SECRETARY'S REPORT. 327 



One bushel of Concord grapes yields four gallons of wine, 

 pure juice, worth, at the press, at least the price paid in the 

 West, viz., $li*^o% per gallon, or ten and two-thirds cents jier 

 pound. This wine, when ripe, as it will be in three years after 

 making, will sell for four dollars per gallon, or twenty-six and 

 two-tliirds cents per pound for the grapes, less interest and wine- 

 making expenses. In any event, therefore, your crop is sure of 

 market at remunerating prices. 



The making of pure wine from our own grapes is a matter of 

 national importance. Not only will it prevent the export of the 

 precious metals to pay for the large importations of this 

 beverage, but by superseding, as it will, the destruction of 

 immense quantities of our breadstuffs now used for distillation 

 into whiskey, and thus adding to our capacity for exporting the 

 same, keep the balance of trade in our favor to the same extent 

 as so much gold*. 



The wine product of the United States, estimated, in 1860, at 

 2,000,000 gallons, reached, in 1865, the largely increased figure 

 of 10,000,000 gallons, worth, at the press, *^liVo P*^^* gallon, an 

 aggregate of $16,000,000. 



France, with a population but little in excess of ours, makes 

 884,000,000 gallons of wine, more than three-quarters of which 

 is consumed by her own people. Yet, according to the testi- 

 mony of innumerable witnesses, her people are temperate, frugal, 

 industrious and thrifty, intemperance, out of the cities, being 

 but little known. We can make at least as much wine as she 

 can, and, at least one of her sons has said, that the quality of 

 our wines will be unsurpassable. We append the tables of 

 Haraszthy, compiled from authentic records, to show the magni- 

 tude of this interest in Europe. 



Your Committee forbear to offer an opinion in regard to the 

 new grapes which have recently been introduced to public 

 notice. It is too soon for an intelligent opinion which would 

 guide the public in selecting them for cultivation. Some of 

 them are of excellent quality, but all of them need further trial 

 in this State. They feel called upon, however, to notice the 

 continued efforts of Mr. Rogers, of Salem, to still further 

 improve, by hybridizing and raising new seedlings, the fine 

 hybrid grapes which he has already given to the public ; a work 



