Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-21
A SHERRY VINEYARD.
One of the Many California Foothn
Enterprises.
Placer Renuhlican

now" said L. ". Maslin the other day, 81
was on visit to an old gentleman who
lived on ranch up in Nevada county He
showed me his trees and vines and at last
we came to his watermelon patch | am
afraid won't have very big crop of
melons this year, he remarked; these
vines do not appear to be doing very WELL
/ My sympathy was aroused at once and
thought would cheer him up little and
so I said: 80, well, never mind. Take
good care of the vines through the winter
and perhaps they will do better next year
| did not at that time understand the
pitying look which spread itself over his
countenance, but since then | have turned
rancher myself
In the fall of 1881 Mr.. Maslin bought
800 acres from the railroad company at
the little town OF Pine and turned rancher.
His.tract only cost So an acre and it is
situated only one-half mile from the sta
! ton, and IN the heart of one of the
finest districts in Placer county. IN the
intervals of his duties as Secreta4 ct th4
State Board of Equalization, Mr. Maslin
has been slowly developing his property
and devoting himself to the study oe the
! fig and to viticulture, until now he is rec
: cg ized as one of he best a l)rities or
! ( apes and v.ney; Is il c. n, a42,
;:.eidentally, he llne iore Il ater-
Ions thar e did.
! Pine is $ .2ted in tAs .lot-
! ihil, at an vat 403 @ nd
he land tu re is com yely le, or
! ), hat would he called roll :. Seven ye..rs
ago the Maslin ranch was covered with
chaparral. oaks and what we call the
! Christmas robbery bush or lhotinia. Such
land can be cleared for S25 an acre-much
| of it for not more than $50. The soil is
granite-some red and some gray-and its
depth averages four feet, while the bed
rock is rotten for some distance down. II
! contains plenty of humus, which is one of
the conditions desirable in good fruit land.
At the present time Mr. Maslin has his
whole tract inclosed, 40 acres being sur
rounded with good rabbit-proof fence.
He has 100 acres of land cleared of which
80 acres are planted in grapes, 10 in figs,
and acres IN an assortment Of fruits for
home use. The grape vines are Of ali ages,
having been planted out few acres each
year. Ten acres of the vineyard are in
Zinfandel vines acres in the Mataro. a
claret grape used for blending; the re-
! naming 20 acres are planted with the
Palamino and Pedro Ximenses, both
sherry wines. Wherever a Zinfandel or
Mataro vine fails, Mr. Maslin fills in with
the Boal Madeira. These three-the
Palamino, the Pedro Ximenses, and the
Boal Madeira-are the three great sherry
grapes of Spain where the true sherry is
dry wine. To cater to the English taste
and trade the Spanish wine-makers have
! for years been accustomed to fortify their
sherry and make it sweet
{! Mr.. Maslin's idea is to have a sherry
vineyard and make as true sherry as il is
possible to produce. lie will himself make
, the wine and have his own cellars II
don't think" says Mr.. Maslin, "that in
! these lower foothills, where ii is warm,
that one will ever be able to make a per-
! feet dry claret, sherry or any kind of real
/ dry wine, because the soil is somewhat def
/ cient in iron. By the lower foothills l
/ do not include the district about Auburn.
! l call an elevation of 500 or 600 feet the
! lower foothills. But shall make as drv
sherry as possible"
| While the lower foothill soil may be de-
| ficient in iron, it is very rich in potash
| and phosphoric acid, which are essential to
good grape land. Pine soil contains three
! quarters of one per cent of potash, which
| is a greater percentage than is found in anv
other grape growing section of California,
; and the lower foothills will certainly excel
| in producing most kinds Of sweet wines.
The Zinfandel grape has played an impor-
| tant part in this State as the first step to
making good Wine but it has its defects
and SlOkEi " bafr,af
I it Is too acid and it loses its best charac-
teristics when transplanted 10 warm
climate. 1t needs 4 clay soil with great
deal of iron in it,'and these are among the
! reasons why Il is not recommended for the
lower foothills. During the last five or
six years more attention has been paid to
the nohler varieties Of the grape Large
plantations have been made so that Cali
tornia can soon offer TO the refined palate
number Of wines equal in all respects to
/ the best imported. The only objection to
| the noble varieties is that nearly all of
them must be pruned long and high staked.
which adds to the cost of a vineyard. The
: three Spanish sherry grapes which have
i been mentioned should, however, be pruned
short. In the fall cut off all wood and
canes not wanted, and then late in the
spring reduce the long canes to two buds.
By that means any danger from frost may
be avoided, as the terminal buds expand
on long canes and leave the lower buds
dormant. Mr.. Maslin cultivates three or
four times and pioWs each way as many
times as possible. He does not summer
prune, but "disbuds" so rs to keep back all
superintendent canes. His vines are nearly
all grated on Riparia, Ruprestris, and
CdtJ0iSScG resistant roots, and we quote
Mr.. Maslin on very important point as
follows:
Leonard Coates, of Napa, is entirely
mistaken when he says that the Cdgtora,ca
will not grow well on dry soils The
Riparia grows in most kinds of soils. Its
defects are that its roots are surface feeders
and very gross. The Ruprestris is adapted
20 very dry soils. but it does not take the
graft readily. The merits of the Cdlifor-
. aica are that it sends its roots down to
moisture and takes the graft more readily
than any other resistant vine. the loss not
being more than ten per cent. The opin-
Ion of most persons who have investigated
the subject is that the California; is
thoroughly good resistant vine ] have a
plat of ten acres of Zinfandel grapes Six
acres are grated on Vitis Cdltoruica.
while border of four acres is grated on
their own roots. They are all in thesame
kind of soil, of the same aspect and are
growing under the same conditions. The
buds OF the vines on their own roots ex-
pand fully two weeks in advance of the
Others. If frost should come within
those two weeks | would lose the buds on
the Zinfandel roots, while the buds on the
Cdlyoraica roots would not be injured
fact worth countless dollars in case of
frost"
The first crop from the Maslin vineyard
was obtained two years ago when the Tin
fandels bore three tons an acre, which were
sold in Sacramento at SD ton. This is
considered a good crep for the first year in
bearing. A larger acreage will produce
this year, and the prospective returns from
this vineyard are considerable. In another
year or two the owner will begin making
sherry, and he will have the only distinc-
tive sherry vineyard in this part of the
e I