WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 375 



CHAPTER XIX. 



WINE SONGS. 



" Wine makes glad the heart of man." It is therefore not 

 surprising that all wine producing nations have had poets who 

 have glorified their favorite beverage in song, and that singing 

 and merriment prevails during the vintage. But none has 

 more of them than Germany, the fatherland of song; while 

 America is singularly deficient in them, and as far as I know, 

 California, the coming "Vineland " of the old legend, has not 

 yet produced any. Let us hope that the innocent hilarity, 

 the poetic sentiment which good wine inspires, will induce 

 some of our poets to immortalize themselves and glorify their 

 State and its noblest product in song. My poetic vein, If I 

 ever had one, has long ceased to flow, or I would try. But 

 at the conclusion of a book devoted to grape culture and wine 

 making, I cannot forego the pleasure of quoting a few transla- 

 tions of German wine songs, nearly as good as the original, 

 and hope that in the next "improved and enlarged edition," 

 if this little volume should meet with favor enough to need 

 one, I can have the pleasure to add some California lyric, by 

 native poets. 



FATHER NOAH, THE FIRST WINE GROWER. 



When Noah left his floating frame, 



Our Lord to Father Noah came ; 



He prized his pious offering, 



And spake: "Thou'st done a goodly thing, 



And, to reward thy piety, 



Thou may'st e'en choose a boon from me." 



