178 



GEAPE AND OTHER FRUIT JUICES 



rated companies. The total value of the product for that year was $6,547,310, of which $3,937,871 was 

 the value of the California product. New York was second with a product valued at $942,548, and Ohio 

 third with $801,684 ; New Jersey, North Carolina and Missouri follow in the order given. The gallons of 

 Domestic Wines consumed (not including exports) are as follows for a series of years : 



1900 26,242,492 



1901 24,008,380 



1902 44,743,815 



1903 32,634,293 



1904 37,538,799 



1905 29,369,408 



1906 39,847,044 



GRAPE AND OTHER FRUIT JUICES 



By A. M. Loomis 



Grape and other fruit juices have become, of 

 recent years, articles of commercial importance; 

 their manufacture is recognized as a noteworthy 

 industry; and the sale of fruit for this purpose is 

 of sufficient volume to be an influential factor in 

 establishing the market price. Grape juice is 

 now manufactured and sold as a beverage, for its 

 nutritive and tonic value in sickness, and for its 



J^ 





imi 1^ 



Fig. 263. 



Battery of presses and steam-heated aluminum kettles 

 used in making grape juice. 



use for flavoring other foods and drinks. Other 

 fruit juices are sold largely for their uses as 

 flavors, particularly to the soda-fountain, baking 

 and confectionary trades. The amount of grape 

 juice made probably exceeds many times the amount 

 of all other fruit juices, although of recent years 

 there has appeared in the markets an unfermented 

 apple juice and an unfermented orange juice in 

 considerable quantities. 



Distribution and extent of the industry. 



The greatest manufacture of fruit juices in the 

 East is in New York state, and in the West in 

 California. The manufacture of apple juice, pro- 

 perly so-called, being a different product from 

 cider, in that it contains no product of fermenta- 

 tion and no alcoholic content, is being practiced 

 in increasing measure in several sections, particu- 

 larly in the western New York apple-belt and some 

 other apple-growing sections. Orange juice is put 

 ap in California on a somewhat extensive scale. 



The manufacture of grape juice grew up as a 



commercial enterprise entirely apart from the 

 wine industry, contrary to the general impression 

 that the wine industry is the parent of the grape- 

 juice business. It can be said to have had its 

 beginning at Vineland, N. J., with Dr. Thomas B. 

 Welch. In 1869, Dr. Welch put up a few bottles of 

 grape juice for use at the communion table of the 

 Vineland church of which he was a member, and 

 each succeeding year found a larger demand for 

 his product. It was made in the kitchen of his own 

 home. Sugar was used for preservation; but even 

 in the earliest days it was seen that much 

 , sugar destroyed the more delicate flavors of 

 the juice, and its use was gradually lessened 

 until later methods of perfect sterilization 

 make its use unnecessary with grapes of 

 ordinary quality. When the vineyard inter- 

 ests of Vineland and the surrounding sec- 

 tions of New Jersey began, to fail, the Welch 

 business, then grown to fair -sized propor- 

 tions, was moved to Chautauqua county, 

 N. Y., and the factory of the Welch Grape 

 Juice Company was established at Westfield. 

 Prior to the removal of Welch to West- 

 field, in about 1890, other persons, in a more 

 or less experimental way, had begun to make 

 grape juice in that section, and today there 

 are several large factories other than the 

 Welch factory located there. Notable among 

 these experimenters was M. B. Gleason, of 

 Ripley, who evolved a secret process. W. H. 

 Bigelow, of Dunkirk, N. Y., was another 

 pioneer, producing a staple unfermented 

 juice by a secret process as early as 1892. 



In other states, of recent years the industry has 

 grown. In Ohio, there are two or three factories, 

 notably the one at Sandusky, which gets its supply 

 of fruit from the Kelley island group. In Michigan 

 there are several factories, and in New Jersey the 

 industry still exists on a small scale at Vineland. 

 In Georgia there is a small grape-growing area, 

 and the manufacture of unfermented juice is 

 practiced. In California, since 1900, several fac- 

 tories have started, and one or two companies 

 have been in the business for over twenty years. 

 The extreme sweetness of the California grapes, 

 which are of the European varieties and much 

 different in flavor from those grown in the more 

 northern climates, makes the juice from them very 

 unlike that made and sold in the eastern factories. 

 The total production of unfermented grape juice 

 for the year ended December 31, 1906, for the 

 United States, is estimated at 1,000,000 to 1,200,- 

 000 gallons. Of this, the western New York sec- 

 tion produced over 750,000 gallons. 



