CHAPTER I. 



A GLIMPSE AT THE PAST AND PRESENT. 



It cannot be expected, in a book which pretends to be no 

 more than a manual for the grape grower and wine maker, 

 that I should give a history of the industry in California. 

 This, although no doubt it would be a pleasing task to note 

 dow r n its earliest beginnings and do honor to its pioneers, re- 

 quires an abler pen. than mine, one imbued with all the 

 poetry of the subject, and with all the leisure to trace up 

 their records, than can be brought into a practical outline of 

 operations; which, with so vast a subject to handle makes it 

 difficult already to confine myself to such limits as will make 

 the book concise and cheap enough for every grape grower in 

 the state. But a short outline of what has been done so far, 

 would seem necessary and proper, to show what we may ex- 

 pect of the future, and may well be expected of me. 



It is well known that the earliest beginnings were made by 

 the Jesuit fathers at San Gabriel, with what has since become 

 known as the Mission, or as it is erroneously called by many, 

 the California grape. It is no doubt a true Vinifera; whether, 

 as some believe, it was grown from the seed or from cuttings 

 imported from Spain, it certainly bears no resemblance to our 

 native wild vine, Vitis Calif ornica. A few enterprising men saw 

 in its success there the probabilities of a valuable industry. 

 Their experiments were rewarded with abundant crops which 

 even surpassed their expectations, as our dry and equable 

 summers favored the development of the grapes, and although 

 it was thought in those days imperatively necessary to irrigate 

 the vines, they found that the Mission always ripened its 

 fruit, would produce large crops, under a very simple and con- 



