TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



93 



housed with a great increase in holding capacity, and inquiry developed 

 that there was not sufficient seasoned cooperage stock obtainable to 

 make any very considerable increase in tankage. The financial outlook, 

 also, was not favorable; and rumors that a repetition of the previous 

 heavy production might cause a drop in prices did not tend to make 

 bankers as anxious to open their coffers to provide funds as generously 

 as they did last year, when in a few weeks they advanced several millions 

 to take care of the heavy vintage. 



Among sweet-wine districts this year the wine crop of southern Cali- 

 fornia was quite heavy, and that of the extreme northern grape-growing 

 section was also large; but in the Fresno district, the alternative pre- 

 sented by a favorable drying season and the prospect for high raisin 

 prices caused a great many growers who were dissatisfied with winery 

 conditions to put on trays grapes which have gone formerly to wineries, 

 so that the total sweet-wine yield will, most fortunately, be considerably 

 less than in 1902, and it is hoped that a fair equilibrium in prices may 

 be maintained. 



In the dry-wine districts, crop predictions have been fairly well 

 realized, and while the yield was not so great as in the phenomenal 

 vintage of 1902, it was far above an average, and when the vines 

 approach maturity within the next two years concerted action will be 

 necessary to keep up the favorable market conditions which have pre- 

 vailed for several years past. 



Interest, taxes, insurance, and evaporation cut so large a figure in 

 the expense of carrying on the wine business that the initial cost of 

 grapes from which is made wine that has to be carried for a long time, 

 becomes a matter of considerable moment to the wine-maker. 



The unexpected and almost unprecedented occurrence of two heavy 

 vintages in succession tended this year to make wine-makers whose 

 cellars were filled with wines from previous vintages, very cautious in 

 buying grapes. 



The price for dry-wine grapes dropped considerably below that of 

 the previous year, and while the price for the last two years, taken 

 together and averaged, was quite remunerative, grape-growers who had 

 anticipated a continuance of the higher range of prices shared the dis- 

 appointment of wine-makers who, judging from previous experience, 

 believed that a short crop would succeed such an abnormal yield as 

 that of 1902, and had held their wines in anticipation of more remun- 

 erative prices, in place of which they stand to face a considerable loss. 



The wine industry in the last few years has suffered a disappoint- 

 ment in its expectation of an increase in consumption. The Philippine 

 Islands, from which great things were expected, have taken practically 

 nothing from us. Porto Rico, instead of a large market, has proved to 

 be such a small consumer as to be an entirely insignificant factor. 



