THE GEAPE PHYLLOXERA IN CALIFORNIA. 3 
Later, in the early part of the eighteenth century, a long line of 
missions was established throughout the peninsula of Lower Cali^ 
fornia, the Mission of Loreto being the first, in 1697. These missions 
all grew grapes. The vines were furnished to them originally by 
the colonies of Mexico. As missions were founded, products and 
plants were furnished to the new one by the older established ones, 
and grapes are almost always mentioned as being cultivated by the 
Padres. 
The Mission of San Diego was the first to be founded in upper 
California, and the vines planted there were brought from the mis- 
sions of Lower California. As no other variety but the Mission 
grape is known to have been cultivated by the different missions 
which were founded in after years, it is to be presumed that it was 
introduced into this State with the founding of the Mission of San 
Diego, 1769. 
The Mission is a long-lived, vigorous, and thrifty vine, as is 
attested by two remarkable specimens. The one planted in 1775, and 
still living, is on the property of the San Gabriel Mission in Los 
Angeles County, is trained on an arbor, covers 9,000 square feet, and 
its trunk just below the surface of the soil has a circumference of 
9 feet. The other, planted in 1842 near Carpenteria, died in 1915, 
presumably of the "Anaheim disease." It measured at its base 8 \ 
feet in circumference; at a height of 6^ feet it divided into three 
branches, one of which measured 3J feet in circumference. As an 
arbor it covered one- fourth acre, and in 1895 yielded its maximum 
crop of 10 tons, its average crop being estimated at 5 tons. 6 
The Mission grape in early days was planted by the Padres around 
the missions and was used both as a table grape and especially for 
making wine. Gen. Vallejo (7) is authority for the statement that 
the Mission grapes grown at the Sonoma Mission were of a better 
quality than those grown at the other missions in California, and 
that a recognized superior quality of wine was made from them. 
It was probably because of this reputation that the first commercial 
vineyards of wine grapes were established in the vicinity of the town 
of Sonoma. In this district the grape phylloxera was first discov- 
ered, and the dying of the vines, which for some time had puzzled the 
viticulturists, was finally determined to be the result of this insect's 
attack. An importation of vines from Europe of unparallelled im- 
portance up to that time for California, and one which may ade- 
quately be termed a " pioneer importation," occurred at about this 
time and very shortly prior to the discovery in France of the 
phylloxera, thereby furnishing grounds for the subsequent report, 
more or less widely spread throughout the State and which persists 
6 Details of its history can be obtained from the secretary of the Carpenteria Chamber 
of Commerce. 
