learned in the brief discussions of the
regions that follow.

_The Pacific slope._

The Pacific slope takes precedence among the grape regions of the
continent, exceeding all others combined in the production of grapes
and grape products. California is the viticultural center of this
great region, grapes being grown within her bounds from the foot of
Mount Shasta on the north to Mexico on the south and from the
foothills of the Sierras on the east to the forest that borders the
coast on the west. So outlined, California might appear to be one vast
vineyard, but it is only in favored valleys, plains and low hills in
the territory bounded that the vine is sufficiently well suited to be
productive. Outliers of this main region of the Pacific slope run
north into Oregon, Washington, Idaho and even into British Columbia,
forced more and more eastward the farther north to escape humidity
from the ocean which northward passes farther and farther inland.
Other outliers of the main region are found eastward in Nevada,
Arizona, New Mexico and even Utah and Colorado, though for the most
part in these states grape-growing is still insignificant. Plate I
shows typical vineyards in California.

The grapes grown on the Pacific slope are almost exclusively Vinifera
varieties, though a few American grapes are planted in the Pacific
Northwest. This is not because American varieties cannot be grown,
although they succeed rather less well here than on the eastern
seaboard, but because the Viniferas are liked better, and climate and
soil seem exactly to suit them. Viticulture on the Pacific slope is
divided into three interdependent industries which are almost never
quite independent of each other--the wine industry, raisin industry
and table-grape industry. Each of these industries depends on grapes
more or less specially adapted to the product, the special
characteristics being secured chiefly through somewhat distinct types
of grapes but depending partly on soil and climatic conditions. The
manufacture of unfermented grape-juice is not yet a success in this
region for the reasons that Vinifera grapes do not make a good
unfermented juice, and American grapes are not grown in sufficient
quantities to warrant the establishment of grape-juice plants.

Bioletti gives the extent of the grape-growing industry in California
as follows:[1]

"The vineyards of California covered in 1912 about 385,000 acres. Of
this total, about 180,000 acres