The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-05-07

ing anu AInlnla (ROSefS o5) was all gone De1Ore
the meeting The committee, the members
of the Society, and the ladies pre-
sent. as committee of thewhoe. tested thefruit
OF twelve varieties, and the universal verdict was
they are all excellent. Of these twelve SORTS nine
were Rogers hybrids. A member of our COM
mittee, who has grown grapes in n j. for nearly
forty years and has grown most of Rogers n.y.
birds, pronounces these Wilders the largest
grapes he ever saw and has never before seen n.y.
birds produce such large clusters. The Delaware
also does we'll here. member of our committee
from Delaware Ohio, where these grapes orig-
mated, says these punches are the largest he ever
saw. Another member of the Society who had
handled Delawares by the cart load Lake
Erie, pronounced these berries the largest he has
ever seen. We also saw an illustration OF the SUI
periorty of home grown vines over those brought
from a distance. Two vines of the same age and
kind, set at the same time side by side, under the
same treatment; the home grown vine has this
season produced q cane more than three times
as large as the other
This meeting directed to send samples OF
grapes to the FLORIDA AGRICULTURIsT and also
to the Dispatch OF them Col. Codrington said:
''The grapes were really the best we have seen
grown in the State in both flavor and size. Some
of them were three inches in diameter" The edit
or of the Dispatch said: "They as fine
specimens as country can produce
The testimony of these witnesses fully justifes
the conclusion that it is no new discovery that
grapes can be successfully grown elsewhere than
on the "clay hills of Florida. -
That Professor Dubois's bantling OF only ''two
three summers is really q well-grown lass,
we'll along in her teens, having already passed to
the shady side of sweet sixteen.
The future is also misjudged by the popular
thought of to-day, Judged by the agricultural
press, this thinking is largely mix ture OF theim
practicable and the absurd. AS example quote
from "Sigma" in the Orlando Reporter: cit
will not be wonderful if the next ten years should
behold Florida sending out millions Of pounds of
white and purple table grapes and tons of home
cured raisins.'
Others have been equally extravaganza upon
the question of wine production in the State.
For the future of this industry in Florida, there
three lines of development prOposed:s Rails
ms, wine and table grapes. AS to the first, viz:
the production of raisns as an article of COM
merce one who has any knowledge of it's first
principles and our climatic conditions, will never
give it a moments thought. If our climatic con-
dtions did not make it impossible, the question
OF money values would make it impracticabe.
In the best raisin districts of the world, the
grapes when ready to dry are worth from one to
and a half cents per pound, and wine pro-
duction promises the grower only about half
these values.
Prof. Dubois, in the Dispatch of Nov. II, 1888,
gives the value of wine grapes in California at $2
per ton and in Florida $50.
The California grapes are the choicest Euro
pean varieties and the Florida grapes Ameri-
varieties whose most ardent admirers claim
no more for them than that they "just as
good as the European grapes. This high value
is based on q local and limited supply Local
markets and limited supply are thing, but
competition in the open markets of the world,
quite another thing.
Fifteen years ago, pineapples sold on Indian
river at 81 90 each, but increased production has
reduced the price to ten cents each. 1t is the
world over. AS rule, increased production de-
creases money values. This has been the expert
ence of wine makers in California, in Missouri
rida if it's production is carried beyond the sup
ply of local demand. Then, too, the price of
grapes will be fixed by the manufacturers instead
of the grower for the reason that wine plants are
expensive and it's manufacture requires skill
and experience. Many people think that fer
mented grape juice is wine, which is true in the
laboratory, but when they try to sell their fer
mented grape Juice they find they have made a
mistake. They find that in the wine market of
the world wine is something more than grape
mice with n given cent. of alcohol. tits