_Soils and Ripening._--The soil here is the very best, and I doubt if the same fine quality of soil is found anywhere else in California over the same extended territory. I ride for miles and miles, everywhere the finest and richest loam of a gray color, sometimes a little drawing towards slate blue, sometimes again towards yellowish. It is immensely rich, and can hardly be improved. There is, however, especially near Orange, a different kind of soil consisting of the sand loam, but intermixed with very coarse gravel. This soil is warmer but consequently not so rich. The grapes ripen on it two weeks earlier, but yield only one-half as much as those on the richest loam along the creeks. The vines planted here were alone the Muscat of Alexandria. Strangely enough I find no traces of Sultanas or currant, which latter, it seems, should be especially adapted to the coast climate. _The Vineyards._--In planting a vineyard, rooted vines were seldom used. Cuttings grew so readily and so well that they were much preferred. I am told that five per cent loss was unusual. It must be remarked that the moister is the air the better it is for any kind of cuttings. The moisture sustains and nourishes the wood while it is making roots. As to distances, I remarked nothing new. Eight by eight or eight by ten feet seems the generally adopted way. The nature of the soil and climate make higher cultivation a necessity. McPherson Bros., who packed the largest quantity of raisins and owned the finest vineyards, told me that they plowed and cross-plowed and cultivated from fourteen to sixteen times every season; in fact they never ceased working the ground. The pruning was begun in December, or as soon as the leaves began to turn and fall. To begin with, only a few spurs were left on every vine, and on every spur three eyes, including the bottom eyes, but experience taught that that way was not the very best. Gradually more space was given the vines, and now from fifteen to twenty spurs to a vine in full bearing is considered proper. Summer pruning is only practiced in some of the vineyards where the ground is quite wet. The most profitable vineyards were irrigated. The nearer the coast the more moisture there is in the soil. Thus three miles west of Santa Ana the ground is always moist enough to grow grapes, but as we come nearer the foothills to the east, the moisture is farther down. At Tustin, Orange, and especially at McPherson, irrigation was practiced in all first-class vineyards. Some were irrigated in the winter only, and this was considered the best; others again were irrigated also once in summer,--a practice the best vineyardmen considered unnecessary and even injurious. I found land near the town of Santa Ana moist one inch below the surface, where no irrigation had even been practiced. Sulphuring was used everywhere to counteract the oidium. For this purpose powdered sulphur was dusted through the vines as soon as the grapes were as large as small shot.