xvi REPORT. 



siderably more per acre. All this State requires to produce a 

 generous and noble wine is the varieties of grapes from which the 

 most celebrated wines are made, and the same care and science in 

 its manufacture. This conclusion is the result of a thorough in- 

 vestigation, and frequent consultations with many eminent men in 

 Europe, who assured me that the quality of the grapes governs, in 

 a great measure, the quality of the wine ; a fact proved by many 

 scientific experiments, showing that, even in the least favored lo- 

 calities, where common wines were ordinarily made, the finest and 

 most costly wines had been produced by planting the best varie- 

 ties of grape. 



Having provided myself with analyses of the soil of California 

 from various locations, it was not difficult to obtain a correct esti- 

 mate of its average capacity as a wine-producing State. From all 

 the information I have been able to get, our climate and soil are 

 greatly in our favor. 



In view of all these facts and the purpose of my mission, I de- 

 termined to make arrangements to purchase a quantity of vines, 

 and also to examine every celebrated wine-making establishment 

 within the limits of my tour, so as to learn and describe the new- 

 est and best methods of making wine. I did not limit my obser-' 

 vation and study to the manufactories alone, but procured the re- 

 ports of scientific committees, appointed by different governments 

 to investigate the subject by means of practical experiments, con- 

 tinued through a series of years. I also obtained the proceed- 

 ings of the Congress assembled, by order of the government of 

 France, for the purposes of comparison and consultation, and which 

 was composed of the most scientific chemists and practical wine- 

 makers. I availed myself of the reports of similar assemblies 

 held annually in Germany, and of the newest and best works in 

 various languages, written by able men, who had spent their lives 

 in the business of vine culture and wine-making. 



It is proper to remark here that I discovered that the countries 

 through which I traveled possessed a lucrative trade by making 

 raisins, drying figs and prunes, raising almonds, cultivating mul- 

 l:)erry -trees for the sustenance of silk-worms, and, above all, pro- 

 ducing sugar at enormous profits from the Sorgho, Imphee, and 

 tlie sugar-beet; and I therefore thought it advisable to add to 

 the more strict duties of my mission an investigation into these 

 branches of industry, and to procure the best and newest works 

 concerning them. 



