AGRICULTURE. 201 
There are many vineyards in the mining counties, but they 
are small and young. In 1858, an acre of bearing vineyard was 
worth a thousand dollars; but since then the supply of grapes 
and native wines has increased to such an extent, that the vine- 
yards have depreciated fifty per cent. The profits of wine- 
making several years ago, induced the vine-growers to make 
their wine hastily and carelessly, and much of it is poor stuff, 
that has brought all native wines into discredit. The wine- 
business, just now depressed, will in a year or two become 
better, and then vine-planting will take a new start, and vine- 
yards will rise in value. 
§ 152. Wine-making.—The making of wine is considered a 
a branch of agriculture. In 1861, California probably made 
about a million gallons of wine, and the amount will increase 
within five years to three million gallons.. The best wines are 
made from foreign grapes, of which, however, not many are as 
yet produced in the state; so that the Mission grapes yield 
the chief supply. The principal classifications of wme are into 
red and white, light and heavy, still and sparkling. 
Wine-making commences with the ripening of the grapes, 
about the middle of September. The berry is considered to 
be fully ripe when the heart has taken a tinge resembling the 
darkness of the skin; when the berry is perfectly sweet, and 
comes off easily from the stem, leaving no juice upon it; and 
when, on holding a bunch up to the sun, the fibres running 
from the stem into the berry are nearly or quite invisible. 
The branches are cut off with a knife, after the dew or fog 
(if any) has been dispelled, put into a basket, and carried to 
the press. Here the rotten and unripe berries are carefully 
picked out, and the bunches are then thrown upon a coarse 
wire sieve. A man presses the bunches upon this sieve, 
through which the grapes fall, some broken and others un- 
broken, while the large stems and leaves will not pass, and are 
thrown away. Below the sieve is the masher, composed of 
two rollers, ten inches in diameter and three feet long, made 
of iron or wood. These rollers, turning toward each other, 
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