AGRICULTURE. 207 
this rule prevails here, cannot be ascertained until we have 
given the finer foreign grapes a fair trial. Certainly the Mis- 
sion grape takes up in most of the vineyards an earthiness of 
taste which must never be found in wines of the best quality. 
We cannot yet tell what are our best grape-soils, or how they 
differ from one another in their influences on the wine. It is’ 
certainly no easy matter to make fine wine out of the Mission 
grape, and most of ovr wine-makers have little experience in 
the business. Again, they send their wine to the market too 
soon after itis made. They often use old barrels and bottles, 
which may give a taste to the wine. They have also been too 
careless in pressing grapes before they were fully ripe, and 
without picking out the green and rotten fruit. 
§ 153. Berries —Alameda county cultivates, chiefly for the 
San Francisco market, four hundred and fifty acres of straw- 
berries, one hundred of raspberries, and thirty of blackberries 
—more than all the remainder of the state. The varieties of 
strawberries most prized are the British Queen and Long- 
worth’s Prolific. They are planted in rows, thirty inches 
apart, and the plants are a foot apart in the rows. The straw- 
berry comes into the market in April, and continues abundant 
till July, but it may be obtained in any month in the year; 
and the only reason why large quantities are not grown from 
August.to October inclusive, is, that they are not in demand, 
because of the abundance of cheaper fruits. It must always 
be costly as compared with the tree-fruits, because it is more 
perishable, requires greater cultivation, costs more for pick- 
ing, and, produces less to the acre, The picking alone costs 
about two cents a pound, being done by Chinamen, who pick 
forty pounds in a day, and are paid seventy-five cents a day, 
they providing their own food. The average yield per acre is 
about one thousand pounds, and the average wholesale price 
in 1861, during the season of their abundance, nine cents per 
pound, making a gross yield of one hundred and twenty dol- 
lars to the acre. The largest field of strawberries contains 
eighty acres, the second seventy, and the third sixteen. Very 
