THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 493 



liundiecls of acres have gone and are going out of existence each season, 

 so that prices bid fair to be good for many years to come. 



The great viticultural industry of California, with its triple alliance 

 ■of wine, raisin and table grape production, is passing through a period 

 of deep and serious depression. Previous to 1907 it had its seven fat 

 years of prosperity, but since then there have been five years the 

 reverse of fat, if financial returns and not tonnage be considered. 



With the great stampede of planting, rash and inconsidered, begin- 

 ning about 1903 and ending in 1907, the production of raisins was 

 jumped from ninety million pounds in 1905 to a hundred and twenty- 

 ■eight million pounds in 1911; that of wine from twenty-six million gal- 

 lons in 1905 to fifty million gallons in 1911, and that of table grape 

 shipments from sixteen hundred carloads in 1905 to sixty-three hundred 

 carloads in 1911, almost quadruple. 



There are about fifty thousand acres of table grapes in California, 

 mostly in full bearing. Assuming an average of five tons to the acre, 

 this would give about two hundred and fifty thousand tons of grapes, 

 or the equivalent of about twenty thousand carloads,- if all were 

 harvested and packed. 



But this year only about sixty-three hundred carloads were shipped 

 ■east and perhaps seven hundred carloads to a thousand carloads con- 

 sumed in California, accounting for a total of about seven thousand 

 carloads. During October and part of November markets were badly 

 glutted. Increased shipments would have still further demoralized 

 markets. What happened to the remainder of the table grapes? An 

 immense tonnage was either turned into the wineries at utterly unre- 

 munerative prices or were not picked at all. 



The table grape business is a little brother of the wine grape business. 

 While at first sight it might appear to be independent of it, anybody 

 •can see that if the wineries did not consume the great surplus of lower 

 grade table grapes, these grapes would be forced into the table grape 

 markets, to still further demoralize sales. 



Existing markets are not consuming under present conditions of 

 packing and distribution much over seven thousand carloads, even at 

 low prices. With an acreage sufficient for twenty thousand carloads, 

 what is California going to do with the odd thirteen thousand carloads 

 for which no present markets exist ? In the face of competition with the 

 two hundred thousand tons of Concord and other grapes grown in New 

 York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, can we look forward in the 

 near future to doubling or trebling the consumption of our California 

 table grapes? 



What can the table grape people do about it? If wine grape prices 

 were attractive it would be easy to graft a large acreage of Tokays and 

 Malagas in places where quality is low into Petit, Syrah or other 

 desirable types of grapes. But at offered contract prices, which I am 

 told is ten dollars a ton, there is no inducement whatever to do this, for 

 on most land ten dollars a ton is below the cost of production, if interest 

 on the investment is figured in and, of course, it should be. 



