Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1902 — World’s Largest Grapevine. [ARTICLE]

World’s Largest Grapevine.

La Para Grande, the biggest grapevine in the world, has reached the end of Its long outdoor life and will soon be cut dow r n. Seventy-five years it has been growing on a ranch in the Montecito valley, near Santa Barbara, Cal., but it has shown signs of dying, and so the owner, Albert Magee, the Pittsburg stove manufacturer, has ordered it removed. From the pride of. the California vineyards the vine will be turned into a museum curiosity. The Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce will preserve It as a specimen of what the soil of Santa Barbara county is able to produce. La Para Grande lias a trunk, or main stem, 3% feet In circumference, and the trellis, higher titan a man’s head, on which the spreading branches of the vine are supported, measures nearly six feet In each direction. In Its prime this single vine produced full four tons of grapes in a single year. Those days of Its glory are, however, long past.—St. Louis Post-Dispatch.