The herald., 1894-01-02
A VINEYARD REPORT.
CONDITION OF VINES IN THE LOS
ANGELES DISTRICT.
They Are In Better shape Than In
1S92-Result of Mr. Dowlsn's
Visits of Inspec-
tfon.

Bichowsky, commissioner for the Los
Angeles district, recently published,
there is large amount OF valuable sta
tistical information relative to the vine-
yard interests OF the district.
In the course OF report to Mr.. Bich-
owsky by Ethelbert Dowler. made Oc.
tober 9, 1898, occurs the following
interesting statement
II beg to hand the report OF my visit
to the vineyards of the Los Angeles
district. The statistics have already
been forwarded to San Francisco, and
would have been sent in earlier only
that many people were away from
home, which has caused delay in OBJ
tanning the necessary information. In
addition to this, there was consider
able area of newly planted vineyards
to be gone over. which have all been
set out since the issuing of the last edi-
tion of the directory. The long dis
tances to be travelled by buggy have
also greatly heightened the time re-
quired to traverse the various districts.
'The vineyards in the southern coun-
ties of the state are, on the whole, in a
better condition than they were last
year. In the early part of the year the
vines looked better than they had done
for the last five years. This better con-
1ition has been kept up in most places,
though in some instances there has been
falling off, but genarally speaking a
better growth has been made, and the
promise of large crop has been fulfilled.
with respect to the Ansheim or Cal
ifornis disease, it is not easy to make
any statement that may be fairly taken
as definite. This disease remains as
yexatiouH as ever, so far as cause and
cure are concerned, but it appears to be
slowly losing it's deadly power. 1t also
evidently starts little later each year;
in fact, it ia now scarcely possible to
make any reliable estimate of the
amount of disease present in a district
before November, whilst few years ago
it's presence WAS fully declared by Au-
gust. and the fret ret symptoms were oh
servable much earlier than that. This
year the disease lie present over larger
area perhaps than it was last year, but
it does not appear to be doing go much
injury. Here and there purely local
conditions seem to shave favored a
stronger attack, but on the whole it
seems to be slowly decreasing in viru-
lence. This is certainly the case in some
places, where vines, which last year
showed considerable proportion OF foli-
age having the usual yellow markings,
have this year entirely recovered and
are bearing a good crop OF fruit. In the
Santa Ana district also some vines were
seen which were apparently quite
healthy, although the original vineyard
had been dug out come years since on
account of disease; the ground since
then has been regularly cropped with
hay, but some of the old roots have reg
ularly cent out a new growth, which has
never yet shown any signs of sickness.
in some districts, especially where
citrua fruits can be cultivated with ad-
vantage, there is still an inclination to
take out vines and replsnt with citrus
! fruits. Other growers have either al
ready set out deciduous fruits amongst
the vines, or will do so this next eeasou,
whilst some will take out the vines en-
tirely, claiming that the low prices ruling
for grapes. whether dried or green, leave
then no other course.
In other districts considerable acre
age has been newly sct to vines, all of
raiein varieties, within the last two
! years. Most OF these new vineyard dis
tricts are in San Bernardino county. in
the neighborhood OF Rialto, Rochester,
Bloomington and the Dry Ranch dis
tricts. Part ofthis area is under irri-
CATION, and part is not. The Dry
Ranch district appears to have sufi-
cient water without irrigation, as in
August the soil was quite damp at
depth OF from four to six inches from
the surface. This, of course, was where
the ground had been well cultivated.
In all these newly planted.out districts
the vines have made an exceedingly
good start.
1t is rather difficult matter to make
any satisfactory classification OF soils in
the southern counties. Speaking
broadly, all the varieties of soil, except
in very few districts, are derived from
the decomposition of granitic rocks, yet
the soil in small area will vary from
the lightest sand to stiff adobe. On the
other hand, large areas often range only
from light to moderately heavy loan,
the transition being very gradual.
There are two districts which de-
serve special mention on account of
their situation, viz: Hesperia, and what
for the present may be called Antelope
valley district. These are both valley
districts, yet their lowest points are be-
tween 1000 feet and 5000 feet above sea
level. Hesperia is compact district,
with deep, rich soil, and good supply
OF water. The soil is red sandy loan,
derived from the decomposition OF gran