270 



Tlie Grape OuUurist. 



CAUSES OF FAILUEE IN GEAPE GEOWING. 



in.— mSUFFICIENOY OF CAPITAL. 



By Isidor Bush. 



Do I desire to discourage men of 

 small means from grape-growing ? By 

 no means. Do I not know that the 

 vintners of Europe, as a class, are a 

 very poor, yet a happy people ? Nay 

 that most of our successful grape- 

 growers here, in Missouri and Illinois 

 as well as on the Lakes, were poor 

 when they commenced planting vine- 

 yards ? that old Mottier, Father 

 Miiench, the Poeschels, Harms, as well 

 as the editor of this journal; in faet_, 

 most of the pioneers of American 

 grape-culture, have commenced com- 

 paratively without any means at all. 

 Well do I know it ; just as well as 

 you probably know that an Astor, a 

 Girard, a Lawrence, a Steinway, and 

 others, became the immensely wealthy 

 merchants, the rich bankers, the large 

 mill owners, the great piano manufac- 

 turers, etc., from a very small begin- 

 ning. But who knows not also of the 

 thousands that failed in the same 

 branches of business from insufficiency 

 of capital ? Who doubts but that those 

 same men would warn you from em- 

 barking in the business in which they 

 were so eminently successful, witliout 

 sufficient means to carry it through ? 

 Moreover, there is a great difference 

 between starting in any branch of in- 

 dustry when it is new, in its infancy, 

 and when it has become an established 

 business of the country. In the for- 

 mer case the dangers of failure from 

 inexperience are by far greater, and 

 the most sagacious and skillful only 

 will be fortunate enough to overcome 



its trying difficulties; in the latter I 

 case, the path to success is b}^ far ' 

 smoother, but the profits are smaller, 

 and competition makes greater efforts 

 and larger capital necessary. 



And suppose my remarks will de- 

 ter some persons who contemplate 

 planting grapes from undertaking it, 

 what of that ? They will not buy the 

 number of vines from you, or me, or 

 some other nurseryman, it is true ; but 

 they would have deterred ten times 

 their number had they commenced it 

 and failed. While, as it is probable, 

 persons who intended planting will do 

 it anyhow, but may be induced to 

 plant less for the present, and doing so, 

 will carry through that little success- 

 fully, and then by their success will 

 increase the number of grape-growers 

 tenfold ; for nothing is more effective 

 in making propaganda for a business 

 than success. Let one man find it 

 profitable, and scores of his neighbors 

 will be quick to find it out, and to 

 make him competition ; let one man 

 fail in it, no matter from what cause, 

 and it will discourage hundreds. 



Moreover, as everybody knows that 

 grapes will not yield a return before 

 the third summer after planting, and 

 some not before the fourth summer, 

 and as even the most favorable calcu- 

 lations of the cost of preparing the 

 soil, planting, setting posts, trellising 

 and cultivating, do not fall short of 

 several hundred dollars per acre, it 

 need not be feared that persons with- 

 out ca^jital will think of planting vine- 



