PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 67 



wine men, will always have to be relied upon for making the reputation 

 of California for good wines, while the cargo wines, as they are com- 

 monly called, will never make any reputation. They may be a good 

 drink for common people, and may sell at low prices, and large quan- 

 tities may be sold, but they will never establish such a reputation for 

 California as it ought to have. I can not see why those men of small 

 wineries are not greater benefactors to California than those who make 

 three hundred thousand or five hundred thousand, or even a million 

 gallons, because they will have to bring the approbation of the wine- 

 consuming public, and not of those immense establishments. 



I will tell you another thing: The wages paid to scientific men who 

 are able to take care of a winery of fifty thousand or one hundred 

 thousand gallons are altogether inadequate. I knew of one instance, 

 several years ago, where a foreman of a ranch in Napa County received 

 $35 a month salary, and his board and, of course, quarters. They had 

 a fine cellar built there, and three hundred and fifty thousand gallons 

 of wine were made that season. The wine was made sour from one end 

 to the other, and had to be distilled. Wouldn't that vineyardist have 

 been wiser if he had paid a wine-maker $100 a month and turned out 

 fine wines? What can you expect from a man that gets $35 a month? 



I differ with Professor Hilgard in certain respects, too. I don't 

 think we can depend altogether on French methods here, for the simple 

 reason that our climatic conditions are entirely difierent, and our soils 

 are not always up to the French standard. And therefore we must 

 experiment for ourselves and find out what is adapted to our soils. I 

 notice that phylloxera; spreads much more slowly here than in France. 

 Whether that is owing to the absence of the winged form or some other 

 form, I don't know. In France they class the Lenoir as one-twelfth 

 resistant, and the Scupper nong as one-twentieth. We will note that 

 the latter is of no value here. First, it will not grow from cuttings; 

 second, it will not take the graft; and third, it will not bear in this 

 State. What is the use of mentioning such a vine at all? We can not 

 do anything with it. Yet, what I think makes the difference between 

 here and France is the difference of climatic conditions, and perhaps 

 our vines do not suffer so much from the attacks of phylloxera — at 

 least some varieties do not. Wherever I saw young vineyards established 

 on young Lenoir roots in Napa Valley I found that the vines flourished 

 in the highest degree and were making splendid growth, and I could 

 see no material difference between the different varieties. They showed 

 the difference in the foliage so I could tell them apart easily, but they 

 all seemed to flourish well. I don't think it will be well to depend 

 altogether on French authorities. We have our own row to hoe, and 

 the sooner we do it the better. The resistant vine is the only true 

 remedy against phylloxera. 



