56
THE WEST SHORE.
February, 1881
CRAPE CULTURE IX ORKCON.
California has the advantage, not
only of Oregon, but of every other
stale in the Union, in the cultivation of
the grape. Hut it must he remembered
that it in confined to wine-making from
tropica! grapes, such uh would not grow
in more limn four other state in the
Federal galaxy. And yet, a a rule, her
wines me heavy in their alcoholic pro-pi-rticn
and, unless great changes arc
made in the process of vintage to de
stroy (heir heavy propensities, will
never become favorite with wine
drinker. Oregon has the opportunity to be.
come a wine-growing Male if the
proper kinds of which are introduced,
tier climate 'in mi much at variance with
thai ot California that it would lie a
sheer wiiMc of lime, labor and capital,
to introduce the Trench and Italian
varieties of grape or even the Mission
gnijic brought from Spain to California
by the pioiiK adherents of Junipero
Serra. A different variety of grape in
needed, one heller adapted to the tern
penile .one.
More than fifty years ago, a quaint
and eccentric Jersey man emigrated from
ihc cider-barrel Mate to Ohio. Settling
on (he rolling hills near the now great
city of Cincinnati, ho began to plant
the Calnwlm grape with the idea of
making brandy. Just then along came
a Frenchman who gave him the sug
gciion of champagne from American
grapes. No sooner said than done. An
hunt later, Nkikh.ah Loni;wohtii
was on his way to New Orleans to
contract for bottles and other fixtures
to be used in the manufacture of his
upaikling Catawba wine. It was the
let effervescent wine ever made in
America, and Longworth died worth
eight million of dollars. Hut the
growth of the city of Cincinnati made
the vim-VAid mi valuable for building
puitMisck that it was cut up into loU
and Catawba wine became a neglected
if not forgotten industry.
Our own iden 1 that Oregon in the
place where Catawba gra,c can be
grown w ith great profit, especially in
the arid hillsides of Wasco and Uma
tilla counties wheic good grape lands
can be had at government price. It it
proiMtkilion which hat plenty of
money in it, to our not ion. The only
successful operation at the cast is on
Canaudaigua Lake in New York state;
but the quality of wine so far produced
has not equalled that produced by
Longworth on the terraced hills where
now stand the more fashionable resi
dences of.Porkopolis.
Up to date, the only wine made in
our state has been produced in Jackson
county by Raphael Morat, J. N. T.
Miller, I'eter ltritt and others, to nn
aggregate of about four thousand gal
lons per year. The distillation of
brandy from peaches and plums has
proven more profitable in that section
and wine-making will yet have to give
way to it, at least in that locality.
The man who will take up a sloping
hill with a southern exposure, in cither
Wasco or Umatilla, set out his Catawba
grapes and make them into wine, will
make a fortune. We import from Cali
fornia a million gallons a year of wine
inferior to what we could make at home
if a little pains were taken. Who will
be the plucky man to take hold of what
will enrich both himself and the state
of his adoption?
A HARD WINTER.
Well, it has been n little inclined to
be severe on poor people, that's n fact
Hut let us look at the case through a
pair of disinterested spectacles, as
were. Eastern Oregon loses a large
valuation of sheep mid horned cattle by
continuous snow storms while the
Willamette valley loses! miles of fencing
and other valuable improvements by
two freshets. Let us look and see if
ourselves, "the webfoot gentry," as
tncy style us at the Ntn rrancisco
hotels, are the only sufferers.
At Los Angeles, Cul., the garden city
of America, they have had frosts and ice
without cessation. I lie winter orange
crop has lieeu a total failure and this
remember, in that fair land of unbroken
sunshine and unfading llowers, which
realizes the ideal "Happy Valley" of
Rassclas. V hen you consider that
Los Angeles lies 015 mile south of
Portland, and only iS miles from the
sen, you will wonder that ice of an inch
thickness lay in the gutters of that city
eft , mi
tor tour uays in January. 1 he orange
crop is to that place what the wheat
crop is to Weston or Kugeno City.Or,
When all is lost that licoiileileixMid
Hut the Willamette is so subject to
overflow and carries away so much
fencing, you say ! Did you ever see a rise
on the Sacramento river, Cal.,ordoyou
know what has happened there in this
month? Do you know that the great
alley which heads up at Redding and
opens out at Collinsvillc, has been one
vast inland sea for a distance of 345
miles? Ten years ago, the Central
Pacific lords bought up all the steam
boats on the upper Sacramento river to
keep them from competing with their
road. This winter their road has been
washed away tosuch an extent as to com
pel them to put on boats once more, and
the steamer Dana arrived at Red Bluff
the 14th, the first boat that had
reached that point in eight years and
her arrival was the first communication
with the outer world they had enjoyed
in ten days.
The line of railroad between Sacra.
mcnto and Davisville, the direct line of
communication between San Fransisco'
and the East, is washed, out to such an
extent that the superintending engineer
of the C. P. R. R. advises its abandon
ment. This, too, after building that
monster ferry boat across Caryuncs
straits, to ferry the eastern trains, at a
cost of $400,000. The line between
Red Bluff ami Redding has never paid
two per cent, interest on its cost, nnd is
likely to be abandoned. The damages
to farms and improvements in the three
counties of Tehama, Colusa and Butte,
arc estimated at a million of dollars.
As the counties of San Joaquin, Sacra
mento, Yolo, Contra Costa, Yuba,
Solano and Stanislaus, arc nearer to
the tide-level, they must have suffered
in a still greater degree.
upon for sustenance, what difference
manufactory of Catawba wine now in docs it make where you reside?
There are worse locations than Ore
gon, alter all. 1 on think you have too
much water here, but if you go to Ari
zona, you will have about none at all.
California is a great state, to be sure,
but then she has her unsound land titles
and her great monopolies which render
it impossible for the poor man to make
more than a bare existence. Oregon it
the better state of the two, and if your
experience had been the same as the
writer's, you would coincide with him.
In the past two years, several Oregon
millionaires have pulled up stakes and
settled in California. They will be glad
to get back before they are many year
older.