64 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



procured, it was not planted upon a soil adapted to that stock or the 

 right scion was not grafted upon the resistant stock. The adaptability 

 of stocks to soils and scions to stocks had heretofore been something the 

 vineyardists had known but little about. The last few years, profiting 

 by the experience of the older sections where the phylloxera first 

 appeared, a careful study has been made of the resistant stocks, with 

 the result that now an intelligent knowledge has been obtained by the 

 vineyardists in the different sections, of the resistant stocks best adapted 

 to the locality, and with this knowledge in hand it is reasonable to sup- 

 pose that in a few years, even in the phylloxera-devasted districts, the 

 planting of vineyards on resistant stocks will have brought the acreage 

 back to that of former years. Added to this are the large plantings in 

 the interior country, principally in the San Joaquin Valley, where the 

 phylloxera has not yet made its appearance to any considerable extent. 

 The area of the San Joaquin Valley is so great that vineyards can be 

 planted at distances so extreme from each other that it would be a good 

 many years before the phylloxera will communicate from one to another, 

 and it is to this section that we now look in the next few years as the 

 source from which the quantity of wine necessary to supply consump- 

 tion is to be obtained. 



The climatic conditions of the interior valleys are such that the very 

 highest grade of dry wines can not be produced, but with modern sys- 

 tems of refrigeration and properly constructed buildings, wine which 

 will be good enough to commend itself to the body of the people as a 

 substitute for beer can be produced at a much less cost than in any 

 other section of the State. 



It is the opinion of the writer that the production of both dry and 

 sweet wines in the San Joaquin Valley in the next five years will be such 

 in quantity as to astonish those who have not made a study of the con- 

 ditions there, and who have supposed that the phylloxera was on the 

 point of destroying the wine industry of California, and thereby raising 

 the price of wine to such a prohibitive figure that the masses could not 

 drink it. 



The Outlook. — To those who at this time plant vineyards, whether 

 upon resistant or common vinifera stock, there is a promise of very large 

 returns of profit, and it is reasonable to suppose that it will take at least 

 five years to reinstate the vineyards to their former productive power, 

 during which period the prices of grapes and wine are likely to remain, 

 if not at their present very high value, at a good figure. 



PROF. HILGARD. Mr. Hotchkiss has not told us whether he thinks 

 it advisable to plant non-resistant stock or resistant stock in the first 

 place. I wish to warn those who are going to plant that it is not 

 the insect itself that carries itself by its wings, but it is a connection 



