82 
GEAPE CULTUEE-PEODUCE IN STOCK. 
was paid out by shippers for grapes during that season, which was much beyond that of any 
preceding year. 
Most of the fine graperies near the pueblo Los Angeles extend along the river side. One 
proprietor, Don Luis Vigne, had 42 acres under his vineyard, the largest in the county. The 
vines are planted in rows of hills, the plants being about 6 feet apart each way. They are 
watered by sequias or open drains from the river, which roll in a channel down one side of an 
allotment with side sluices for allowing small streams to flow in between the rows and irrigate 
the ground. The water is allowed to lie on the surface from 4 to 6 days, and then shut off, and 
this process of irrigation repeated several times during the early growth of the fruit. 
But little attention was bestowed upon the manufacture of the wine, and the article, until within 
the last few years, was not what either the climate or the variety of vine would warrant. A 
Mr. B. Wilson has commenced the manufacture of a sparkling wine, which is said to be equal 
to if not superior to the Catawba. 
The natural gramineous and leguminous plants indigenous to these plain support an immense 
number of stock of a wild, shy and intractable character. But little attention has been 
bestowed upon the rearing of cattle, and no cultivation of dairy produce has yet been attempted. 
These plains are the headquarters for the supply of stock to the northern parts of the State, 
and since the number of cattle driven over the plains into California has sensibly diminished, 
it is to these extensive prairies that the supply of Sacramento and San Francisco is due. 
A local paper of credit* places the amount of beef stock then (1855) in California, exclusive 
of arrivals during that year, as follows : 
Counties. 
No. of cattle. 
Los Angeles_..._ 
101, 800 
San Bernardino______ 
27, 000 
San Diego__ 
8,100 
San Luis Obispo_ 
12,500 
Santa Barbara_ 
40, 050 
Monterey__ 
32,900 
Alameda__ 
8,200 
Contra Costa___ 
4,000 
Add three tenths for other counties__ 
234,550 
67,365 
Total of native stock_ 
301,915 
The natural increase of 1855 was large; in San Bernardino it was, over and above sales, 
21,000 ; in Santa Barbara 7,000, and in Monterey 3,000. 
The cattle brought over land during the same year was calculated at 100,000 head ; one third 
of those sent from the east usually perish on the way. 
The geological structure of this plain is somewhat different from that of any region which 
has been described. Its northern boundary are the sandstones which lie on the flanks of the 
granitic axis of Kikal Mungo mountains. As these sandstones extend westward in a continuous 
* California Times and Transcript, 1855. 
