The hydraulic press., 1860-06-09
MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS.

/
to grow, where only one grew before, has
been set down, by the utilitarian philoso-
pliers, as the best of patriots and the most
useful of men. Such a man-it is inmate
rial what sort of coat he wears, to what po-
litcal party he belongs,or in what church he
worsh ps-is worth a million of stump
speaking demagogues, with all their olatter
about irrepressible conflicts and ,seyereigh-
ties of sauatterism. Give US the practical
worker, who quietly assists IN building up
the commonwealth, by constantly adding
to it some new agricultural or mechanical
Improvement. Give US the men who will
cover our hillsides with orchards and vine
yards.
From reliable statistics we learn that the
value of the grape crop of California, for the
year 1858, was valued at one million of dol
lars; and, for this year, (lsGo,) it is estima-
far, has been confined, with very limited ex-
ceptions, TO the Reighborhood of Los Ange-
les, or to few favored spots in the Sacra-
mento Valley. Within two years i has beer
demonstrated that the soil of our mountain
slopes is the very soil for the grape. High
up, on nearly all the spurs, ridges, and hills,
putting out westwardly from the Sierra Ne
vada, there are water bitches winding about
in all directions, giving to the orchardist and
vinedresser assurance of abundant nFeaas of
irrigation. OF course, in all cases where the
acclivities or declivities approach closely to
the perpendicular, a system ofterracing must
| be instituted-such as our friend Frank
Smith has adopted, on Cherokee street
and then, with the terraces and the ample
| stores of water, afforded by mining bitches,
nothing but the interposition of a special
Providence and nipping late trosts, can pre-
vent the mountain regions of California from
becoming the greatest fruit and wine pro-
ducers of the world AS to the calamities
of late frosts, there is no doubt but that
Yankee ingenuity will speedily discover
some effectHal means of rendering them in
nocuous. Cheat the frosts out of tEeir prey,
and no where else can .yeu find better and
bigger peaches, apples, pears, plembs, and
grapes, than can be furnished by the California
mountains An orchard or vineyard, par
ticalarly vineyard, when properly planted
is permanency, and constant and reliable
source of pleasure, as well as wealth, to its
proprietor. For twenty years-so say ex-
| perienced husbandmen-it increases, annu-
ally, in productiveness; and for hundred
years. after reaching its fructiferous maxi
mum, it will continue to yield its treasures
without diminution of quantity or deterior
alton of quality-provided always that in
dustrious and skillful hands have it in
charge. Industry and skill have remarka
BILE faculty for making friends with Proyi
dence and securing his good offices.
Some croakerS there are who look, with
lachrymese vaticination, to that terrible day
when the gold mines will "run out" Now,
for one, we never indulge1n such gloomy
anticipations. Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof" is our motto; but if that
doleiul day is to come, when the very last
speck of California gold will be picked up
and sent away, why not have some wealth
creating agent to supply its place? If Cali
fornia must cease to be the worlds gold sup
plier, why not let her become the worlds
vintner?
Several exceedingly intelligent travellers
III Europe-among whom is Theodore Par
ker, the great philosophical Christian-tell
us that, in the wine producing districts of
France, Spain, Italy and Germany, the in
habtants are remarkable for their sobriety ;
and that, where wine is the common bever-
age, and used as copiously as coffee and tea
in the United States, habitual drunkards, or
even cases of accidental or unpremedi-
tated drunkenness, are SO rare that they are
almost unknown. Then, in the name of all
that's good, let US have vineyards on all the
hills of California, and thereby render our
State as renowned for sobriety as it already
is for enterprise and energy. The man, who
transforms one hillside from pine-covered
wilderness into blooming and fruitful vine-
yard or orchard, will have worked out q
more exceeding benefit for our beautiful
State, than could thousand stump-speak-
ing politicians, with all their blatant t-um-
perry about Democracy and Republicanism.
He is the only true Democrat, or only true
Republican who, tangiblv and demonstrably,
happiness of his race.
Frost INJURED GRAPEs.-The editor of the
Sonora (Tuolumne county, Democratic Age
saws that M serious faiura of the Crane