USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The builders of a great city : San Francisco's representative men, the city, its history and commerce : pregnant facts regarding the growth of the leading branches of trade, industries and products of the state and coast > Part 4
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WINE AND VITICULTURE.
California is par excellence the land of the vine. Good authorities say that there are not less than fifteen million acres within its borders suit- able to its growth. Much of this is hill land not well suited for anything else, but pre-eminently calenlated to be the home of the vine. The lands of California are not like most of those of Europe, worn out by ages
of bearing and producing plants that are an easy prey to the ravages of the phylloxera.
Then the climate in the season of the vintage is mild and equable with no hail storms to destroy the blos- soming plant, and very seldom frost or any other unpleasant climatic in- fluences to mar it. It is not surpris- ing that under such circumstances the industry of wine-making should have rapidly expanded, and that Cali- fornia looks forward at an early day to become one of the great wine countries of the world. In fact, it is already one in the estimation of many of its people.
The vine was introduced into this State by the Franciscan Fathers about 100 years ago, and has since flourished and prospered in the land. The variety was what is still known as the Mission ; and not many years ago most of the grapes grown in Califor- nia belonged to this stock. Some of the old vines in the genial climate in the southern portion of the State have grown to gigantic dimensions, rendering it easy to understand the thoroughly literal application of the scriptural expression -sitting under his own vine and fig tree. The first vines were planted at San Gabriel and had been introduced directly from Spain. There was little done for many a long year- the Mission Fathers simply making a little wine for their own use. With the advent of the gold seekers, grape growing, not wine-making, became a recog- nized industry. The miners had plenty of money, were very liberal and did not mind planking down the gold dust freely for what they want- ed or fancied. In 1850-51 grapes were sold in the San Francisco mar- ket at 50 to 75 cents per pound. The profits made in this way were very large and induced many to embark in the business of their cultivation. The result was that in ten years after the discovery of gold viticulture was already a recognized industry.
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CALIFORNIA.
The first vineyards of any size were planted in and near Los Angeles and in Santa Clara County. One of the most noted pioneers in the business was Agoston Haraszthy, an Hungar- ian exile, who brought to the service of our State the experience gained in happier years in his fatherland.
In 1851 he planted a vineyard at San Diego. In 1853 he established another at Crystal Springs. He in- troduced several new varieties of the grape from the East and from Eu- rope, especially from Hungary, amongst others the famous Zinfandel from which a justly celebrated claret is made. In 1855 he purchased the Buena Vista vineyard at Sonoma, and there planted 80,000 vines. Now Sonoma County is one of the finest wine-producing counties in the State. Its neighbor, Napa, too, is justly famed for the excellence and superior quality of its wines. Very early in the history of the State a German colony established at Anaheim rend- ered important services to the indus- try. Colonel Haraszthy long work- ed with voice and pen as well as capital and skill in support of his favorite industry and at length arous- ed the Legislature and the people of the State to an active interest in im- proving the original stock of the Mis- sion grape. The result was that in 1860 a Commission was appointed to Europe to make a selection of the best grapes grown there for trans- plantation to the soil of California. They introduced 200,000 cuttings of 487 different varieties- in a word the very pick and choice of the vines of the Old World from her most cele- brated vineyards. This is why Cali- fornia has taken such
GIGANTIC STRIDES
In advance in the industry of viticul- ture; it is to-day the principal wine country in America, and bids fair not only to continue so, but to rival most of the lands of the Old World in this respect. The vines were from
France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ger- many and we may be sure that Hun- gary, the native country of Colonel Haraszthy, was not forgotten. He paid all the expenses out of his own pocket. Amongst other pioneers was James Delmas, who, in 1856, intro- duced the Black Malvesie-long and still a favorite grape-and the Char- bonnean. Charles La Franc first plant- ed in the State the Charbonneau, the Mataro, the Grenache and the Sau- vignon.
Since that time other choice Euro- pean varieties have been acclimatized to California, and with the happiest results. Some of the finest wines in the world are made from them; ac- knowledged as such by connoisseurs both in Europe and America.
Endeavors have also been made, and with success, to produce spark- ling wines or champagne. But this success has been achieved at com- paratively great cost, and not till many years and much money had been wasted in vain attempts to equal the glorious vintage of France. In 1857 Don Pedro Sainsevain, origin- ally Pierre Sainsevain, a Frenchman naturalized in Spain, but who sub- sequently found his way to Califor- nia, attempted the production of champagne. He brought from France one M. Debanne, an expert, and they tried the experiment in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, but without success. Why, is not related. The Buena Vista Viticultural As- sociation subsequently spent $100,- 000, and with other parties $120,000 in a vain attempt to produce the genuine article. But it was all a dead loss. Agoston Haraszthy, how- ever, determined that champagne should be made in California, and he sent his son Arpad to France to learn how to produce it. He did learn, and in California after many experi- ments success at last crowned his efforts. Since then California cham- pagne has been an article of well known merit, and 20,000 cases are annually disposed of, principally in
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BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
the United States. Champagne is also made from California grapes by an artificial process, two firms being engaged in the business. Sherries, ports and other wines similar to those of Europe with like names are also made.
There has been a great increase in the acreage and the consequent pro- duction. This last has gone up from half a million gallons in 1859 to
SIXTEEN MILLION GALLONS IN 1886,
And was expected to be still larger the past year. In 1885 a yield of twenty million gallons was expected, but climatic influences reduced it to ten. Most of the product is taken by the Eastern States, but our wine growers are now looking abroad for other markets-such as England and France.
France has, since the ravages of the phylloxera desolated her vine- yards, been purchasing heavily of Spain, Italy, and other countries, and our viticulturists think they can have a market there also. The reduction in prices-25 to 30 cents- in two years, though unwelcome and inevitable from increased production, lias a tendency to promote consump- tion and to eventually make such a market as the pioneers of the indus- try perhaps never dreamed of. Cali- fornia wine has been making a name for itself and this fact has led to adulterations, in the East, especially. It is said that in New York so-called wine, with not a single drop of the juice of the grape in it, has been sold as the genuine product of California vineyards. And not only that, but hundreds of thousands of gallons of California wines have been bottled and labelled with French names and sold as the product of some of the most renowned vineyards of France, and of other parts of Europe as well. Indeed, in San Francisco here, the industry of disguising California wines under French names for sale in the East and in this market is
being industriously carried on. Re- cently some European wines and California ones of similar appearance were placed together without labels, and connoisseurs invited to sample, when they failed to distinguish be- tween the European and the Califor- nian. This fact renders it easy to disguise the true character of the wine. That this is done to any great extent is denied by the most respect- able of our wine merchants. It is admitted that some wine has been shipped from this city to New Orleans with French labels, but not to any great extent. The fact, no doubt, is that the disguising is done when the wine arrives at its destina- tion. Of course, this is wrong. If people pay for French wines they should have them even though the California article be equally as good. France herself, however, sets the example in this, and a bad one, too, as she buys wine in all of Europe and passes it off as the product of her own vineyards. The wine sold by the wine merchants of San Francisco is generally bought of vineyardists, brought to this city and prepared for export. But some of our wine merchants have wineries of their own in the interior where they buy the grapes from the growers and make the wine themselves.
GROWTH OF THE VINTAGE.
The progressive growth of the California wine yield may be thus given :
1859
500,000
1867
2,500,000
1868
4,000,000
1869
3,000,000
1871
4,500,000
1872
3,000,000
1873
2,500,000
1874
4,000,000
1875
4,000,000
1876
4 000,000
1877
4,000,000
1878
4,500,000
1879
5,000,000
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CALIFORNIA.
1880
6,500,000
1881
7,000,000
1882
7,000,000
1883
7,000,000
1884
10,000,000
1885
8,000,000
1886
11,000,000
1887
13,900,000
1888
16,000,000
1889
14,750,000
It will be seen from this that from 1868 to 1877, inclusive, there was very little change in the production. Then it began to increase. From 1881 to 1883, inclusive, there was a pretty steady yield year by year. Then the vines that had been planted from 1877 to 1880 began to make themselves felt in the increased quantity. In 1884 we had the larg- est vintage hitherto known. Next year there was a falling off. In 1888 we reached 16,000,000 gallons; dur- ing the past year the vintage was smaller. From year to year in the future not only the quan- tity but the quality of our wine resembles nothing more than our own will improve, till California is as justly celebrated in the new world as France is in the old. By the plant- ing of resistant stocks all dread of the phylloxera will be removed, and in that respect we will be much happier than our great congener of Europe.
VINES AND VINTAGE.
From what we have already stated, it may be seen that much has been done to add to what Nature has done for California as a home of the vine. Of course it has been principally in the direction of importing the best varieties grown in Europe and trying to naturalize them in the soil and climate of California. Much has also been done by experienced wine makers in the production of different descriptions that shall have more or less resemblance to the famous wines of Europe. Hence our ports, clarets, Burgundies, Hochis, etc. But, of
course, much remains yet to be done, and we have room in the soil of California for the skill of at least another generation of viticulturists. It must be remembered that in Europe the same vine when trans- planted from one hill to another will yield an altogether different wine, so that it is evident that mere culti- vation of noted European varieties will hardly suffice. For instance, the grape from which the noted champagnes of France are made resembles nothing more than our own Mission grape. Very fine wine has been made from this same grape and the probabilities are that some of the greatest future triumphs of Cali- fornia viticulture will be wrought out in connection with this long ne- glected variety.
There is no county in California where the grape does not grow. The leading counties now devoted to its culture are Napa, Sonoma, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, and Sacramento. We now make from fourteen to sixteen million gal- lons, but can make thirty million gal- lons from the area at present under the vine. The area is about 35,000 acres, of which 30,000 acres can pro- duce thirty million gallons, or about a thousand gallons to the acre. That can be averaged at say 20c. a gallon, ranging all the way from 10c. to 45c. at the vineyard, so that an acre will average two hundred dollars to the wine grower. This, however, is ex- ceptional only.
PRACTICAL VITICULTURE.
Los Angeles is the oldest and till lately the largest of our wine-produc- ing counties. The extensive settle- ment of that county during the past few years has, however, caused a great part of the vine lands to be turned into building lots, so that the yield has actually diminished. This, however, may be looked upon as temporary only, and we have no doubt that in the not distant future it will easily eclipse its old fame in
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BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
this regard. It has boasted of one ' ever, reckoning it at $50 per acre the of the largest vineyards in the world net result of 50 acres would be $2,500 a year. This, however, can be re- duced considerably and still yield excellent results. The value of the land when the vines are in full bear- ing is $300 to $500 per acre, depend- ing a good deal on location. At the lowest price a good vineyard of 50 acres would equal $15,000 in value. -the Nadeau, consisting of two thousand two hundred and fifty acres. Here were grown Mission, Zinfandel, Blan Elben, Trousseau, and Black Malvesie. In 1885, with only par- tial bearing, the yield was 2,000 tons of grapes, in 1886 it was 3,412 tons, in 1887 it was 8,000 tons, while in 1888 the yield was 12,000 tons. The crop of 1885 yielded 300,- COTTON IN CALIFORNIA. 000 gallons of wine and 50,000 gallons of brandy; that of 1887 equalled Cotton growing is bound to be- come an important industry in Cali- fornia. It has been proven that it can be grown in Tnlare and Kern Counties to greater advantage than in Texas. The planter is not re- tarded here by inclemency of the weather, by rain at the time of pick- ing. The irrigation needed is very moderate. It should be raised in one or two thousand acre lots. The manufacturing consumption can soon be raised to ten thousand bales of five hundred pounds cach at from 10 to 12 cents a pound. 750,000 gallons of wine and 130,000 gallons of brandy, while that of 1888 gave over a million gallons of wine and 200,000 gallons of brandy. This will be worth at a low valuation half a million dollars, without the full capacity having been reached. In Napa County from five to seven tons of grapes per annum is the yield. In 1896 there were in the county 6,953 acres of grape four years old and over, and this might be taken as the average; that year the yield was 4,800,000 gallons. In 1884, with a much smaller acreage of producing Along the lower foothills ot Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Tulare, Kern, Mer- ced and San Diego Counties fine cot- ton has been recently grown which places its successful culture beyond experiment. vines, the yield was 4,937,000 gallons. The yield can be run up to a thousand gallons an acre, but it goes down in unfavorable years to 2,500,000 gal- lons. The average may be given at probably 500 gallons to the acre, worth $100. The vines planted do not yield much of a return for four or five years, but then they begin to pay richly. In the fourth year the yield may be placed at two tons per acre. The yield increases till about the seventh year, when it is generally four tons per acre. The price of grapes has declined during late years -has dropped, but we may give 810 per ton as the lowest and $30 as the highest, depending on the description of grapes grown. Four tons produce 500 gallons of wine, worth at the vineyard all the way from 10c. to 50c. a gallon. Averaging at 20c. we have $100 per acre as the yield in a good year. The cost is $25 per acre, leaving $75 per acre profit. How-
Last year about 600 bales or 240,- 000 pounds of California cotton, cost- ing $25,000, were used in the mills. The superintendent found it a better article on the average than Texas cot- ton. Professor Hilgard states that cotton has been successfully grown in this State from the Mexican bor- der to Shasta. Cotton should be grown where it is warm, the hotter the better, so long as moisture is pro- curable by the roots, which grow quite deep. Several farmers of the State who have tried the experiment of cotton culture have been gratified at the result, succeeding better than in wheat. There is only one cotton mill on the coast, the California Cot- ton Mills of East Oakland. They
33
CALIFORNIA.
manufacture sail cloth, twine, car- pets, ropes and bags. The total amount of production for the year ending July 5, 1889, was $286,955 18. The amount paid for the raw material -cotton-during the same period was $125,701 47; paid for jute, $29,- 875 05; for coal and oil, $16,891 51; for dyestuffs, $3,239 42; for wages, $71,004 02. The production for 1886 was $123,908 25. In three years, therefore, the increase was far more than double.
There are 190 employees in the California Cotton Mills, of whom sixty - five are men, twenty boys, eighty-five women and twenty girls. The wages of the men run from $1 65 to $3 50 a day, women from $1 to $1 80. and boys and girls from 50 cents to $1. These rates of wages are considerably higher than what is paid in other States for similar work. In the California mills the hours are sixty a week, or an average of ten a day, while in the mills in the South- ern States they run from eleven to thirteen hours a day.
The mills are owned and controlled by a joint stock company with a capital of $600,000, of which $350,- 000 has been paid up.
WHEAT CULTURE.
California is one of the great wheat-growing countries of the world, although the early pioneers, oblivions of the experience of the mission fath- ers, deemed that much of the soil was condemned to unutterable barren- ness. Such would be the natural supposition of those familiar with New England, or Atlantic, or Euro- pean fields, where nature always clothes both hill and valley with an unfailing vesture of emerald, and who found California's great inland plains dry and dusty from the effects of the dry season. But better ac- quaintance with the country brought a deeper insight into its capabilities and after a few years the welcome thought that California was destined by nature to be one of the great
wheat-growing countries of the globe made glad the heart of the early set- tler. Soon after the first gold dis- coveries the high prices of flour caused many parties in the neighbor- hood of San Francisco to grow wheat, and with that and vegetables and feed the foundation of many small fortunes was laid by the culti- vation of not more than ten to fifteen acres. This gave a stimulus to agri- culture, especially wheat growing, so that the State not only raised enough for its own needs but even began to ship to other markets of the world. It is now one of the main sources of supply for England, while our wheat is also shipped largely to France, Belgium, South America, and occasionally to less well-known markets. R. The area suitable for wheat culture is close on 35,000,000 acres, while close on thirty is es- pecially suitable for it. We might go outside of these figures and say that outside of mountain there is none which would not under proper tillage yield abundantly of this great cereal, but we coufine ourselves to those loc , tions which would natu- rally be sought out by the agricultur- ist for this purpose. The principal body of wheat lands lies in the Sacra- mento and San Joaquin Valleys, and consists of not less than 30,000,000 acres, twenty of which are eminently suited to the occupation of the wheat farmer.
The wheat acreage of these couu- ties may be given as follows:
SACRAMENTO VALLEY.
Butte. 1,130,000
Colusa.
1,472,000
Placer
915,000
Sacramento
620,000
Shasta.
2,410,000
Solano
530,000
Sutter
391,000
Tehama
2,000,000
Yolo
651,000
Yuba
395,000
Total 10,514,000
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BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY.
Fresno 5,180,000
Kern.
5,184,000
Merced
1,260,000
San Joaquin
960,000
Stanislaus
876,500
Tulare.
4,100,000
Total 17,560,500
The wheat area of both' as there given is 28,014,000 acres. The av- erage production in 1880 was a little over eighteen bushels to: the acre. At this rate the wheat lands of the valley would raise in an equally good year not less than five hundred- mil- lions of bushels, or more than the whole of the United States does at present. But under a proper system of cultivation and irrigation they would yield much more and might be expected to rival England's twenty- five bushels per acre. This would give the valley a wheat : harvest? of 700,000,000 bushels and the whole of California one of not less than 875, 000,000 bushels. These are,figures, ofcourse, that will proba bly never be approached even remotely, as we are now every year having a more and more diversified agricul- ture, fruit, vines and sugar beet taking the place of wheat and barley, but they serve to indicate what our great possibilities are. As a matter of fact, taking one year with another, our production averages about thir- teen bushels per acre, while our acreage has increased to about three and a half millions. The acreage in 1880, when we had the banner crop, was 2,151,457 acres, or a small 'frac- tion of our wheat lands. The yield according to the season, wet or dry, and also according to the land, varies from eight to ten, fifteen, twenty, and even as much as fifty bushels per agre. On some of the islands in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers in favorable years these extraordinary yields are obtained. There have been some great wheat farms in the State. Dr. Glenn at Colusa had
50,000 acres in wheat and harvest- ed 27,000 tons off it. General Bid- well had 22,000 acres in wheat. But these large ranches are fast be- ing subdivided and after a few years will be known no more. But wheat fields of a thousand to fifteen hun- dred acres are still found in portions of our great valleys.
The annual production of particu- lar counties has varied much, Co- lusa with 8,000,000 bushels in 1889 being reckoned the banner county, while early in the year it was even given at 10,000,000 bushels. Stan- islans and Tulare have gone as high the one as 4,500,000 bushels, the other as high as 7,000,000 bushels. and Fresno up to 3,000,000.
The soils of the great interior plains are divided into adobe and loamy, both equally fertile when well cultivated. Summer fallowing is now well nigh becoming universal, and almost invariably secures crops with that and deep plowing and irri- gation where needed. Wheat grow- ing canrot fail to be profitable in California. The same land has for a succession of twenty-five years yielded from twenty to fifty bushels of wheat to the acre, and a compe- tent authority estimates that when cultivated in large farms and, as is usual in California, with the use of all the more improved appliances of agriculture, that wheat growing pays at even as low a price as a cent a pound.
GOLD AND SILVER IN CALIFORNIA AND ITS NEIGHBORING STATES.
The reputation of being a gold- bearing region has attached to Cali- fornia ever since the Spanish con- querors first lorded it over the fair land of the Aztecs. It was fabled that griffins guarded it as in Grecian story they guarded the gardens of the Hesperides. And during the period of Spanish rule in the New World many an effort was made to wrest from the then unknown region
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1714735
CALIFORNIA.
its hidden riches. But as far as can be learned they were all doomed to failure. The honor of first discover- ing the precious metal in California belongs to Stearns, and the locality Los Angeles, though Sutter's Fort is more generally credited with the glory. But nothing came of the Los Angeles find, while that at Sacra- mento has been heard of round the world. James W. Marshall, a mill- builder, employed by Captain Sutter, on the 19th of January, 1848, found gold in the mill-race. He and the other mill-builders worked quietly for a month, discovering several pieces, one as heavy as a ten-dollar gold piece. Bennett, one of the parties, toward the close of Febru- ary, took half an ounce to San Fran- cisco to test it, when Humphreys, a Georgia miner, unhesitatingly de- clared it to be gold. Kemble, editor of the San Francisco Star, left for the locality towards the close of March, but soon came back, declar- ing that there was no gold there. The same day gold, to the extent of half a pound, was sold in San Fran- cisco to merchants at eight dollars per ounce. To be sure, this was not much, and the price small, but it was an earnest of good things to come, and the people began to flock to Sut- ter's Fort. But it took three months to do this. Then the precious dust began to flow in, and in such quan- tity that it sold as low as four dol- lars per ounce, while provisions grew to be enormously high. The bud- ding city was deserted, and first the California and then the Star sus- pended. Nothing was heard but the cry of Gold! Gold! A cry which soon found an echo all over the world. In the two succeeding months a quarter of a million dol- lars' worth of dust came to the Golden City, which had already be- gan to assume an air of importance. This soon became the normal monthly product of the miues received at San Francisco, and in September a cargo of gold dust and lumber arrived at
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