SLOPE, (Alto California, ent to disincorporate the Buena Vista Vinicultural Company, which has, or had some years since, the largest vi i the world, 400,000 vines or more, sug glunco at' the progress of the wine-growing #8 in California and in Sonoma Valle; "About twenty-two yours ago, the idea our State was destined to produce large quantities of wine began to find general favor, 'The grapou sold readily in San Francisco and The few Re ro' highly profitable. the mining towns, at prices ranging from thirty-five to fifty cents a pound, at retail, and the yield was berger and more regular than in any part of Burope, Though the ino was mostly made in a rude way, some of was decidedly palateabl, and. there, was reason to hope that with improved methods of crashing, pressing and fermentation, it might equal the beat brands of France and Getmany.
The statements of the advantages of our climate and situation for the wine business made an excitement amongst the people, and there was a rush to secure vine land and to plant vineyards. It began in Los Angels led to the foundation of Anaheim; it raged at Sonoma, where much of the aall was too thin for wheat, and the old Vallejo and Kelsey vineyards furnished cuttings in abundance, Colonel Haraezthy settled there, planted an extensive vineyard, and communicated enthusiasm to his neighbors, Doubts heving spread about the superiority of the Mission grape, cuttings of many other varieties were imported by various persons. Colonel Harasz~ thy went to Earope tthe best kinds and to examine the vi ds and wine cellars, tod placed his son in a champagne factory, 80 as to prepare him for making Californian sparkling wine.
That business had already been commenced here by Don Pedro Sainsevain, who had imported an Ge from France and set hin to work upon white wine made at Lo The wine was ea strong that a large proper. tion of the bottles were burat by the vigor of the fermentation, and it Is ad delicacy of flavor; so after a long, faithful and disastrous trial, Senor Sainsevain retired from the cham. pagne enterprise, Sige centime the vine planting continued, Los An Sonoma and Santa Clara taking iead—Naps, Solano, Contra Costa and other Coast counties following close upon their heels,: the Comstock Lode, in the present century. and the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada In Spat America, the leading district is came after with an energy that surpassed now Zacatecas, everything done before. 'Two millions of vines which yields Po $5,000,000 an+ ually. Guanajuato, Cerro Pasco' Potosi, oat, were set oat an aver for boat twelve years, to that though thers were Catoree, Fresnillo, Sombroreto and Alamos, not 100,000 vines in ihe State in 1855, there Spanish dominion. Chauarcillo, in Chile, is are doing far less than while under the are over 30,000,000 now. the most active of the newly-opened silver Most of these are the Mission grape, and districts in Spanish America. were set out before it was established that certain varieties of the foreign grape are more valuable for the table, for raisins, and for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.