399    THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



  The Mexican grants to the lands in this
valley, required all the grantees to plant fruit
trees and vines, and though the non-compli-
ance with this condition forfeited the grant,
it has, in almost every instance, been neg-
lected, and fruit is almost unknown, even such
as they might have. From El Paso, Mexico,
come apricots in Jutie, pears and moscatel
grapes in July, peaches, pears and El Paso
grapes (dark variety.) and sweet apples in
August, peaches, pears and grapes in Septem-
ber, and in October peaches, pears and pome-
granites are produced, and sometimes oranges
find their way here from Chihuabua.
  All the grapes of the Rio Grande are raised
in the same manner. The vine is planted and
allowed to grow at random, only trimmed by
cutting off the branches about two eyes from
the main vine for a foot or eighteen inches
from the ground, where the whole is cut off.
This portion is covered in the winter by draw-
ing the earth up around it with a hoe, and is
expected to bear grapes the third year from
the cutting.  The vine grows with strong
reeds, but short, seldom reaching more than
six feet, and about two inches from joint to
joint. A small branch, or, as the vine dres-
sers call it, 's thief" starts at every leaf.
This, and the fact that the vine is allowed to
produce as many vines as it may happen to
have eyes, which are allowed to run over the
ground in every direction, without any sup-
port or training, is undoubtedly the cause of
the deformed condition of the vines, and their
small yield of fruit. I have no doubt but
that if these vines were properly cared for,
trimmed and watered, three times the amount
now produced might be obtained.
  There are three varieties of the grape, preb-
ably all of foreign origin. The moscatel is a
white grape-color, a light green, almost water
colored-sweet, sugary, with a slight flavor of
musk, just enough to give them spice. The
El Paso is a black grape, sweet, and without
ty musk or other flavor. When dried they
eriemble small Iraiuins. These are the great
source of the wine, making a red wine of
   at beds    he  th   s



size and color of the catawba, but as sweet as
the black grape and much resembling them in
flavor. This is also an excellent wine grape.
El Paso wine, pure juice, sells at two dollars
a gallon, by the barrel, in the early winter
months, and some vineyards have been known
to make as high as 800 gallons to the acre, of
fermented wine. With these figures, and cut-
tings to be had for the asking, yet the Mlexi-
cans will not plant vineyards
  The apricot, when cared for, makes one of
the prettiest shade trees in the country, and
will give its fruit in four years from the pit.
Both it and the peach grow very rapidly, not
unfrequently making a length of limb of six
feet in a summer, and adding two inches to
their diameter. And notwithstanding these
may be had for planting the stones in proper
locations, and protecting them from the dep-
redations of the goats for but two years, the
Mexican has so little care for the future that
he will rot even put the pits of the peaches
he has eaten into the earth, lest they might
make him a tree, and he eat of the fruit there-
of. The peaches and apricots are all poor, as
no care has been taken to improve them.
The pears are all spontaneous productions,
and may be pronounced unworthy of cultiva-
tion. This is certainly true of the apples.
Hard, tough, sweet, and about as edible as the
bark of the tree on which they grow, they
are picked long before they are ripe, and never
become ripened.
  I have learned many facts about the agri-
culture and gardening of tb, country whiah I
knew not before. I do not think the tap roots
can be relied upon as a sure crop, though were
the ground properly mamnred and prepared,
I think they would be a success  The Mexi-
cans never raise them. Onions are the great
crop. They are sown early and transplanted
in May, in rows, at proper distances. I have
76 onions growing upon a bed four feet by
eight, among which are several that now
measure fourteen inches in circumference,
and all are large, fine roots. To make such a
crop requires irrigation once in four days
during the heat of summer.



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