REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 19 



THE WORK OF THE STATE VITICULTURAL COMMISSION. 



By E. M. SHEEHAN, 



Secretary of the California State Board of Viticultural Commissioners, 

 Sacramento, California. 



There are 150,000,000 grape vines growing in the valleys and on the hill- 

 sides of this great State of California and there are 150,000,000 of dollars 

 invested in the viticultural industry within her borders. Seventy-five thou- 

 sand people depend for livelihood on the product of our California vineyards, 

 and ninety per cent of that product brings outside revenue into this State. 

 The annual gross income is found to be 30,000,000 of dollars and of this, 

 27,000,000 of dollars come into the State from food product markets all over 

 the world. 



It is little wonder, therefore, that California has seen fit to maintain a 

 State Viticultural Commission and a department of viticulture in her State 

 University and State Farm, and that theory has gone hand in hand with 

 practice in the development and culture of the vine to an extent that places 

 this Commonwealth in the forefront of all the sections of the North American 

 continent in matters viticultural. 



It is little wonder, therefore, that the Federal Government has concerned 

 itself with the establishment of many experimental nurseries and vineyards 

 in this State for the propagation of new and choice varieties of grape vines 

 and for keeping abreast of the countries of the Old World where viticulture 

 is one of the chief vocations of the vast population. 



I recall the general viticultural condition prevailing in California at the 

 present time, as above briefly outlined, for the purpose of bringing forcefully 

 to the minds of every member of this International Congress of Viticulture 

 and particularly those who reside in the United States of America, the ques- 

 tion of the perpetuity and future of the vineyard business in this State and 

 in every State in this Union. 



I shall speak of California alone and shall ask you to endeavor to grasp 

 and appreciate the position of this State in the vastness of her viticultural 

 interests and in her desire to be accorded just consideration at the hands of 

 our Federal Government. 



Until recently, and for many, many years, we have seen nothing but the 

 fostering spirit from Federal sources; but suddenly California is confronted 

 with regulation and most unusual burdensome taxation of her wine-making 

 institutions that fairly threaten to destroy at least seventy-five per cent of 

 her viticultural activity. The same new scheme of Federal taxation affects, 

 it is true, some other states of our Union that grow grapes; but in those 

 states the industry represents investments comparably small with that of 

 ours. Here we lead and excell in vineyard products; there the production is 

 merely an incident in a maze of agricultural pursuits. It means much to 

 many thousands of our people; in other sections it means much to a com- 

 paratively few; and, therefore, I plead that because a Federal taxation hard- 

 ship does not affect most sections of our Country, those sections should not 

 remain passive and permit of destruction of vast interests of their neighbors. 



