USA > California > Napa County > History of Napa and Lake Counties, California : comprising their geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber, together with a full and particular record of the Mexican Grants, also separate histories of all the townships and biographical sketches > Part 22
USA > California > Lake County > History of Napa and Lake Counties, California : comprising their geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber, together with a full and particular record of the Mexican Grants, also separate histories of all the townships and biographical sketches > Part 22
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Upon the organization of the Commission Mr. Arpad Haraszthy was chosen President, Mr. Charles A. Wetmore, Vice-President, and Mr. Charles Krug, Treasurer. The first report is before us, and we will make a few extracts, such as we think will be of interest to the general reader. We would say en passant that it is one of the most able documents that has ever been contributed to the American public upon the subject of viticul- ture, and should be in the hands of every vine grower in the State. The fact is, that it is so replete with interesting matter that we find it difficult to decide what to omit in this connection.
In the President's report to the Governor we find the following truth : " One of the most perplexing difficulties a new beginner encounters in plant- ing out a vineyard is the selection of the proper vines-and the nomenclature in that respect in this State is sadly deficient, as it has ever been ; almost in each district, often in the same township, the same vine is called by several contradictory names; hence the great difference of opinion of vine growers as to the respective qualities of various vines. To remedy this evil this State should have an experimental vineyard in an important vine-growing dis- trict, * where every variety of grapevine in the State should be planted, in no less a number than one hundred vines, whose habits, growth, etc., could be carefully noted."
The following figures concerning the wine and brandy movements in the State will be of interest in this connection. The amount of wine re- ceived at San Francisco from the interior was :
In 1879
. gallons 3,364,607
In 1880
3,759,743
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Viticulture in Napa County.
The amount of brandy received was :
In 1879
gallons 93,506
In 1880
133,764
Showing a very notable increase in the reception of both wine and brandy.
The shipments out of the State for 1880 of wine were:
By sea
. gallons 1,545,715
By rail
941,638
Total
2,487,353
In 1879 the total exports of wine were 2,155,944 gallons. The ship- ments of brandy for 1880 were :
By sea
gallons 97,533
By rail
.€
91,565
Total
189,098
The total brandy shipments for 1880 show an increase of 25,206 gallons over 1879.
In round numbers the vintage of 1880 has been estimated to range between ten and twelve million gallons. To arrive at a valuation the fol- lowing figures have been adopted :
9,500,000 gallons dry wines @ 25 c ... .. .$2,375,000
700,000 sweet wines @ 60 c .... 420,000
450,000 brandy (in bond) @$1.15 517,500
Total
$3,312,500
To this should be added about $100,000 for value of raisins, and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of grapes used for tables, etc., making a grand total valuation of the grape production of the State about $3,500,000 in the producers' hands.
The President of the Commission closes his report with the following excellent suggestions and remarks : " It will be seen that a vineyard can be planted and maintained till the first year of production for less than $75 per acre, and that good land upon which to plant can be purchased at from $10 per acre upwards; and it will be further seen that the net yield in coin to the producer this year has not been less than $50, and that the greater number has reached $100 per acre. In view, therefore, of the great advan- tages of viticulture in rendering valuable our millions of now barren hill- sides ; of rendering productive in grapes and raisins our exhausted grain
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
fields, which now barely pay for the seeding; in view of the advantages this pursuit offers to people of limited means to secure homes and an unfail- ing sustenance ; in view of the enormous wealth the future exportation of our viticultural productions would bring to our golden shores and populating our State with healthful, frugal, thrifty citizens; in view of this, I beg your Excellency to use your great personal influence and powerful recommenda- tion towards securing for the use of this Board the most liberal appropria- tion possible."
That grape-growing for wine-making purposes is a remunerative business is evidenced by the fact that grapes brought last year from $18 to $25 per ton, and in 1881, in Napa and Sonoma Counties, from $25 to $35 per ton. The average yield of a vineyard is about five tons, which would bring in to the producer from $75 to $125 per acre. Now, if it costs, say $25 an acre to cultivate it, the producer still has from $50 to $100 clear. What other crop offers such inducements as that ?
Commissioner Wetmore in his report has this to say in regard to drink- ing wines that have alcohol in them as a preservative, and the "dry" wines : " The distinction between 'hot ' and 'cold' wines should be made as soon as possible ; the former should not be encouraged as habitual beverages, and the grapes that produce them should be diverted to the production of liquor wines and brandies rather than to imitations of clarets, hocks and sauternes. No wine that requires alcohol to keep it, should be tolerated as a table drink, and none that produces dizziness or headache should even be excused. The distilleries afford ample outlet for such productions. * Such wines are a poison to the Anglo-Saxon stomach and brain."
Of fertilizers, Mr. Wetmore says, "I think that it is most important for viticulturists to investigate fully the relative values and defects of the different forms of manures, viz .: organic and inorganic. I believe that there are many good reasons for condemning the use of decomposing vegetable matters, and for favoring the reduction of all fertilizers to inor- ganic conditions before applying them to the soil. The healthy vine needs principally phosphoric acid, potash and lime; the diseased vine, especially when attacked by phylloxera, needs also ammonia to stimulate the root and cause growth. Bones and wood ashes reduced with sulphuric acid, will probably supply the best stimulus and plant food. The bones being crushed and acted upon by sulphuric acid, sulphate of lime (gypsum) is formed, the phosphoric acid uniting with the potash of the ashes, forming a phosphate which is readily taken up by the plant."
Concerning the wines produced in our California vineyards, generally speaking, Mr. Wetmore says: "They can only be considered as raw material for the large dealers to work over in blending vats. Only a few produce wines of much value to consumers and retailers. This is not so
193
Viticulture in Napa County.
true of white as of red wines. California producers cannot expect to obtain much individual celebrity for their claret and Burgundy types until they have assorted their wines of proper varieties in just proportions, so as to accomplish, when they rack their musts from the fermenting tanks, or pipes, what they now leave for the dealer to do. None of the celebrated French wines are the products of single varieties of grapes. Knowing in what proportions the musts of different grapes must be blended to produce perfect and agreeable wines-aroma, bouquet, color, strength, acidity, smoothness, freshness, etc., all being considered, the French vine-grower cultivates all varieties in the proportions required. The mixture of Zin- fandel (Hungarian) with Malvoise (a port wine grape), which is so much practiced in Napa County, ought to be discontinued as soon as other varieties of finer quality can be substituted for the Malvoise."
Under the sub-heading " The Worst Enemies of California Wines," Mr. Wetmore says: "I find that of all the inquiring world, those who take the least interest in discovering and making known the excellencies of our best vintages, are American hotel keepers, restaurateurs, and other retailers of fine wines and liquors." We desire to join issue with the gentleman on this proposition. He seems to ignore the great law of demand and supply, or rather charges the hotel keepers with creating a demand for strong drinks over their bar rather than wine. He must remember that the greater por- tion of wine that has been drunk in the United States for the past century, has been by foreigners, and of course they naturally call for their favorite brands. The largest portion of American wine drinkers in years past have been people who have thought that anything " Frenchy " was the ne plus ultra, hence they have called for French named wines. As wine drinking gradually spread among the traveling public, people kept up the usual habit of those around them and called for imported articles. It must be borne in mind that the majority of Americans are not connoisseurs in wine, and do not know one wine from another. Most Americans like sweet wines, hence the " dry " wines which should be used at table have never been favor- ites with them, hence there has been but little demand for wines at the table. It has been the custom for years for all French, German and Italian restaur- ants in the city to give wine and black coffee both with every meal, and beginning with perhaps 1875, there is not a restaurant or hotel anywhere but will give a glass of claret for the same price as a cup of coffee, while most restaurants in the city give half-pint bottles for the same.
One trouble is that the American people who drink at all have been lin the habit of taking enough liquor into their stomachs to make their brains reel more or less, and fire their blood, and to attain that result re- quires a greater amount of claret than a glass drank with a dinner, hence
13
194
History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
the average caller for wine at table has a large bottle brought on so that he can swig enough of it down him to become in a measure intoxicated. When our people learn to drink wine as they do coffee at meals, not as an intoxi- cant but as a relish, and with the same moderation, then it will be in demand, and the supply will be vouchsafed by every landlord in the State. Let our people learn to use wine and not abuse it, then will a new era dawn upon us in the manner in which wine is served. Not long since a man of style, etc., took dinner at Calistoga, and called for a wine with a great long French name to it. The landlord endeavored to prevail upon him to try some Napa Valley wine. Oh, no, he knew what California wine was, he did not want "any of the sour stuff." The landlord was out of the French brand but filled an old bottle he had, with the brand still on it, with wine from a neighboring cellar. The connoisseur (?) was delighted ; had two bottles instead of one, for dinner, and then came to the bar and wanted the address of the place where he was able to secure such superb French claret. He was thunder- struck when told that the wine was made within five miles of the town, but he had the good sense to know and appreciate good wine when he saw it, and so had the landlord drive him out to the cellar and ordered a goodly supply of it for his own use. There is a misunderstanding between the producer and consumer somewhere. If the consumer were a judge of wine, and would get his wines direct from some reliable producer, the credit of California wines would soon appreciate.
PESTS OF THE VINE .- " Every rose must have its thorn," and all good has its evil counterpart, are truisms that extend throughout the economy of the world, and so we find that all kinds of fruit-bearing trees and vines are subject to the ravages of disease and pests, and the grapevine is no excep- tion to the rule. Standing at the head of the list of vine pests, and in com- parison with which all others sink into utter insignificance, stands the phylloxera-vastatrix. This pest was not known to have an existence in the vineyards of the State until 1873, but circumstances point back to 1860, and probably earlier, both in Sonoma County and Yolo. Through the ob- servations of Mr. F. W. Morse, the expert sent out under the joint auspices of the State University and the Commissioners, phylloxera is found to exist at present in vineyards in the following counties: Sonoma, where it is confined to the valley of Sonoma; Napa, where it exists on both sides of Napa Valley, generally from the lower part, as far as Yountville, and in one vineyard in the St. Helena district ; in Solano County, in several places ; in Yolo County, the well known Orleans Hills and one small vineyard was found affected with it; in Placer County, what was known as the Nickerson Vineyard was found affected with it; in El Dorado, two vine- yards near Placerville were found affected. In this connection, we have
195
Viticulture in Napa County.
thought it would be a matter of great interest to insert the following ad- dress of Dr. Herman Behr before the Sonoma District Viticultural meeting, at Sonoma, July 23, 1880 :
" Gentlemen-When we have to defend ourselves against constant and repeated attacks of an enemy, our first step must be, in order to render our defense successful, to study the character and habits of the enemy and his hostile as well as friendly relations to others ; for the friend of an enemy is an enemy, and his enemy is an ally.
" Such is the case of the phylloxera ; and before we consider our chances of warfare, and begin to attack, we ought to study the development of the evil and the various disguises under which it perpetrates its insidious devastation.
"In all countries that have a real winter the phylloxera hybernates in the form of an egg. The more the winter approaches in its character a mere rainy season, the more the phylloxera develops a tendency to stay over the winter as a perfect insect, in a more or less dormant state. This last form of hybernation seems to be the rule in California ; but the cir- cumstance that the egg has not yet been found, is no proof that it should not exist.
" The statements of Planchon, Lichtenstein, and Balbiana, all careful observers, agree perfectly in the description of the insect that comes out of the hybernating egg. This insect tries with its proboscis different spots on the leaves of the grapevine, and after having selected a locality, fastens itself there, producing by the irritation of this process a swelling of the leaf that grows out into a gall, not unlike those caused by the sting of the gallwasp. Inclosed in this gall, the phylloxera, without having had any sexual intercourse, lays eggs. Planchon has counted them up to nearly eight hundred ; and after having laid the last egg, the phylloxera dies and dries up, surrounded by the eggs that soon give birth to a breed of phylloxera. These insects, after having escaped through a fissure on the top of the gall, go through the same process of multiplication by eggs in time of three weeks, only their offspring is considerably less numerous than that of the first generation, developed out of the hybernating egg. Mr. Fatio has ob- served the phylloxera, after having tried several leaves, to descend to the root of the grapevine and inclose itself there in a nodosity analogous to the gall of the leaf. At any rate it is certain, although it has not been exactly observed, that the phylloxera, sucking the sap of the roots without being inclosed in nodosities, are the descendants of the gall, as well as the nodosity- building variety.
" Toward the end of the year the phylloxera appears under a new garb. It looks quite a different being, and has adopted the form of a diminutive four-winged fly. This tiny insect has but little command over its flight.
196
History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
It is the toy of any current of air. Thousands of them perish in spider- webs and pools of water, and very few are carried by a lucky wind to a spot favorable for laying a foundation for new generations. This the winged phylloxera does by laying eggs, of which she carries only a few (2-5), but of two kinds ; small ones, out of which come males, and large ones, out of which come females, both wingless. The female of this gen- eration harbors only a single egg, and this is, in the insect kingdom, a very exceptional circumstance. This is the hybernating egg, out of which comes the founder of the many generations which follow, and which are non-sex- ual themselves. As far as this goes the habits of the insect are well ob- served, and everything is clear. But as to time and circumstances, when the phylloxera leave the gall-building and move about on the roots without inclosing themselves and their offspring, nothing is known. Maybe the nodosities on the roots are the product of generations that link the gall- builders to the phylloxera of the root ; may be that galls, as well as nodosi- ties, are only the product of adaptation. There is one thing certain, that there exist districts, infected by the phylloxera, where galls have not yet been observed. Another mystery is connected with the appearance of the winged generation and its offspring of wingless males and females.
" It has been observed, and not only in the phylloxera, but also in the in- sects of analogous organization, that an indefinite number of non-sexual generations can follow through years without once producing a generation of males and females. Another queer circumstance is the great irregularity in the appearance of said winged generation and its sexual offspring. The duration of this state is short enough. A few days are sufficient to make them disappear without leaving any trace but the fertilized egg. The phyl- loxera can propagate through an indefinite number of generations without once appearing in the winged state. This shows that the winged generation is not necessary for the existence of the species. What is then the object, the function of that form ? We may, perhaps, express the circumstance in the following way. When we recollect that it is chiefly in climates of a severer winter where the winged phylloxera has been observed, and there always late in the season, and when we further consider that the fertilized egg, which possesses a much slower development than the non-sexual, which develops shortly after its being laid, so all these circumstances seem to point to the fact that this fertilized egg, by the very slowness of its devel- opment, is better calculated to resist the inclemencies of the winter than the ordinary egg with its quick development, or the phylloxera herself in her torpid dormant state of hybernation. There is in this circumstance an analogy to certain water plants producing two different kinds of spores : moving spores which have to sprout after a short time or perish, and resting spores, that can remain latent for a long space of time and develop as soon as circumstances become favorable.
197
Viticulture in Napa County.
" Now, these moving spores swarm and sprout till all the water in which they took their first start is filled with their gelatinous masses ; but when at the end of a season, or when by any other circumstance the water begins to dry up, the resting spores are formed, mix with the slime of the pool, when this slime is pulverized by dryness and heat, are carried with it to places where sufficient moisture favors their development, or remain latent at the bottom of the pool till rain or inundation fill it again. Now, there is, perhaps, some analogy between the circumstances that produce in the alga the resting spore, and in the phylloxera the fecundated egg of slow develop- ment. Either of them waits for a time or a place more favorable for its development. Under ordinary circumstances, the resting spore of the alga develops with the first rain, the fecundated egg of the phylloxera with the sunshine of spring ; exceptionally, when the supply of water becomes scarce, the resting spore trusts itself to the wings of the wind; if the sap of the grapevine of one locality begins to fail, the phylloxera is carried by its winged mothers to new localities. In this way, perhaps, we may account for the irregularities in the time of appearance in regard to the winged phylloxera of milder climates.
" Now, let us calculate only eight generations through the season, each member of a generation producing only twenty eggs, which is a very low average figure ; as the individuals bred from the hybernating egg alone pro- duces, according to the statement of Planchon, up to eight hundred, and we come to the astonishing figure of two hundred and fifty-six billions. Hap- pily, there are circumstances that prevent that figure being reached.
" Nature always tries, and tries successfully, to restore a balance of power in her productions. The phylloxera itself, or at least its devasta- tions, are a consequence of the balance in nature being disturbed by the culture of a single plant in certain localities to the exclusion of others. We will now see what plan Nature adopts for destroying the phylloxera. We have seen how the exclusive culture of the grapevine has attracted and multiplied the parasite that feeds upon it. In the same measure now mul- tiply the beings that prey upon the phylloxera and they also will disappear, or at least diminish, when the phylloxera has been reduced to a number that does not any more disturb the balance in nature. Not all the enemies of this parasite are known. I am to enumerate here only those whose predi- lection for phylloxera blood is well established and sufficiently effective to come under our consideration. The phylloxera, owing to her subterranean habits, is not very accessible to birds. The influence of birds on insect life is generally overrated. Amongst the insects that know how to find the phylloxera are some beetles of the tribes called Carabides and Staphylinides that destroy in all their stages of development a great number of phyllox- era. Staphylinides may occasionally be seen on grapes. They do not feed
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-NAPA.
on them, but are apt to impart to the grape a disagreeable smell. But we had better allow them that little extravagance, as during their long existence in the larvæ state they live chiefly on animal food-on fellows that are smaller than themselves.
" There are several beetles related to the Spanish fly that feed in their lar- væ state on and under gound, on eggs and small larvæ of aphidians, as well as grasshoppers. Certain wasps, that keep their young ones in subterranean galleries, feed them also on phylloxera and its relations. You probably have observed on the stalks of rosebuds infected by leaf-lice (aphis), a little green maggot, shaped like a leach, and moving about very much like such. This is the larvæ of a fly (syrphus), somewhat smaller than our house-fly. If you observe what he is doing there, you will find that it is not for the sake of company that he frequents that crowd of leaf-lice. A similar mag- got, only smaller, visits stem and root of the grapevine, where it devours considerable quantities of phylloxera. Then there is a tribe of four-winged flies, somewhat of the structure of the dragon fly, but considerably smaller, and the wings neither elevated (agrion) nor flattened out like those of the real dragon flies (libellula), but folded round the body, like those of a moth. This insect, called hermerobius, destroys in its winged state, aphidians, and perhaps also some gall-building phylloxera ; in its wingless larva state it preys on aphidians of all kinds, following them from leaves to twigs, and from twigs to stems, from stems to roots. It has been found in company with the phylloxera, of course not as their friend. The class of the spiders and mites (Arachnidc) are all carnivorous, and many species prey on the plentiful and defenseless phylloxera.
" A French lady, Mad. de Bompar, mentions especially a little mite called trombidium as an active destroyer. I am not quite satisfied in regard to the predilection of this little being for the phylloxera ; at least it lives not ex- clusively on aphidians. Mrs. Wetmore, who raised in a box our native grape- vine (Vitis Californica) for the sake of experiment, found a great many of these minute mites on the roots, where we could not trace a single phyllox- era. But the web-making spiders do really good work ; especially the smaller species of ground spiders, that fasten their nets between twigs, are perhaps even of greater use, as they destroy the winged generation, inac- cessible to all the destroyers enumerated before. How many of the winged aphidians die without being able to propagate, we can form an idea by ex- amining those spider-webs that are left by their owner, so that the tiny customers that caught themselves in their meshes are no more removed. There may be many more enemies of the phylloxera besides those enume- rated, for many things that happen every moment among the little things under ground escape our notice. It is certain there are more victims of that microscopic warfare than we generally imagine. Entomologists are
JOHN M. COGHLAN.
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Viticulture in Napa County.
well acquainted with the fact that insects that are excessively common through a certain time, disappear sometimes suddenly as if swept away by an epidemic. At any rate a diminution of the phylloxera pest is to be ex- pected before they have ruined our vines.
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