourteen or sixteen being the more common distances. 

 This is much closer together than is customary in the Atlantic 

 States : the reason for the denser planting here being to pre- 

 vent injury by the wind, and to keep the earth moist by shad- 

 ing it against the sun. The apple-tree comes into bearing in 

 the third year in California, about two years earlier than in 

 the Eastern States. It also grows more rapidly, a yearling 

 tree here being as large as a two-year old tree in Ohio. Grafts 

 on yearling stocks have been known to grow six and eight 

 feet in a season twice as long as similar grafts will grow in 

 the Middle States. The fruit usually grows larger here than 



