4 BULLETIN 861, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



importance. These new products — unfermented grape juice, cham- 

 pagne, and sweet wines manufactured in bonded wineries, and home- 

 manufactured sour red wines — created three new market outlets. 

 The first two of these grape products were made almost exclusively 

 of local stock, that is, of grapes produced within hauling distance 

 of the factories ; but the third outlet was a proposition requiring bulk 

 shipment with deliveries made either in trays or in 12-quart Climax 

 baskets. 



The peak of the shipments of table stock was reached between 

 1907 and 1911. After the latter date an increasingly large amount 

 of stock was used annually for beverages. These new outlets 

 increased the consumptive demand and made it easier to dispose of 

 the crop, but incidentally resulted in the lowering of the standard 

 of pack in several of the leading sections. So much less labor is re- 

 quired to prepare stock for pressing than for shipment as table stock 

 that more and more stock went to juice factories, wineries, and in bulk 

 to cities which contained a large foreign population. 



PRESENT COMMERCIAL OUTLOOK. 



Prohibition legislation gave rise to serious problems, by closing 

 some of the important outlets hitherto used. The character of the 

 grape industry is rapidly changing. Readjustments and changes in 

 usual channels of trade are being abruptly forced on the growers 

 between one season and another that in the usual course of commer- 

 cial evolution would cover a period of years. The danger for the 

 future lies in the possibility of the excess of supply over demand, 

 but this can be minimized by utilizing to the utmost every available 

 legal outlet. 



The grape-juice industry is in a thriving condition and the demand 

 for its products has not been adequately supplied in the last few 

 years. The grape- juice factories can be relied on to absorb a fairly 

 large proportion of the stock formerly used for wine. 



The commercial manufacture of grape jellies, jams, and conserves 

 which is being rapidly developed may create a demand even greater 

 than the unfermented-juice industry, and, as it expands, will un- 

 doubtedly furnish an outlet for a very large tonnage. 



The table-stock trade is also capable of expansion. This is espe- 

 cially true in New England, in the Middle Atlantic States, and in the 

 South. The Middle West is probably adequately supplied with 

 table stock by Michigan shippers, who have kept in touch with this 

 class of trade much better than have the shippers of NeAV York, 

 Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The table of destinations, given in the 

 appendix, shows the wide distribution of Michigan stock and the 

 relatively narrower distribution of New York shipments. 



