468 SECOND ANNUAL CITRUS EXHIBITION 



the number in 1855 at 1,500,000 vines ; in 1857 at 2,250,000, and in 

 1859 at 4,000,000 vines. The estimated number of vines now reaches 

 from 40,000,000 to 45,000,000, and this year's iihanting will possibly 

 cany it to 50,000,000. This is a wonderful increase when we consider 

 all the obstacles which the vineyardists have encountered in the 

 development of this interest. Want of knowledge ; bad judgment 

 in selecting locations ; high rates of interest for money ; and finally, 

 and worse than all, bad, mischievous, unfriendly Federal laws, we 

 have had to encounter. Those laws still exist, which a wise Congress- 

 should wipe from our statute books. With this relief obtained, 

 cheaper money, and a continued improvement in the quality of the 

 wine produced, and consequent greater increasing demand, I am 

 thoroughly impressed with the belief that, with the usual American 

 push, by the close of this century, California will boast of nearlj^ as 

 many vines as France had in 1875, when, according to Mr. Charles 

 A. Wetmore's valuable and exhaustive letters, they reached the 

 enormous production of 2,190,000,000 gallons. 



I know this statement will be considered wild ; but let the capital 

 and brains of America take hold of this industry as she should, and 

 we shall do in twenty years what has required hundreds of j^ears in 

 France to accomplish. 



And here arises, in giant form, the question of future markets. 

 Every practical mind will consider, even admitting the possibility of 

 such an approximate production in years to come, and will ask the 

 question : What are we to do with this enormous production — where 

 will our markets be ? 



Could not France, fifty years ago, have asked the same question ? 

 She now only bemoans the rapid extinction of her vines bj'' the phyl- 

 loxera. From the same source (Mr. Wetmore's letters), we find that 

 the average consumption per capita in France was thirty-four gallons, 

 based on a calculation of the entire population, while in the produc- 

 ing communities proper, this consumption was increased to sixty 

 gallons per capita. The consumption appears to be governed by the 

 price of the wines ; it is increased or diminished by a short or boun- 

 tiful crop. 



With improved machinery, wise laws, and careful,i*^economical 

 cultivation, we can and do produce better wines at lesfe cost than 

 France can now. When America's population shall have reached 

 75,000,000 or 80,000,000, or more, as I believe it will by the close of 

 this century, and they have learned to drink wine instead of beer, 

 rum, and whisky, we shall consume all we can produce, even on 

 6,000,000 acres; and should there be any surplus, we shall export it 

 to France. 



Many curious facts are devel-oped by the statistics of wine con- 

 sumption in Europe, which I do not consider irrelevant to mention 

 here, for it is following the question of future markets. 



The average consumption per capita in Italy is 32 gallons; Port- 

 ugal, 22; Switzerland, 13; Austria, 14; Spain, 8; and Wurtemberg, 5 

 gallons. Mr. Wetmore says: "In countries like Spain, the working 

 classes use common alcohol diluted and flavored with anise-seed, as a 

 common beverage. The poverty of the masses of people always 

 reduces the consumption of wine and increases that of alcohol." Is 

 there not here, in this statement, which is unquestionably true, a 

 great consoling thought to that portion of our citizens, who, from a 

 worthy and earnest desire to eradicate intemperance from the land, 



