198 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



juice and raisins will continue indefinitely, because 

 of their substitutive uses, and therefore there will be 

 much inferior fruit from the expansion of production 

 of types of grapes peculiar to California, from which 

 it will be profitable to manufacture a by-product of 

 grape sirup, even if the old forms of sirup should 

 return to normal values. Demonstrations of the 

 soundness of these assumptions can only be reached 

 in due course of economic, manufacturing and com- 

 mercial experience. 



SPECIAL CROPS 



In 1919 California was not only the first state of 

 the Union in hop-growing but produced about two- 

 thirds of all the hops raised in this country. Hop- 

 growing began in 1855 with roots brought from Ver- 

 mont and planted in Alameda County by Wilson and 

 Daniel Flint, of whom the latter continued a hop- 

 grower for about half a century in the vicinity of 

 Sacramento. The crop has been almost exclusively 

 grown on riverside loams, although some upland 

 loams have also been successfully used. The pro- 

 ducing region has always remained in the central part 

 of the State, both in the interior valleys (Region 4, 

 Chapter I) and in the coast valleys north and south 

 of San Francisco (Region 2). The first crop in 1856 

 showed that the prevailing characteristics of Cali- 

 fornia hops would be large size and large acre yield 

 due to the favorable growing conditions ; bright color, 

 because the dry air prevented discolorations from 



