Imperial Valley settlers' crop manual . of the Imperial Valley, aboutten years ago, the growing of grapes has received a great deal ofattention. There are at present about two hundred growers of grapes,possessing vineyards of various sizes, from one hundred vines up toone hundred acres or more, scattered over the Valley from Brawleyto Calexico. These vines are all of vinifera varieties, only an occa-sional vine of a labrusca or other East American variety being total area in vines is probably about 500 to 600 acres, althoughthe County Recorder places the number of vines in the county
Imperial Valley settlers' crop manual . of the Imperial Valley, aboutten years ago, the growing of grapes has received a great deal ofattention. There are at present about two hundred growers of grapes,possessing vineyards of various sizes, from one hundred vines up toone hundred acres or more, scattered over the Valley from Brawleyto Calexico. These vines are all of vinifera varieties, only an occa-sional vine of a labrusca or other East American variety being total area in vines is probably about 500 to 600 acres, althoughthe County Recorder places the number of vines in the county in1909 at only 159,565. The rapidity of growth and vigor of the vines is remarkable and By Frederic T. Bioletti, Viticulturist, California Experiment Station. BULLETIN 210. IMPERIAL VALLEY SETTLERS CROP MANUAL. 195 their fruitfulness and earliness of bearing scarcely less so. The fruitripens from two to six weeks earlier than in any other part of Cali-fornia except in the Coachella Valley, which is part of the sameclimatological Fig. 26.—Three-year-old Sultanina vine on Reid ranch. With these favorable conditions there seems to be every reason toanticipate that the growing of grapes will be a very profitable industryin the valley. On this point, however, there is a great diversity ofopinion among the growers. While some growers seem to have donevery well, others have failed to make a profit out of their crops. Oneof the reasons given for failure to realize a profit is the high cost oftransportation and labor. But the price of such grapes as are accepted 196 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT STATION. by the packers is also high, being $50 to $60 per ton at the packinghouse in 1910. Another reason given is that the grapes grown inthe Imperial Valley have poor shipping and keeping qualities and thatonly a small proportion get to the market in good condition. As amatter of fact, some of the grapes grown in the valley have excep-tionally good keeping and shipping qualiti
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
