The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-12-10
on GRAPE CULTURE.
SOME FACTS ABOUT CALIFORNIA;
GROWING INDUSTRY.

grapes and this very great industry which |
have come across out here in the California
vineyards In the first place, il may not
be generally known that we gather two crops
year out here from the most of our vines.
But this Is the case 1t seems strange TO see the
great wide green fields of grapes still continue
green, us green as It is possible for green 10 be-
all the season through, without drop of
water, and 60 right on and blossom and bear
n second crop SO soon as the first one is
gathered; and It is fact to store up in your
memory and set down TO the credit of Cali
fornia.
There are perhaps fifty kinds of vines here;
maybe l could safely double that number.
But the most popular grape is a Hungarian
variety. We use no Spanish vines now ex-
cept the hardy and honest old Emission grape"
And where the mission grape came from no
one now can tell OF course 1t is of Spanish
origin brought here by the monks; but it is
not to be found in any part Of Spain now
This the mission grape, which was for many
years the only kind of grape grown in Cali
fornia, is not used for wine-making at all
now, nor is it grown to any great extern,
But IL Is good table grape, and the few H.
manning vineyards Of this variety are do
voted to the table and to the making of
brandy.
The great improvement in California wines
within the last few years is due largely to the
improvement in the plant 1t would only
lead to confusion and few would care to read
the long list Of rare grapes that you almost
daily here about here in the heart of the
greatest grape land in the world, and so /
will not give the Names but the search for
rnre and suitable grapes is jealous and per
sstent all over the world Men are kept con-
At-o
new varieties
MODERN GRAPE CULTURE.
The verInin which attacked and destroyeA
the vines of France is sort of louise whict
destroys the root of the vine. II has made IT,
appearance in California, but its advance has
been checked, and its further progress is not
greatly feared. Still, it is conceded that the
Californian who claimed to have discovereda
certain remedy, and secured patent for the
same, has not yet received the millions which
France and Italy offered as reward. may
mention that when the panic incident to the
appearance of the verinin in the grape fields
here was at its height the grape growers re-
sorted to the Missouri grapes, with good re-
suits. The louise does not attack American
vines, only imported ones.
But there is little left to the will or the
nature of the vine in modern grape culture
You will have TO tear down all the Chamber
ing vines which the old Greeks loved to pic
ture on their vases or in their poems There
is little left that is poetic in the grape here
There is nothing that is even beautiful exce--
this one broad sea of green, and this is beauti
full indeed when brought into sharp contras
with the yellow and russell and tawny old
lion-like hills which tower up and hang high
over these emerald seas of vine.
"The grape is not raised from either the
seed or root, but from slips or cuttings
like the cane in the southern states. You
can cut off almost any part of grapevine
and stick 1t in the ground, give it anything
like half chance, and in less than three
years 1t will be clinging to rock or stump,
brier or bush, anything that is nearest, cover
ing up with its wonderously beautiful leaves
and tendrils all the hard angles and ugly
features of whatever it clings to, trying its
best to make this beautiful world still more
beautiful. Another evidence of It's sweet
femininity. But after this cutting has taken
root and had one or two years of leisure and
liberty in the nursery, it is dug up and set ~
regimental line, no n<re to run riot or grow
and reach out and cling, and cover up the
follies and the faults of others.
WELL TRIMMED VINEYARD
These cuttings are now planted about as
wide apart-one in each hill-as corn in the
great corn fields of the west And it is al
once cut down almost TO tho ground AS
said before, you must abandon all your old
picture ideas founded on Bible tales or ira
ditions from profane history. For the grape
in California is permitted to be only a stump.
Every year 1t is shorn down almost to the
ground. Out yonder in the almost shore
less sea of green grapevines you can find
stumps OF grape trees almost as thick as your
body. But the vines are only of this years
growth. A well trimmed vineyard in Cali
forilia, after the last crop is gathercJ, looks
exactly like field of stumps in a clearing.
Not much romance or beauty about that.
But there is plenty of money and this is tie
way that pays best, and poetry must yield to
utility.
How much will one acre yield Well in
Napa valley they show you field that yields
fourteen tons of grapes to the acre But this
Is an extraordinary yield From eight to ten
tons is the average crop. These grapes are
sold by the ton. They are sometimes sold as
they stand; sometimes they are sold on deliv-
cry at some wine press. They bring from $50
to $50 per ton, according to the yield, as u
rule.
The prettiest and cleanest employment /
eNeA 90" - thoOSA 6nphcilub blupts DuD IL
is hard on the back, and in the end Is not easy
work. OF course, the ugly stumps are en-
tirely hidden by the vines long before harvest
time Indeed, the thousand vines and ten
drills and blossoms that branch out from the
little black stump in the earliest days of
spring have long before harvest time com
pletely covered every inch of ground with
vines and leaves and tendrils that reach al
most to your waist. And the stump Is one
solid mass of luscious grapes. They arc all
there clinging to the stump, not scattered
about over the ground on the long vines that
are to be shorn away. But you begin to feel
down IN the dense mass of leaves and tendrils
for your stump, and at every stump you find
a little CARLOAD of grapes,
But, alas notwithstanding all can say or
do, fear my fellow laborer will cling to the
dirty alleys of the dismal cities, hug his hatred
of those who have toiled and braved danger
and made life n success. He prefers the pest
house for his children to the green grape
fields and the sweet air Of the roomy west-
joaquin Miller in The Chicago Times
The "Kroomassie" Garden Patch.
The old Dutch settlers gave very cIrious