KEVIKW OF IsVAV BOOKS. 13 



of hills near San Gabriel. This district has long been cele- 

 brated for the abundance of its crops of large and luxuri- 

 ous dessert grapes, and, until a recent period, it furnished 

 nearly the entire supply of wine for home consumption as 

 well as export. The vineyards in this district are mostly 

 planted upon a sandy loam, and receive copious artificial 

 irrigation in the bearing season." It is passing "strange 

 that cultivators will go to the expense of irrigation if it is 

 not necessary. In an extract from the essay of Wm. 

 Daniels, given on page 57, we get another phase of Cali- 

 fornia climate ; he says : " A great portion of California is 

 subject to late frosts long after the vine has put forth its 

 young, tender shoots ;" from which one might infer that 

 frost did sometimes destroy the crop even in a land 

 where our author has said it never fails. 



Perhaps these conflicting passages are owing to the fact 

 that the entire volume is made up of extracts from books, 

 reports of societies, essays by different grape-growers, all 

 of which are dovetailed together as it best suited the 

 author. There is, however, much valuable information in 

 the book, and no doubt it will serve the purpose for which 

 it was written, i. e., induce people to purchase California 

 grape lands; but so far as giving the vineyardist any 

 practical information about cultivation, pruning, training 

 etc., it is a lamentable failure. 



The author appears to have had no personal experience, 

 but has depended mainly upon others for the few facts he 

 has given ; the original portion of the work is made of 

 prospective estimates of a soap-bubble order, described in 

 bombastic style. 



