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ishes and supports the other, and makes life 

 tolerable both to the peasant and to the fac- 

 tory hand. Our villagers will tend vines, pick 

 and crush grapes, nurse wines; and among 

 them there will live coopers, wagoners, 

 kitchen gardeners, dairymen, silk spinners 

 and the pressers of the sacred olive oil. 

 Shepherds and herdsmen will come down 

 from the hilltops to sleep in vineclad cot- 

 tages. We know what viticulture has done 

 elsewhere; we can predict what it will do 

 here. 



The Department of the Gironde in France 

 affords ample proof for the assertion that 

 "the vine is the friend of man." That de- 

 partment, in which the trade of Bordeaux 

 springs to life, contains 2,520,000 acres, of 

 which about one-half is wooded, desert or 

 swamp. The greater portion of the arable 

 iaiid is covered with vines. The area of vine- 

 yards was computed in 1873 at 471,000 acres. 

 The population in 1876 was 735,242. Of 

 this Bordeaux had 215,000. Viticulture is its 

 chief support. What it has done for this sec- 

 tion of France, it can and will do for the 

 counties of Napa and Sonoma in California. 

 Those two counties will yet sustain as much 

 population as the entire State does now. 

 Vallejo may yet have a population of two 

 hundred thousand. Edouard Feret, in his 

 Statistique Generate, says: "The development 

 of population in a great number of rural com- 

 munes of our department (the Gironde) 

 seems everywhere to coincide, or rather to be 

 the consequence of, the progress of viticul- 

 ture, which forms, without doubt, the basis 

 of our public fortune." Equal marvels of 

 the sustaining power of the vine are to be 

 seen in other parts of France; but in the Bor- 

 deaux district they are less complicated with 

 other industrial forces than elsewhere. Cette, 

 on the Mediterranean, has grown from 10,000 

 to 40,000 inhabitants during the last twenty- 

 five years, its support being chiefly the prep- 

 aration of imitation wines. The Bordeaux 

 district (the Gironde) produces about 80,- 

 000,000 gallons of wine annually. This pro- 

 duct will be equaled in California before 

 many years have passed away. This growth, 

 by its own vitalizing force, will support 

 metropolitan life equal to that of Bordeaux. 

 People do not like to leave their "vine and 

 fig tree." No other homes are more charm- 

 ing than their own. Viticulture and vinicul- 

 ture establish communities and check rovers. 

 The vineyardist not only loves his occupation, 

 but he becomes enthusiastic in it. He is the 

 truest patriot who loves his home life most. 

 The vine is therefore not only "the friend of 

 man," but it also makes him more loyal to 

 his country. It exerts a material influence 

 upon the State, and leads to industry. Viti- 



culture will inspire men with the spirit of 

 industry and bless them with contentment; 

 it will check the feverish spirit of speculation 

 and gambling. 



And here we begin to think of the moral, 

 as well as the material, influence of the vine 

 upon our growing population . Those directly 

 engaged in this industry, whether as farmers, 

 wine makers, raisin dryers, brokers, coopers 

 or merchants, will feel securely settled in 

 permanent occupations. The vine grower 

 will not be as unsettled in mind as the potato 

 grower; his crops have world- wide markets, 

 and may rest, if converted into wine vinegar, 

 brandy or raisins, until markets are ready for 

 them. This condition of industry must 

 necessarily exert a powerful influence upon 

 his character and disposition. Security will 

 make him contented and genial. His occu- 

 pation is such that he becomes satisfied with 

 a comparatively small farm, and surrounds 

 himself with agricultural laborers, whose 

 lives are not dependent upon precarious 

 harvest demands. The work about vineyards 

 and wine cellars requires trained men; raw 

 recruits from intelligence offices or the Indian 

 reservations will not do for the vineyard, as 

 they may for the dreary wheat farms. Coun- 

 try life, under the influence of viticulture, 

 becomes compact; villages spring into exist- 

 ence and society organizes. The p*-oprietor 

 becomes proud of his success, and looks upon 

 his products with the sensitive affection of 

 the artist. Each vine growing section swears 

 by i^s own wine. In France the Bordelais 

 never tires of singing the praises of his own 

 wine, and stoutly maintains that his is the 

 best and that all others are trash. He is 

 content with his lot. The Maconais with 

 equal zeal rejoices in his warm and generous 

 wine, and denounces the Bordelais claret as 

 cold and rough. So, too, with vignerons of 

 the Landes, of Languedoc and of the Marne. 

 And so, too, does the Spaniard boast of his 

 vino del pals. The German thinks that he 

 only knows how to nurse wine; that the 

 Frenchman knows how to "doctor" it. The 

 Hungarian looks upon his wine and his 

 country as inseparable; treason to one is 

 treason to the other. So proud is he of his 

 product that he er nobles those who obtain 

 honor for it in foreign lands. 



Not many years ago, the Chamber of Com- 

 merce of Vienna encouraged Mr. Max Greger 

 to endeavor to make known in England Hun- 

 garian wines, which in many respects re- 

 semble those of California. He labored with 

 zeal to do this, attacking old prejudices in 

 London with courage and persistence, and 

 succeeded finally in breaking down the 

 monopoly of public favor enjoyed by the 

 trade in port, sherry and French claret. He 



