CALIFORNIA'S WINE INTEREST. 



From the Quarterly Wine Circular of J. M. Curtis, we make the follow- 

 ing extracts for the valuable information they contain on this important 

 interest in our State: 



The current year will long be notable in the annals of our native wine 

 trade. After two disastrous failures, owing to late and severe frosts, 

 with a total yield of only two and a half millions of gallons for eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-three, and four millions for eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-two, we have, in eighteen hundred and seventy-four, a most pro- 

 pitious season, and a promised yield of ten million gallons. There is no 

 reason to doubt that the quality of the vintage will be as good as the 

 quantity is large; for, excepting the recent appearance of mildew in So- 

 noma and Napa Counties (and the wine growers have adopted prompt 

 and effectual means to counteract it), the green crop promises unusual 

 excellence in every respect. To so handle this large vintage as to make 

 it remunerative to growers, and to place the trade on a sound and en- 

 during basis, is a problem which should command the earnest thought 

 of producers and merchants. If the ten million gallons of eighteen hun- 

 dred and seventy-four are profitably marketed, not only California, but 

 all the world, will know that one hundred million can just as readily find 

 remunerative sale; and in five years, three hundred thousand acres of 

 barren hills, worthless for other purposes, will be green with the vines 

 which love these sunny slopes so well. While on the other hand, a 

 failure to make this vintage remunerative, will not only check for years 

 the further planting of vines, but cause neglect of the vineyards already 

 established. 



To make the crop fairly remunerative, present prices must be sus- 

 tained, except so far as cost of handling may be reduced by lower rates 

 of freight and labor, and more economical cooperage. The general use 

 of uniform casks, most suitable for the trade, when our coopers are pre- 

 pared to furnish such casks, will effect a saving of from six to eight per 

 cent on the total value of wine and casks. Further than this we cannot 

 look for an increase of demand arising from lower rates. There is no 

 foreign market to which any considerable quantity of our wine can be 

 profitably shipped until the annual production reaches fully thirty mil- 

 lions of gallons; and there is no probability of an advance in the value 

 of foreign wines which compete with us in the Eastern market, unless it * 

 arise from the possible action of Congress in modifying the tariff. Nor 

 can anything more than a temporary benefit be derived from a higher 



