Can Grajpe Growing he Overdone? 



227 



tions or conclusions are based. There 

 is no person in the country more 

 familiar with the subject than the Edi- 

 tor of the Grape Culturist ; many 

 acres of vineyards have recently been 

 planted under his eyes and control at 

 Bluffton, thirteen and a half acres 

 of which are already of bearing age, 

 according to the published reports 

 of the officers of the "Bluffton Wine 

 Company." These plantations have 

 undoubtedly been made upon the 

 cheapest and most approved plan, and 

 the cost per acre in labor and money 

 may be taken as a standard ; and it 

 would have been very interesting to 

 me, and probably to many of the read- 

 ers of the Grape Culturist, if reference 

 had been taken to it, and we had been 

 informed : (a) of the value of an acre 

 of land suitable for a vineyard ; (b) 

 of the costs, in labor and money, of 

 preparing the ground ; (c) of the price 

 paid for the grapevines planted ; (c^) 

 of the cost of planting the vines and 

 cultivating the vineyard until it arrives 

 at bearing age ; (e) of the cost of 

 the matei'ial for stakes and trellises, 

 and of the labor to put them up ; and 

 (/) of the annual cost of cultivation 

 of an acre of bearing vineyard. 



Not until these several items of cost 

 have been established and summed up, 

 and the average annual yield in pounds 

 of fruit ascertained, can we proceed to 

 calculate the annual average net profit 

 resulting to the grape grower at a given 

 price for his grapes ; and if this price 

 is already known, if his grapes are to 

 be retailed from the fruit stand, the 

 Concord at four ceuts and other vaiie- 

 ties at-five cents per pound, the proceed- 

 ing is a \&vy simple one : these four or 

 five cents per pound form the gross 



proceeds, from which, to arrive at a 

 correct conclusion as to the net profits, 

 we must deduct : 



1. The interest on the capital perma- 

 nently invested; that is on the aggre- 

 gate costs incurred under items a, 6, c, 

 d, and e. 



2. The cost of cultivation during the 

 3'ear, being item/. 



3. Labor and expense of gathering 

 and packing the grapes and shipping 

 them to market. 



4. Expenses incident to the sale in 

 the form of commission, storage, &c. 



5. Occasional loss by spoiling of the 

 fruit in consequence of slow sales, care- 

 less handling and unavoidable acci- 

 dents. 



I am afraid that, if I were to make 

 the calculation, the profits to the grape 

 grower would fall considerably short of 

 i^250. 



Sub. 2d. The writer continues : "The 

 consumption of wine will become im- 

 measurably greater than it now is, as 

 soon as the price is sufficiently reduced. 

 Let the laborer be enabled to purchase 

 a good light wine by the keg at, say 

 $1.00 per gallon, and millions will 

 drink wine daily," etc. 



We expect that the consumption of 

 wine will increase in about the same 

 ratio as its production increases ; in all 

 foreign wine growing countries it has 

 been so, and there is no apparent rea- 

 son wliy this country should be an ex- 

 ception from this rule ; but if one dol- 

 lar per gallon is tlie minimum price at 

 which the laborer will be enabled to 

 purchase wine by the keg and use it as 

 his daily beverage, then this golden 

 era is near at hand, if it has not al- 

 ready arrived. Wine — Catawba and 

 Concord — has in many instances been 



