WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 189 



duty of one cent per pound on the latter so long as they are 

 reimbursed. Nor is it their business or care whether we use 

 one variety and avoid the tax, or the cheaper with equally 

 beneficial results. - 



The imports of sublimed sulphur to a single merchant in 

 this city have cost California vineyardists in the past three 

 years nearly $15,000 duty, no benefits of which have accrued 

 to our vineyards ; and this, a loss to proprietors, adds another 

 conspicuous monument to the long and unwholesome prac- 

 tice among some of our people of aping the French in every- 

 thing. 



We therefore conclude from the foregoing that "California 

 sulphur" means sulphur from other countries, ground or sub- 

 limed only in California ; and that for economy's sake, if any 

 one insist on a foreign article, he should buy the ground sulphur 

 and thereby escape the duty of one cent per pound. 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OF GROUND AND SUBLIMED SULPHUR 

 FOR VINEYARD USE. 



This much- mooted .question has been carelessly handled 

 by many. First let us comprehend the effect of any sulphur 

 distributed in the vineyard. Sulphur, in a fine condition, 

 exposed to the atmosphere, 'undergoes a partial evaporation ; 

 the vapor produced comes in contact with the germs ororgans 

 of the oidiurn and accomplishes their destruction. Evapora- 

 tion is therefore the result desired. This evaporation is par- 

 ticularly favored by exposure to the suns heat, and especially 

 when the ambiant temperature reaches 70 F or over. 



Now, other things being equal, the finer the sulphur the 

 greater must be the surface exposed and consequently the 

 more rapid the evaporation. Evaporation is the result de- 

 sired. Sublimed sulphur is that produced by boiling crude 

 brimstone and condensing the vapor thus formed in a closed 

 chamber. In cooling the vapor the sulphur is recovered in 



