The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-05-27
GRAPE GROWING AND WINE MAKING

At the risk of again offending the
keen sensibilities of those who con-
scientiously believe that wine, in
common with spirits and other in
toxicants, is an unqualified evil, we
must repeat our advice to the owners
of land in these islands to grow
grapes and make wine. A small
patch of garden will yield good re-
turn If planted with well chosen stocks
and carefully cultivated. There
might be great deal accomplished
In this way around Honolulu. The
following item from the San Fran
cisco Post will be interesting in this
relation.
Charles A. Wetmore Chief Executive Of
fcer of the State Viticultural Association,
recommends grape growers to make wine in
preference to selling the grapes. Wine
making, he says, is easy, and much more
profitable than marketing the grapes. Asked
how small vineyard could be and yet af-
ford grapes enough to make wine making
profitable, he answered that the smaller the
vineyards the more profit. He made 800
gallons of wine from the yield Of a half acre
vineyard. At $50 ton for grapes, wine
costs only two cents pint. He thinks that
twenty cents gallon for new wine will be
the ruling price in this State, at which rate
vineyard will produce 500 worth of wine
per acre. He declares that the business Of
vine making can never be oVerdone, and be-
lieves that the use of wine will eventually
supplant tea and coffee in this country.
We fancy there is a great deal more
money and less labor in raising
grapes either for table purposes or
for wine than there is in almost any
other agricultural pursuit. It most
unquestionably discounts the silk
worm industry, because it is more
certain, less troublesome and far
more profitable than sericulture can
ever possibly become under existing,
or even probable, conditions of labor.
The advice of Mr.. Wetmore is of the
utmost weight, aud should be ac-
eepted without reserve if unsup-
ported. But it does not stand alone.
The Sacramento Bee, speaking of the
grape industry, says;
An acre of vineyard, almost any There in
the State, will yield five tons of grapes worth
$50 ton, making total of $50 against
total of $40 so from the yield of thirty bush
els of wheat on the same area of land. The
profit on grain is 81 so; on grapes at least
500.
This profit would be considered very
good anywhere, but the Yolo Demo
crdt, published in the heart of a great
agricultural and Embarrassing dis
trict, thinks it is too low an estimate,
and that justice is not done to the
vitic1ltural interest. It thus COM
ments on the above paragraph
The Bees figures are good but the profit
on grapes is very low. As high as $500 an
acre has been realized, and $3.50 and $500
is not uncommon in Yolo county, which is
one of the very best localities in the State
for grape culture, for the reasons that its
soil is rich and deep, its irrigation facilities
good, its climate adapted to making raisins
as we'll as wine and brandy, while the grapes
ripen early and bring high pric es for ship
ping to the East
These quotations are given to show
actual results by way of encouraging
the planting of grape vines. Fruit
may be gathered the third season
sufficient to pay all preliminary out
lay; after that, every season should
add-to the profits. There is no more
wholesome or delicious fruit than the
grape, while wine-drinking countries
are proverblal for their average So
briefly, paradoxical as it may seem.