540 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



parties, and may expect the most favorable freight rates that can be 

 obtained. By combination, too. we can obtain the best prices, for we will 

 be in unison, and not competing, one grower against another; and it is 

 believed, judging from last year's experience, that we can sell all of our 

 oranges right here for cash, instead of running the gauntlet of the varying 

 returns of a commission business. Now. all of this you can have for very 

 little, if any. outlay of money, and all that is required is simply that you 

 take enough interest in your own affairs to attend our meeting, help organ- 

 ize, and stand by your organization. For the last year none of the members 

 have been required to pay anything, but have had money returned them 

 by reason of being organized, and thus getting more favorable freight rates. 



There is a singular condition of affairs at this time in this county. In 

 face of a fact, with but a moderate supply of wine and brandy on hand, 

 and with only, perhaps, a short crop of grapes in the State, yet the price 

 of grapes is a very low one here. There arc two reasons for this. First, 

 there has been an ill-advised assessment by the revenue department against 

 nearly all of the distillers of Los Angeles County. This assessment is not 

 based on any known fact: it is not based upon any brandy found which 

 has not paid revenue; but upon the supposition that more brandy might 

 or could have been made. We are simply charged for having made 

 brandy, and if we did not make it we should have done so, is what the 

 revenue department says; and that we have no brandy to show for it. has 

 nothing to do with it. We are demanded to pay or prove a negative — 

 prove that we did not make it. Instead of every man being innocent in 

 the eyes of the law until proven guilty, we are adjudged guilty, and the 

 burden of proof falls on us to show that we are innocent. This has caused 

 all distillers much anxiety, and has created a fear which prevents them 

 from desiring to assume additional risks by buying grapes, for if such 

 assessment can be made to-day. may be repealed to-morrow, and so on. 

 until ruin is the outcome and end of all. 



The second reason is, that grape growers in this country have relied too 

 much on selling their grapes to a few manufacturers. The planting of 

 grapes, owing to the favorable condition of our climate and soil, and the 

 certainty of an ever abundant yield of perfect grapes, has gone forward 

 with every year's increased momentum: whereas, the manufacturers, the 

 plants to convert them into wine and brandy, are almost stationary, until 

 the production of grapes is in excess of the demand of those that wish to 

 manufacture them into wine. This being the fact, only one result could 

 follow: a low price for grapes. Now this fluctuating price, from a fair one 

 to the grower — say twenty dollars per ton — to a low and discouraging one. 

 is a misfortune to both growers and manufacturers, and has done more to 

 injure the wine business in this county than any other circumstance. 

 This is the weakness now in our grape industry, and it will rectify itself 

 only by every neighborhood, or each for himself, preparing to make their 

 own wine and brandy; for when so converted it becomes a staple product, 

 which will keep and improve by age. and take the general price that the 

 world fixes — and not be subject to the violent fluctuations which always 

 attend perishable articles. To me there is always this satisfactory assur- 

 ance: First, that we can raise more and better grapes in California with 

 the same amount of labor and outlay of money than in any part of the 

 world: second, that California can and does make a better average quality 

 of product — wine and brandy — than even France or Germany. Already 

 there has been an inquiry by an association of capital, whether contracts 

 could be made by principal brandy distillers to make contracts for ten 

 years for all the brandy that could be produced, for the purpose of selling 



