THE MONTHLY BULLETIN". 509 



EVENING SESSION. 



Dr. Cook presiding. 



Chairman Cook. We Avill now have the pleasure of listening to a 

 stereopticon lecture on California's Viticultural Industry by H. F. Stoll, 

 secretary Grape Growers' Association of California. 



CALIFORNIA'S VITICULTURAL INDUSTRY: PAST, PRESENT, 



FUTURE. 



By Horatio F. Stoll, San Francisco, Cal. 



One of the surprises of California, to the people who live outside the 

 State, is the magnitude of our viticultural industry. Even Revenue 

 Commissioner Royal E. Cabell, the governmental head of the service 

 that has supervision of the wine industry throughout the country, was 

 amazed at its extent when he first visited the Pacific Slope on a tour of 

 inspection two years ago. "Of course," he said, "I had a general idea 

 of the gallons produced, the number of tons of grapes used, and the 

 various figures that come under my eye through the department, but 

 figures can give no adequate idea of the scope of importance of the wine 

 industry in this region. It needed seeing to grasp it fully." 



Like Commissioner Cabell, many other people of the United States 

 have heard much of the grape industry of the Golden West. They 

 'knoAv that the State boasts of valuable crops that yield not only the 

 "little wine for the stomach's sake," but the raisins that figure in a 

 hundred different recipes and the huge bunches of grapes which orna- 

 ment the tables of our leading hotels. 



However, it is not until they have traveled through the greater part 

 cf our glorious State that visitors appreciate the fact that the growing 

 of grapes in the United States and the industries based thereon are in 

 a peculiar sense Californian. This State produces nearly all the raisins, 

 three quarters of the wine and a large part of the shipping grapes. 

 We are also beginning to specialize in the manufacture of grape juice, 

 grape syrup and grape wine vinegar, and are utilizing the by-products 

 of the winery in the manufacture of cream of tartar, tartaric acid and 

 Rochelle salts. 



According to the closest estimates obtainable there are upward of 

 300.000 acres in California devoted to grape cultivation. Of this acre- 

 age, over one half, or about 160,000 acres, is devoted to the growing 

 of grapes used exclusively in the making of Avine. About 90,000 acres 

 are taken up with grapes intended for raisin purposes, but a large 

 portion of these grapes, especially the second crop, are sent to distil- 

 leries for the purpose of brandy making, Muscat flavored brandy being 

 consumed more largely than any other kind in the United States. A 

 portion also of the first crop Muscat grapes is made into a wine called 

 "Sweet Muscat," and also into fortified material for the making of 

 sherry. About 50,000 acres are devoted to table grapes, the greater 

 part of Avhich is packed in crates and shipped to the eastern markets of 

 the United States. 



