_The Vineyards._--The variety used for raisins is nearly entirely the Muscat of Alexandria, although several vineyardists call these grapes incorrectly the Gordo Blanco. I saw nowhere this variety, but I suppose some must have been imported there. In planting, cuttings have been preferred, probably because they are the cheapest, and because the value of rooted vines has not been properly understood. The vines are set, almost everywhere, eight by eight, only in a few vineyards nine by nine feet. There is, however, a growing belief that eight by ten feet or eight by twelve feet is better than the old accepted eight by eight feet. But I believe that this tendency to give the vines greater room will, in course of time, be followed by the opposite tendency to plant them closer, at least one way, and give more room the other way. The Muscat of Alexandria begins to bear in three years, and in four years will pay fifty dollars per acre. The practice of plowing is, in Riverside, to first plow towards the vines in the fall, and then, when the vegetation has begun in the spring, the soil is turned back towards the center of the space between the rows, or from the vines. Then the soil is cultivated with chisel-tooth cultivators, both crosswise and lengthwise, also similarly after every irrigation. But this practice is not entirely the same everywhere, and the different vineyardists have here as elsewhere different ideas, even in regard to the most common farm or vineyard practices. Pruning was formerly done much closer than now, but it was found that by close pruning the vines bore less. To-day from fifteen to twenty spurs are left on the strongest vines, and on every spur about two eyes. From twenty to twenty-five spurs were found to be too much; with such quantity of spurs the vines produce smaller and inferior grapes. Some vines which were pruned with twenty-five spurs last year have this year been given nine or ten spurs only, so as to enable them again to recover and grow strong, when the quantity of spurs will again be increased to fifteen. Summer pruning is used by some, but not by others. It does not, according to observation, injure the vine, but produces always a second crop, which is difficult to cure. Sulphuring the vines is practiced by some, but not by all, growers. A great many cannot see the use and value of sulphur. No one sulphurs for colure or the dropping of the grape, which is quite a common occurrence. The vines, however, never suffered from the leaf-hopper nor the grape caterpillars, but sunscald is not uncommon, nor is black-knot.