532 



VINTAGE TIME IN CALIFORNIA. 



to themselves. Hoe for two years, then let them take 

 care of the ground themselves. Only cut out dead 

 canes and cut back new ones to five or six feet. 



(7) For currants, select White Grape, Fay and Ver. 

 sailles. Don't buy the Cherry currant. Set these in 

 rows three feet apart in row. 



(8) For gooseberries, take the large English sorts if 

 your ground is high and sunny and soil is strong. If 

 not, take the American, Houghton or Smith. These do 

 not differ much. We will give you something better in 

 a few years. Set like currants. 



(9) For grapes, begin with Worden, Diamond, 

 Brighton, Niagara, Herbert. Herbert and Brighton must 

 be planted intermixed with the others ; that is, if you 

 get five vines set them as I have written the list above, 

 and eight feet apart. If you want a vine for house or 

 barn, take Worden or Diamond. 



(10) A good plan for a plot is rows of grapes ten feet 

 apart ; rows of currants, raspberries and gooseberries 

 half way between. Strawberries may be planted and 

 grown for two or three years under the grapes ; black- 

 berries repeatedly. 



(11) For prices consult catalogues. Grapes, 2-year-old 



vines, large and well-rooted, should cost about twenty- 

 five to forty cents each ; strawberries, fifty cents a hun- 

 dred ; raspberries, two dollars a hundred ; blackberries, 

 three dollars a hundred ; currants and gooseberries, four 

 dollars a hundred for fine plants. I have nothing for 

 sale at any price, at any time. Do not write. Do not 

 buy of agents ; send direct to safe firms. 



(12) You have no extraordinary lessons to learn about 

 trimming. Use your brains and your hoe ; these go 

 well together. You will not succeed without both. As 

 you go on, you will find out a host of things and facts. 



(13) Begin with a little memorandum book, in which 

 you set down the names of all sorts and specify position. 

 No system of labeling in the field ends anywhere but in 

 confusion of mind and vexation of spirit. 



(14) Don't write your experience for the papers before 

 the third or fourth years, because you will change your 

 mind. Some of us have a great deal to be sorry for, 

 and to rub out, if we could. 



(15) Dear amateur, go ahead ! You will succeed if 

 you deserve to. If you are a humbug, fruit will have 

 nothing to do with you. 



Oneida Co., N. Y. E. P. Powell. 



VINTAGE TIME 



^HE GOD of day has just peeped through the 

 clouds above Old Baldy as we mount our 

 horses for a ten-mile ride among the vine- 

 yards of San Gabriel Valley. There is a 

 hint of coolness in the fresh breeze that sweeps 

 away the dense clouds of dust, rising at every step 

 from the sun-parched vegetation ; and looking up- 

 ward, we note that Old Baldy has put on a snowy 

 night-cap between darkness and dawn. The roses 

 of June are still lingering, the stately eucalyptus 

 and fern-like pepper are green with the greenness 

 of springtime, yet, only twenty miles beyond is 

 wintry desolation ! What contrasts ! Many thou- 

 sands of acres are planted to vines in California, 

 wine and raisin making being important industries. 

 A close estimate gives 150,000 acres, divided among 

 about 5,000 vineyards. 



That of San Gabriel comprises nearly 1,000 acres, 

 planted to a dozen different varieties of vines. Those 

 thriving best in this location are Mataro, Carignau, 

 Grenache, Trusseau, Berger, Folle Blanche and Zin- 

 fandel. The Folle Blanche, Carignau and Berger are 

 wine grapes, producing angelica, port and hock, respect- 

 tively. The sweet Muscatel is used for raisin making. 



At this season the grounds are swarming with vintagers, 

 most of them being Chinamen, whose broad, basket- 

 shaped hats, dotting the long aisles of green, are not un- 

 like an array of toad-stools. As fast as the bunches are 

 severed from the stems, they are tossed into baskets 

 borne upon sturdy backs, and then carried to the road- 

 way to be dumped upon the ever increasing heaps that 



IN CALIFORNIA. 



await the carrier's cart. A bright-eyed senorita, the 

 overseer's daughter, picks up a six-pound bunch from 

 the mound and offers it to us with a laughing comment 

 in broken English. We essay a reply, but our Spanish 

 being on a par with her English, the talk languishes. 



We follow the carrier's cart as it makes its rounds, 

 and finally bring up at the crushing room, where wine 

 making is going on in its first stages. The press, which is 

 operated by steam, receives the fruit as it is thrown from 

 the cart down a sluiceway, and it is crushed upon a ser- 

 rated cylinder ; the juice, freed from stems and skins by 

 a wire screen, is then passed through a pipe to the fer- 

 menting vats below. Nothing goes to waste ; not even 

 the skins and stems, which, dried, are used in firing. 



Raisin making is a simple process. When the grapes 

 are perfectly ripe, they are picked and laid in shallow, 

 wooden trays between the rows of vines. Here they re- 

 main from two to three weeks, being turned occasionally 

 so that the sun may dry every drop of moisture. They 

 are then gathered up in sweat boxes, taken to the pack- 

 ing house, sorted and packed. 



When the vintage has ended, the vines are allowed to 

 rest until December, when they are pruned. They are 

 set about eight feet apart, which allows room for tilling. 



The California grape raiser depends largely upon 

 irrigation, and this is resorted to more frequently when 

 the soil is light and sandy than when it is of "adobe," 

 which holds water a long time. The presence of con- 

 tinued moisture in the atmosphere induces fungoid 

 diseases ; therefore those localities furtherest removed 

 from fog districts are best suited to vine culture. 



J. ToRREY Connor. 



