The Outlook of American Grape Culture. 51 



private life. All of the so-called prohibitory laws will not prevent the free 

 American citizen from drinking a glass of pure wine if he thinks it con- 

 ducive to his health and the well-being of his family. You may as well try 

 to prevent the free air of his own country from fanning his cheeks as lay 

 fetters upon his actions or his convictions. They will assert themselves, and 

 he will drink wine if he thinks it is to his benefit and that of his children. 

 The choice only lays between our own native production, purer and cheaper 

 in every respect, and the imported article, at a higher price and with no 

 assurance as to its purity ; and then, again, I hope we are getting beyond the 

 narrow prejudice of " far fetched and dear bought" to stand on the simp'e 

 pretext of turning up our noses at home products, to prefer French or Ger- 

 man brands just because they cost three times as much. The cause of true 

 temperance, of home industry, will triumph in the end. 



When we come to look at our raisin industry, the case is still more sim- 

 ple. Here we may say we have a monopoly ; from the small beginnings 

 years ago, we have worked up to the production of a million of twenty-pound 

 boxes in 1SS7, and the brands of California packers are now preferred to the 

 foreign product, not because it is American product, but against all the prej- 

 udice engendered by long usage of the foreign article. Now our raisins 

 are driving the finest of foreign manufacture from our markets, and are 

 sold almost before they reach eastern markets. If we once come to the day 

 that all of this immense country uses California raisins, becaitse they are cheaper 

 and better, in preference to the imported, what an immense field is opened 

 to this industry ! Here is an area which even all those may enter who have 

 conscientious scruples against wine-making. They can thus dry their fruit, 

 and find a ready market for it in this country as well as on the continent. 



You are aware that we are now supplying the eastern states with table 

 grapes to a large extent; with our increased shipping facilities we can con" 

 tinue to do so. I nead not say that they are larger and showier, and many 

 also prefer their flavor and their firmer and more pure meat to the Ameri- 

 can varieties. This is a matter of taste ; and as we can also keep them longer, 

 and many of our mountain districts are so free from frost that they can re- 

 main on the vines until January, this again opens a large field for profitable 

 grape culture. We have hardly begun to develop all of our resources, and 

 can hardly tell yet how far this may become a profitable and pleasant indus- 

 try. But there seems to be little doubt that the supply of fresh grapes can 

 be kept up until March, or even April. 



I have tried to give you a brief outline and some of the reasons why I 

 believe the outlook for American grape culture a bright one. But to de- 

 velop all these branches of our young industry they need the fostering care 

 and protection of our government. While we can be more sure of a crop, 

 and of a more uniform product, than the European vintners, they have the 

 advantage of us in cheaper labor ; and although we have brought the in- 

 genuity of the universal Yankee nation to assist us in labor-saving machinery, 

 yet we can justly ask a remunerative price for better and purer goods than 



