The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864 by Various
page 171 of 285 (60%)
page 171 of 285 (60%)
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See reasons and reasons; this, to begin:
'T is the faith that launched point-blank her dart At the head of a lie,--taught Original Sin, The Corruption of Man's Heart. * * * * * CALIFORNIA AS A VINELAND. It has been reserved for California, from the plenitude of her capacities, to give to us a truly great boon in her light and delicate-wines. Our Pacific sister, from whose generous hand has flowed an uninterrupted stream of golden gifts, has announced the fact that henceforth we are to be a wine-growing people. From the sparkling juices of her luscious grapes, rich with the breath of an unrivalled climate, is to come in future the drink of our people. By means of her capacity in this respect we are to convert the vast tracts of her yet untilled soil into blooming vineyards, which will give employment to thousands of men and women,--we are to make wine as common an article of consumption in America as upon the Rhine, and to break one more of the links which bind us unwilling slaves to foreign lands. It is a little singular, that, in a country so particularly adapted to the culture of the grape, no species is indigenous to the soil. The earliest record of the grape in California is about 1770, at which time the Spanish Jesuits brought to Los Angeles what are supposed to have been cuttings from the Malaga. There is a difference of opinion as to |
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