8 



BULLETIN 856, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



selection of such as are well suited to the principal types of vine- 

 yard soil. 



Ail the districts in California in which grapes for various pur- 

 poses are now grown appear to have suitable conditions for the 

 growing of currant grapes. The fruit of the same Vinifera varieties, 

 when grown in some of the bay counties of California, is of finer 

 quality than when grown in the San Joaquin Valley, and it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that the same may be true of the Panariti variety. 



Tt is, of course, a great advantage in growing grapes for drying 

 purposes to be in a district which permits sun drying. Protection 

 against the dew at night will probably be necessary in some of the 

 coast districts, but it is preferable that the currant grapes be shaded 

 most of the time while drying and the same shelter can be made to 

 answer both purposes. 



ANALYSIS OF THE SOIL OF THE FRESNO EXPERIMENT 



VINEYARD. 



Because most of the investigations of the currant grapes have been 

 made at the Fresno Experiment Vineyard of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, 3 miles east of Fresno, Calif., the mechani- 

 cal analysis of the soil of that locality, made by the Bureau of Soils 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, will be of interest. 

 (Table II.) 



Table II. — Analysis of the soil of the Fresno Experiment Vineyard, near 



Fresno, Calif. 





Mechanical constituents (per cent). 



Description and depth of 

 soil. 



Coarse 

 gravel. 



Fine 

 gravel 

 (2tol 

 mm.). 



Coarse 



sand 



(1 to 0.5 



mm.). 



Medium 



sand 

 (0.5 to 



0.25 

 mm.). 



Fine 

 sand 

 (0.25 to 

 to 0.1 

 mm.). 



Very 



fine sand 



(0.1 to 



0.05 

 mm.). 



Silt 



(0.05 to 



0.005 



mm.). 



Clav 



(0.005 



mm. and 



smaller). 



Brown san^ 



otor 



12 t- 



Sand- 



0.58 

 .71 



.51 

 .35 



.11 



1.2 

 .9 



.6 

 .9 



1.2 



9.8 

 9.1 



8.3 



8.8 



14.2 



6.7 

 6.9 



7.8 

 6.0 



8.6 



18.4 

 17.8 



19.9 

 13.7 



22.4 



1?.0 

 12.3 



12.9 

 13.1 



15.7 



32.3 

 32.5 



27.1 

 36.3 



26.5 



19.7 

 21.4 



23.5 

 21.4 



11.1 







.is type of soil about 75,000 acres near Fresno, 6,000 acres near 

 aon, and about 265,000 acres in the Sacramento Valley have 

 _n mapped by the Bureau of Soils. For further descriptions of 

 these soils, see Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 172, entitled 

 " f rrape Investigations in the Vinifera Regions of the United States 

 with Reference to Resistant Stocks, Direct Producers, and Vinif- 

 eras." and the survevs of the Bureau of Soils. 



