WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 85 



ough and is faithfully kept up. But there always remains a 

 certain margin of natural adaptation which must be respected 

 even in the cultivated plant, and the more because climatic 

 and seasonal conditions may render a strict fulfillment of the 

 best culture impracticable or unavailing for the time being. 

 Those cultivating adobe soils will appreciate the importance 

 which this consideration may acquire, not only for one, but 

 for several consecutive seasons. 



Species and Varieties of Rcsistants. Of the American spe- 

 cies and varieties that, for practical purposes, may be consid- 

 ered as resistant under proper conditions of soil and moisture, 

 the following are the most prominent: 



i . The Vitis, Riparia, or northern riverside grape and its 

 cultivated varieties, of which the Taylor and the Clinton are 

 the chief. The resistant power of the latter is now, however, 

 pretty generally admitted to be inferior to that of their wild 

 prototype, although they are better adapted to a great variety 

 of soils. The Riparia is in its wild state emphatically a "river- 

 side " grape, which in its natural condition ascends into the 

 uplands only exceptionally, when these are unusually moist 

 and fertile. Un'der cultivation, nevertheless, it does well on 

 good upland, but is of slower growth than in its natural 

 habitat. It does not frequent the heavier soils as much as the 

 alluvial loams, of the upper Mississippi Valley. It is of very 

 long-jointed, slender growth, so that its canes, while of great 

 length and bearing abundance of foliage, are often borne by a 

 surprisingly thin trunk, which is not as easy to graft as most 

 other varieties. The cuttings root with great ease, but gen- 

 erally only a portion, varying according to the soil and sea- 

 sons from one half to three fourths, are large enough to be 

 successfully grafted the third year; seedlings arrive at about 

 the same condition the fourth year from the seed. To offset 

 these disadvantages the Riparia is now usually considered the 



