WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 187 



ported or domestic, and the manner and time best for 

 making the treatment. 



The vineyards of California consume -annually 1,200 tons 

 of sulphur, an average of about 15 Ibs of sulphur per acre. 

 None of this sulphur is the product of California mines or 

 deposits as many suppose. For three years previous to 1887 

 sulphur sublimers and grinders have been entirely dependent 

 on countries other than the United States for their raw mater- 

 ial. There has of late years been no sulphur found in Cali- 

 fornia which could pay the cost of mining, refining and trans- 

 portation to San Francisco, and be sold here at even double 

 the present cost of sulphur imported from Sicily or Japan. 



Four years ago California received small quantities of sul- 

 phur from Nevada, but the competition of cheap labor in the 

 Orient, and cheap transportation by sea soon choked out the 

 local industry. Considerable promise comes to the home in- 

 dustry now from Utah, where large deposits are being worked, 

 and the refined product, ground and sublimed, are being 

 placed on the California market at the same figures as the im- 

 ported vineyard sulphur ; or that prepared in San Francisco 

 from the imported raw material. How long the sulphur 

 mines of Utah will continue available to consumers in the 

 United States will depend entirely upon railroad freights, 

 which have of late been so capricious as to preclude any cer- 

 tain future dependence. 



To show the comparative insignificance of our own sulphur 

 mines, let it be known that in 1880 there were mined in the 

 whole United States 600 tons, while our imports for 1881 

 aggregated 105,438 tons. 



This latter quantity came almost exclusively from Sicily. 

 Virtually, the Island of Sicily furnishes the world with sul- 

 phur, notwithstanding Japan is now her most formidable 

 competitor for the Pacific Coast of North America. Sicily 

 has for years been the original point of production for the sul- 



