its great defect, which diminishes them; it 

 is very sensitive to the winter and spring 

 frosts. 



" I shall only cause to be remembered the 

 Burgunder vineyard of Jungholz, near 

 Guebviller (Upper Khine), or Blauer Silva- 

 ner much cultivated in Wurtumberg under 

 the name of Blau Bodensee Traube, accord- 

 ing to Baron Babo, although even he, who 

 knew it well, refused to admit in the tribe 

 of Silvaners. I will remark here that these 

 names Silvaner, Szirifandl, signify found in 

 the woods; therefore there might be others of 

 this name and which may not be of the same 

 family. 



" The Kiesling, or Riesler, is also found in 

 these vineyards, but in less degree than on 

 the Khine. 



" The wine of Margrave, or the Duchy of 

 Baden, is made from three kinds of grapes, 

 called Woelsch. or in other parts of Germany 



GUTEDEL, 



The German author, says that these are our 

 Chasselas, but I have good reason to believe 

 that they are principally the Fendants of 

 Switzerland, the wine of which, at the vine- 

 yard of La Vaux, sells even up to 500 francs 

 per barrel. We are told that they mix these 

 grapes with the Mpsler, which is the Furmint 

 of the Hungarian, and the Verbouschegg, 

 without giving any description of these two 

 plants. 



"The Maerisch is served upon the table in 

 the duchy of Baden, and its maturity is 

 early, like the Portugieser, which is also 

 much cultivated for the table, as well as for 

 wine making. They tell us nothing about 

 the Maerisch, and I am not acquainted with 

 it; but I cultivate the Portugieser, which will 

 have its chapter under the head of grapes for 

 the table. 



"Burger, Elbling, Allemand, Facun I 

 had omitted this variety in my first editions, 

 in consideration of the little value of its 

 vinous qualities; but. as it is very much cul- 

 tivated by the small \ineyardists on the 

 Rhine, I have decided to give it a place here. 

 Its product is abundant, no doubt, but it is 

 its only advantage, and its bunches of round 

 berries, being of a flat sweetness and without 

 vinosity, give only a mediocre wine; in fine, 

 these are varieties which should be left to 

 our neighbors, for I could have made a tribe 

 of them, since there are several varieties, es- 

 pecially a red one which I possess." 



This very imperfect chapter proves only 

 that tradition has attached to certain well 

 known varieties of vines a sylvan origin. It 

 means that the Zinfandels, Rieslings, Gut- 

 edels and Burgers are wild vines cultivated. 

 How many more there might be found is im- 

 possible to say, but probabty the Bordeaux 



and the Burgundy grapes would come under 

 the same head. 



With this distinction in view, our Califor- 

 nia wild vine might be classed as a Zinfan- 

 del. 



The important fact I gather from this study 

 is that the vines which indicate a pure and 

 simple sylvan origin prove to be in this State 

 our best wine grapes. 



If the Zinfandel, Eiesling, Gutedel and 

 Burger are pure stock, we may expect to im- 

 prove rather than deteriorate them by plant- 

 ing seedlings, and that the average result 

 of a vineyard planted with Zinfandel seed- 

 lings would be an improvement. In corrob- 

 oration of this, Mr. G. Groesinger tells me 

 that he knows of Zinfandel seedlings in the 

 Napa Valley from which he has made wine 

 identical with the ZinfandeJ. so commonly 

 known. 



I recommend therefore that experiments 

 should be made to test the practicability of 

 reproducing our best wine grapes from seeds. 

 We may be sure that when we find the vari- 

 eties which regularly reproduce themselves, 

 we have found pure, sound stocks, and that 

 the best way to plant a vineyard will be to 

 use their seedlings. This I am convinced 

 ought to be done with our Zinfandel. In 

 that way viticulture would progress instead 

 of retrograding as it is doing now throughout 

 the world by reason of the exhaustion caused 

 by using cuttings only. If any farmer should 

 be dissatisfied with a vineyard of Zinfandel 

 seedlings, he can easily graft them and be 

 sure of good roots to maintain his vineyard. 



FEENCH AUTHORITIES ON SEEDLINGS. 



I have searched everywhere among the 

 books on the vine for something about seed- 

 lings, and what I find is very little. There 

 is very little known on the subject, and the 

 future is full of discovery. 



In the traite de la culture de la vigne, by B. 

 A. Lenoir, I find an interesting chapter. The 

 work antedates the phylloxera epidemic. 

 What the writer says should be exceedingly 

 interesting in California, where the object 

 should be to obtain vines, native to the soil, 

 modified from the seed to suit a new climate 

 and new conditions of growth. 



Mons. Lenoir says: "The seed is the sur- 

 est and promptest means of obtaining vari- 

 ties of a vegetable. We have a thousand 

 proofs of it, and yet we have scarcely tried 

 this method with the vine. Although I have 

 made great researches on this subject, I know 

 only four facts relative to seedlings of the 

 vine. 



"The first is cited by M. Bosc, art. vigne of 

 the cours complete d' Ayrwulttire : 



" 'M. Van Mons, ot Brussels, has obtained 

 by a grape seedling, a variety as large as a 



