GRAPE 



GRAPE 



677 



Marketing and Profits. The crop is mostly marketed 

 fresh in the local or near-by markets, as the ordinary 

 freight and express rates will not permit profitable re- 

 turns on the varieties mostly grown. But it has been 

 demonstrated that fine Grapes that will carry well can 

 easily be grown in the South, and, when handled in best 

 manner in neat baskets, are quite profitable. 



There are a few established wineries in the South, 

 which use Ires, Norton Virginia, Herbemont, LeNoir, 

 and some of the Scuppernong and other Muscadine va- 

 rieties. The chief complaint of wine-growers is that 

 legislation brought about by the prohibition movement is 

 adverse and often entirely prohibitive. In consequence, 

 some have bottled the juice fresh under some sterilizing 

 process, but the people are not yet educated up to the 

 use of this excellent, healthful, nourishing beverage, 

 yet the demand for it is growing, and may be largely 

 increased by enterprising makers. 



Reports collected from all parts of the South state the 

 profits all the way from nothing up to $150 per acre, 

 sometimes higher, and it is clearly evident that the in- 

 telligence and enterprise of the planter is the chief ele- 

 ment in controlling profits. Of course, localities, soils 

 and varieties play important parts, but an intelligent 

 grower would not select poor locality, situation, soil and 

 varieties to start with, just as he would not pursue poor 

 methods in the conduct of the business. As an illustra- 

 tion, the writer knows persons who bring to the Denison 

 [Tex. ] market, a place of 20,000 population, Ives and Per- 

 kins Grapes in bushel baskets, getting, by hard work, 

 about one cent a pound, while others bring in neat 8- 

 pound baskets, carefully packed, Delaware, Brilliant, 

 Diamond, Niagara, Rommel and others of like good 

 qualities, and get from 30 to 50 cents per basket the 

 season through, with brisk sales and no grumbling. 



It may be said, in conclusion, that the South promises 

 everything to the wide-awake, intelligent Grape-grower, 

 for its capabilities are unlimited in the production in 

 quality and season when no other section competes 

 with it, and it has vast markets at home and in the 

 great cities just north of it. T. V. MUNSON. 



Grapes on the Pacific Slope. The Grape industries of 

 California are established upon the success of the vinif- 

 era species. There are two wild species in the state, 

 Vitis Californica and V. Arizonica, but by a popular 

 error the term California Grape has been often used to 

 indicate the Mission Grape, which was introduced from 

 their earlier establishments in Lower California by the 

 padres, who entered the territory now comprised in the 

 state of California in 1769, to extend their missionary 

 work among the aborigines. This Mission Grape has 

 never been fully identified with any variety now grown 

 in Europe, and whether the padres brought it to America 

 in the form of seeds or cuttings is not known. The dif- 

 ficulty in identifying it has led many to consider it a 

 seedling, but it is just as reasonable to hold that it was, 

 two hundred years ago, an esteemed variety which was 

 displaced in the course of viticultural progress by better 

 varieties, and its survival at the California Missions is 

 due to its isolation from that progress. It was this Grape 

 which was found in California by the early American 

 settlers, and very large areas of it were planted, but for 

 the last thirty years it has decreased in favor rapidly, 

 being displaced by many other varieties of superior value 

 for various purposes. These varieties are almost wholly 

 of the vinifera species. The native American varieties 

 and their improved offspring thrive in California when 

 given suitable situation and culture, but they do not 

 meet any encouraging market demand. A very few pack- 

 ages glut the San Francisco market for their kind, while 

 the vinifera table varieties are selling in large quanti- 

 ties. Only a few individuals give any consideration to 

 American varieties for wine, and none of them are suited 

 for raisins. The only attention given to the American 

 s]>"ri<>s is in the use of some of them as phylloxera-resis- 

 tant roots, upon which to graft the vinifera varieties, as 

 is done in France ; and California experience is a close 

 reproduction of French results in this circumvention of 

 the insect. It seems probable, although some districts 

 are still free from invasion, that in the end all our vinif- 

 era vineyards will be upon American roots. 



Grape-growing upon a large scale began in California 

 very soon after the American occupation. In the fifties, 



collections of the leading European varieties were intro- 

 duced, and state aid was secured for the promotion of 

 viticulture. The first raisins were shown in 1863, and a 

 considerable wine product was attained soon after, but 

 the sale of it was attended by many disappointments, and 

 discouragement ensued. In the latter seventies the wine 

 interest was revived by better demand for the product, 

 and a new propaganda for extension on better lines and 

 with more suitable methods and better varieties, was 

 earnestly taken up. Again the state granted funds liber- 

 ally, and the agitation resulted in vine planting and 

 cellar construction in the valleys and foothills all over 

 the state. The product increased more rapidly than the 

 demand for it, and the quality of much of it was success- 



974. The common short-pruning system used for the 

 Vinifera Grape in California. 



fully impeached. Losses and disappointments were 

 again encountered, and the area of wine Grapes was 

 largely reduced by abandonment, by the advancement 

 of the phylloxera and by the inroads of a peculiar dis- 

 ease which has baffled effort to (determine its cause, 

 though thousands of acres have been swept away by it. 

 Even the lessened wine product found most acute trade 

 issues to meet, which were temporarily overcome by 

 growers' cooperative effort until the constantly shrinking 

 production met an advancing demand, and profitable 

 prices for wine Grapes were again secured. This fact 

 has again stimulated interest in planting, even with 

 the greater investment required by resistant roots, and 

 the century closes with a renewal of confidence which 

 bids fair to again extend the wine industry of the state. 



The raisin interest of the state did not attract wide 

 attention until about 1875, but it advanced with great 

 rapidity until 1894, when a product of 103 million pounds 

 was reached and a decline of value below the cost of 

 production ensued. As events have proved, this decline 

 was largely due to lack of proper system in marketing, 

 for a period of loss and depression has been followed by 

 return to prices yielding a profit through control of the 

 marketing by a cooperative association of the growers. 

 This experience came just in time to save the raisin 

 interest from large sacrifices, and points the way to 

 future maintenance. The shipping of table Grapes from 

 California to the markets of the eastern states has 

 reached an aggregate of about a thousand car loads on 

 several different years, and is one of the fixed features 

 of overland fruit shipment. The area of Grapes in Cali- 

 fornia in 1900 is about 140,000 acres: one-seventh table 

 Grapes, two-sevenths raisin Grapes and four-sevenths 

 wine Grapes, as nearly as can be estimated. 



The Grape has a wider range of adaptation in Cali- 

 fornia than any other single fruit. It endures all eleva- 

 tions to which commercial fruit-growing is carried; it 

 thrives in the most intense valley heat if amply supplied 

 with water by irrigation. It accepts all fertile soils, but 

 is most profitable upon light, deep, warm loams, both 

 in the valleys and on the hillsides. All varieties which 

 will bear well with such treatment are grown with low 

 stumps and very short pruning, which discards nearly 

 all of the previous season's growth. Only a few varieties 

 are given longer canes and the support of a wire or a 

 high stake. 



