VINE CULTURE AND THE GRAPE. 



431 



Witlain a radius of 25 miles of Cincinnati it is computed that there 

 are 2500 acres of ground devoted to the culture of grapes. In favour- 

 able seasons the average of wine per acre is 200 gallons, equal to 

 500,000 gallons as the whole crop for the section described ; worth, 

 fresh from the press, ^500,000. 



The Catawba grape, an indigenous variety, is now extensively cul- 

 tivated in the west and south-west, and the Catawba wine bids fair to 

 become an important article of commerce. In 1854 the vineyards 

 comprised less than 3000 acres, the greater portion of which was in 

 the vicinity of Cincinnati, from whence the grape culture has since 

 spread, along both banks of the Ohio, to Pittsburgh and Cairo, and in 

 a southerly direction through Kentucky and Tennessee to Alabama, 

 and westwardly into Missouri. 



On the Ohio an acre yields on an average 500 gallons of wine, an 

 immense yield, compared with the average of France. In 1853, which 

 was a most fruitful year, the yield was extraordinary, averaging along 

 the Ohio 650 gallons to the acre, some vineyards even producing from 

 800 to 900 gallons. The wine growers of Ohio are mainly Germans 

 and their descendants. 



California. — The growth of vines in California is increasing very 

 rapidly, and proper attention is being paid to the selection of sorts 

 suitable to the soil. There are upwards of 31,000,000 vines. The 

 State of Los Angelos has 4,500,000 vines, producing annually 

 1,500,000 gallons of wine. The produce of an acre is 12,000 lbs. of 

 grapes, worth 5d per lb. The kinds grown are the Mission grape, 

 the White Muscat, the Tokay Blassien, the Eose, the Peruvian, and 

 the Black Morocco. Up to within a few years the production of wine 

 was confined to the " Mission grape," a variety introduced by the 

 Spanish missionaries nearly a century ago. This grape makes a 

 coarse, rough wine, varying in some degree according to the soil, 

 but always inferior to that made from the vines imported from 

 Germany, France, and southern Europe. Wines assimilating to the 

 Hock, Muscatel, and Burgundy of Europe are now manufactured in 

 Sonoma, Solano, and Napa counties in considerable quantities, and 

 where the requisite attention has been paid to their manufacture, and 

 they have been kept two or three years before being offered in the 

 market, the quality is excellent, and cannot fail to create a demand 

 for them in the eastern States and England. The southern grape is 

 more particularly suited to the manufacture of wines resembling port 

 and Angelica, and the latter is decidedly a superior article. Port is 

 made here from very ripe grapes, those that hang on the vines until 

 after the first frosts. The foot hills are particularly adapted to the 

 cultivation of the vine, and in a few years the value of the wine 

 exports may approximate to that of their grain. The oppressive 

 internal revenue laws have sadly interfered with the manufacture of 

 brandy, and instead of 1,000,000 gallons, which could have been 

 profitably produced of late years, less than one-fourth has actually 

 been manufactured. The quality must, however, be improved before 

 there is any export demand for it. 



There were two disastrous failures in the wine crop, ov,'ing to late 

 and severe frosts ; the yield of 1872 was only 4,000,000 gallons ; and 

 of 1873, 3,800,000, besides about 176,000 gallons of brandy. 



