The San Francisco call., 1896-10-04
They Bring SIG and
SIS a Ton This Year

on. Where? Oh, maybe to the city
maybe to some other grape town. OF
course the boss will take on Chinese; he
don't know how to treat white men any,
how. Expects them to work six days in
week!"
Never have I heard such frankly con-
fessed vagrancy. [ mention that most
people. have to work six days and do
| chores on the seventh.
We'll. we don't do it, and we don't
have to-"
We may as well stop at this small field
of grapes. The owner is a German, and
our countrymen are funny sometimes.
This one is jolly. with twiukling eyes and
alternate teeth. "Grapes are good money
this year." he says, 'but it's a pity the
crop is not heavier. If the frost hadn't
burned SO many he would be twice as well
off"
pointed out that the price might
have been smaller had the crop been
larger, but he doesn't think so Still the
grapes are good, and from his seventeen
acres, with two pickers, he will clear
sum which makes his eyes twinkle more
and brings into view his absent teeth.
town, to tie winery there, we may learn
about the fate of those great clusters of
sweetness. They are dumped into box,
wherein crawls an endless chain which
claws them up and up into the separator
at the top of the house. The stems go
down the dump and fail outside, while the
grapes pass into the crusher. The mashed
grapes, skins, seeds and all, are sent down
pipes into the vats. Nice big vats they
are, big enough to keep house in.
This is good time to learn about differ
ent wines in theory. White wine and red
wine are not made from different grapes.
T e edifference lies in the way they are fer
| mented. For claret the wine ferments
skins and all; for white wine the skins
are ,aken out before fermentation begins.
The color comes from the acid uniting
with the dark matter in the skins.
Grapes contain much tartaric acid. Per-
haps some housewives Lave wondered
whence comes the cream tartar used in
making Snowy biscuit and puffy cake. 1t
settles in wine-vats. The acid gathers in
the bottom and on the sides in crystals.
An old vat is coated inches deep with it.
Often, too, some is extracted from the
pOuluCc ny httlO OoliihS WoIOA
on it. The acid gathers on it like frost on
window pane. Nothing is wasted. The
pomace, mostly seed and fiber. is dried
and used to feed the engine. Ton for ton,
it is as good as coal. This winery-one
of many-handles thirty tons of grapes
day; quite a pile if it were in your front
yard.
The yield around Livermore will exceed
1000 tons, and the wine made will equal
500, 900 gallons. The price is from sic to
$25 a ton. That makes a tidy sum of
money.
ALI over our great State this harvest is
being gathered for wine, for raisins, for
eating; thousands of men, women and
children are making a living working
with them, and immense sums OF money
are circulating. 1t would seem that we
ought TO have plenty to eat; but if we
have them we must pay for them. The
crop is not heavy enough to pay for coax
ing the public. Every one can be sold
straigit from the vineyard. 1t is great
industry this year, and the wiseacres do
say that such year for grapes has not
| been seen since the early days. Blessed
be the man who has grapes to sell, for he
shall inherit riches even in these times of
| Organism and politics.