17 



package and distribute a few seeds among his 

 neighbors for planting, will do himself and 

 his section of the country a great benefit. 

 Subscribers should preserve the plate, as it 

 will prove of great value to persons who are 

 cultivating vines and have no access to more 

 pretentious works. For the convenience of 

 those who desire to frame one, we have had 

 a number struck off on superior paper. Cop- 

 ies of the latter will be sent by mail, postage 

 paid, securely packed in a pasteboard cone, 

 to any address, on receipt of fifty cents in 

 postage stamps. 





The Physical and Moral Influence of 

 the Vine. 



[From the Californian.] 



The progress of viniculture in California 

 invites us to consider two important ques- 

 tions: What are to be its effects upon indus- 

 try and commerce? What are to be its 

 influences upon our people? 



We must first estimate the extent to which 

 this industry may be profitably developed 

 before we can speculate upon its social re- 

 sults. That it will be developed to a great 

 extent, if profitable, we have no reason to 

 doubt. 



Fortunately, we do not need to question 

 the practicability of producing grapes abun- 

 dantly, and as cheaply as in any country that 

 might become our rival for the new markets 

 which we may desire to supply. The vine 

 flourishes in all parts of our State. Its fruit 

 matures to perfection throughout an extent 

 of country from San Diego on the south to 

 Shasta on the north, and from the Coast 

 Kange to the Sierra Nevada. The possibili- 

 ties of production are almost incalculable. 

 It has been common to estimate our viticul- 

 tural area, in rough figures, as being equal to 

 that of France, where about six million acres 

 have been cultivated. This guess, however, 

 is based only upon rough estimates of choice 

 vineyard lands. If, however, the demand for 

 the culture of the vine should be increased in 

 this State relatively in proportion to the de- 

 mand in France, where lands are pressed into 

 this service without regard to their especial 

 fitness for it, we could easily select thirty mil- 

 lion acres which would produce better aver- 

 age crops than are produced in France. 

 Fiance during the decade of 1868-77 produced 

 an average annual crop of wine amounting to 

 one billion five hundred million gallons. If we 

 had sufficient population and demands for 

 wine, we might produce, before exhausting 

 our soils, eight or ten billion gallons of wine 

 annually. 



It is impossible to estimate the probable 



consumption of wine of the whole world in 

 the future. Consumption is not now the 

 measure of probable demand; it measures 

 only present production, which is not equal 

 to the demands of consumers. The culture 

 of the vine is limited to certain countries, 

 whose capacity in this direction appears to be, 

 in the Old World, practically tested in the 

 fullest degree. We cannot tell how much 

 greater the consumption might become if 

 there were a largely increased production. 

 The average annual production of wine in 

 Europe was estimated a few years ago as fol- 

 lows: 



Countries. American Wine Gallons. 



France 1,505,000,000 



Italy , 810,650,000 



Austro-Hungary 575,300,000 



Spain 523,000,000 



Germany 156,900,000 



Portugal 130,750,000 



Kussia and Turkey 52,300,000 



Greece and Cyprus 26,150,000 



Eoumania : 15,690,000 



Switzerland . 10,460,000 



Total 3,836,200,000 



Only a comparatively small portion of this 

 product is exported to countries not produ- 

 cing wine. Wine producers appear to de- 

 velop their markets principally among their 

 immediate neighbors. The rapidity with 

 which the home markets increase in consum- 

 ing power indicates, possibly, the rapidity 

 with which wine supplants all other bever- 

 ages, wherever it becomes abundant and 

 eheap. 



There may be several reasons for the very 

 small ratio that the increase in exportation 

 bears to the increase in home consumption. 

 The expense of transportation must be con- 

 sidered; but this does not appear to be the 

 controlling obstacle to exportation. Nations 

 generally prefer some national beverage 

 which is produced at home. Wine appears to 

 be the most popular, where it can be obtained 

 in sufficient quantities to satisfy popular de- 

 mands. The home market, therefore, mo- 

 nopolizes its use in a great degree, and 

 wherever the home demand equals the sup- 

 ply, there is little inducement toward edu- 

 cating popular tastes in foreign lands. Wine 

 which is ordinaire at home, and a staple arti- 

 cle of diet, is suffered to remain an article of 

 luxury abroad. There is another very impor- 

 tant obstacle to an increased exportation 

 the non-transportability of the greater por- 

 tion of European wines. Only a few of the 

 products of France, Spain, Portugal and 

 Italy can be transported, through changes of 



