hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

VINICULTURE. 45
The south still retains the preponderance, reenforced
by the southern counties of San Joaquin valley, while
the essentially vinicultural regions of the north, Sonoma
and Napa, are strongly supplemented by El
Dorado and districts beyond it in the Sacramento
valley. By 1889 about 150,000 acres were planted
with some 120,000,000 vines, half of them in bearing,
and fully half as yet in mission grapes; but a few years
hence the area will be doubled, with a preponderance
of foreign varieties. In 1888 about 800 vines wero
planted to the acre. An advantage here gained is
the self-supporting stalk after the third year. It is
pruned to a height of about 18 inches, a process
which hastens maturity and reduces the danger from
wind and frost. At full maturity a yield of three to
four tons of grapes to the acre may be expected, although
some vineyards produce double that quantity,
and occasionally even 16 tons. The average from
each vine may be placed at seven pounds, and from
a ton of grapes may be obtained 130 gallons of wine.
So far, about half the crop is pressed, two per cent
exported fresh, four per cent made into raisins, the
product of which increased from 1,800,000 pounds in
1881 to 28,000,000 pounds in 1889, besides a percentage
equivalent to 2,000,000 gallons of wine for conversion
into one fifth that amount of brandy. The
total wine product for 1889 was estimated at 14,000,-
000 gallons, with the promise of a rapid increase
through the growing home and eastern demand.
With nearly double the amount of sugar contained
in European grapes, the California wines are as a
whole strong, and lacking in delicacy of flavor, the
heavier southern resembling those of Spain, Hungary,
and Greece, while the central and northern resemble
German and French standards. The defect is greatly
due to the lowland soil and irrigation, which being
necessary in the dry south was long advocated elsewhere,
and favored as more convenient; but Haraszthy
upheld non-irrigation, and it is now becoming recog-