WINK-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 95 



Alumina ; 18.71 



Phosphoric acid 17 



iSulphuric acid 07 



Water and organic matter 7.d8 



Total -99.55 



Humus 2.16 



Available inorganic .49 



Hygroscopic moisture 7.78 



Absorbed at 15 C. 



The analysis shows good cause for the preference of the vine for th is 

 soil, which is an unusually rich one in all the elements of plant food. 

 Its potash percentage is the highest thus far observed in California, 

 outside of alkali lands. Its supply of lime is not unusually large, but 

 still abundant ; its phosphoric acid percentage is among the highest 

 thus far found in the State, as is, outside of marsh soils, that of humus. 

 In fact, any plant whatsoever might be well pleased with such a soil ; 

 and the facts show that the native vine can be a rank feeder when op- 

 portunity is offered. These vines seemed to be young and had little 

 fruit set, but whether the latter point was an accident of the season, or 

 whether the soil is too rich for full bearing, requires farther observa- 

 tion to determine. If the latter be true, the remedy in such cases 

 would, perhaps, lie in the use of lime around the vines. 



To the above conclusions should probably have been 

 added what seems abundantly obvious now, with a larger ex- 

 perience and scope of observation, viz : That the Calif or- 

 nica^ especially, seeks calcareous soils, which, on the whole, 

 are unusually prevalent in California ; and that its failure to 

 give satisfactory results in the well worn soils of Southern 

 France, regarding the calcareous or non-calcareous nature of 

 which we are without information, may readily be referable to 

 either of two causes, without prejudice to the resistant qual- 

 ities of the native vine in the soils and climate of California. 



So far as observations go, it appears that the Calif arnica 

 is particularly adapted to fertile and heavy soils rich in lime. 

 In these its growth is certainly extraordinary, far outstripping 

 that of any other vine that has come within my observation ; 

 while in the equally heavy, but much less fertile soil of the 

 University vineyard plot at Berkeley, its growth has been 



