Causes of Failure in Gfrape Growing, 



271 



yards; except as tenants, where the 

 owner of the ground furnishes all the 

 necessary outlay. Finally, the true 

 grape-grower plants the vine for the 

 love of it as much as for profit, as the 

 true florist plants and cultivates 

 flowers. 



Thus I fear not that my warning 

 voice about failures in grape-growing 

 will diminish the ranks of its votaries, 

 but do hope that it may save them 

 some sad disappointments, which some 

 glowing reports and over-sanguine 

 calculations have caused. 



The amount of capital required for 

 vineyard culture is usually considered 

 to be equal to the cost of one acre of 

 vineyard during its first three years, 

 before it yields a return, multiplied hy 

 the number of acres we desire to 

 plant. The first question asked is 

 therefoi-e, how much an acre of vine- 

 yard would cost ? In vain do we look 

 for a careful calculation of such cost 

 in the works and articles on grape 

 culture. Fuller, Phin, and niany^ 

 others entirely ignore this question; 

 Harazthy gives his total expense of 

 planting and cultivating one hundred 

 acres of vineyard in California (1858- 

 1860) at $4,019.64, ov forty dollars only 

 per acre!!* In Knowlton's "Our 

 Hardy Grapes," an estimate of the 

 cost of one acre of vines during the 

 first three years foots up to the sum 



*As an illustration of his mode of calculating 

 I simply quote the following: 32 days' work 

 was spent in digging the rooted vines in the 

 nursery ; their cultivation during the summer 

 brought their cost to 3^ cent each; 68,000 vines, 

 at $2 50 per thousand. $170. Wonder who paid 

 the nursery I Wonder how much the one 

 hundred ^thousand vines cost which Mr. 

 Haraszthy reports to the General Assembly of 

 Cahfornia to have bought in P^urope in 1861, 

 with a gardener specially employed to take 

 charge of them on the voyage, repack them in 

 New York, and transport them by Wells, 

 Fargo & Co. to San Francisco? 



of $1,426.50, at the end of which the 

 first crop, (three tons of Delaware 

 grapes, at 12 cents per lb. net,) is 

 credited with $720. 



Mr. Husmann, in the February 

 number of the Horticulturist for 1865, 

 gives us an account for a small piece 

 one-third of an acre, which he had 

 planted in 1861 with the Concord ; it 

 reads thus : 



COST. 



1861 . 400 small plants, at 25c each. .$100 00 

 ' ' Preparino^ o;round, planting 



and attendance 50 00 



1862. Labor durinof summer 50 00 



' ' Making trelUs 100 00 



1863. Labor and attendance 75 00 



1864. Labor and attendance 80 00 



$455 00 



Or equal to $1,365 per acre. In 1866, 



however, in his book, "The Native 



Grape," &c., Mr. Husmann estimates 



the cost of one acre of Concord at 



only $408.50, as follows : 



Prepanng ground by plowing, etc. .$50 00 

 700 plants, one year No. 1, planted 



6by 10 84 00 



450 posts, 15 feet apart, at 10 cts 45 00 



450 intermediate stakes, at 3 cts 13 50 



600 lbs. No. 12 wire, 16 cts per lb. . . . 96 00 



Cost of erecting trellis 50 00 



Attendance, labor, etc., during first 



year 50 00 



Interest on capital 20 00 



$408 50 

 "The following year the vineyard 

 can be made to pay all expenses, by 

 layering, etc." 



Now, even if we make full allowance 

 for the price and number of plants in 

 the two calculations above quoted, 

 there is still too great a difference in 

 these estimates not to leave us in 

 doubt as to the correctness of either. 

 In the one from $50 to $80 per year 

 is put down as the cost of labor and 

 attendance for one-third of an acre ; in 

 the other their cost is estimated at 

 $50 only for a whole acre. I am not 



