The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-08-16
Tho Growers OF California Said to
Be Carrying Very Large
Stocks.
Storage Facilities Taxed to Their
Utmost Capacity In the
State.
No Chance to Got Rid Of the Produo
-Eycn = High Tariff Cannot
Save 1t.

1OEulN Ia Gu0 AppIOHCAlUk VlAt0tu cGNookA
slarmingly unfavorable, says = San Fran
CISCO dispatch to the Now York Timei
There 10 = big surplus of native wines in tn
cellars Of the Wholesale firms in this city
enough 10 supply the export market an
homs demand for six months or more, an
the producers In all parts Of the state hav
thsir storags facilities exhausted, with n
opportunity of selling NJ anything lik'
prsft, and feU Of them can afford. in tn
face of the existinR conditions. TO provide
new cooperaRs
For four years the market has been ran
ming down. Grapes which were readily sold
At $50 Z ton and made into wine that
brought 80 and IS cents a gallon were easil J
obtainable last year At 80 and $40 a ton,
and the dealers would have considered
themselves fortunate to get Is cents I
gallon for the wine. This year promises an
even worse condition.
The annual consumption Of California
wines in the United States il from 16. 200.
600 to II, 600. 900 gallons a. based on statis-
tics for the last three years. Thu amount
used in this state alone 10 about 100000
gallons. New York, the eastern distribut-
ing center, takes from 4, 000. 900 to 100000
gallons; New Orleans the aame, and the re-
mainder goes to tho comparatively new
market Of Chicago.
dealers have nearly II. 600. 600 gallons stored
in their vaults, and it ia estimated that the
producers have from 80. 900, 600 to 60. coo. 900
gallons on hand, and are making from TO-
600, 600 to $4,000, 900 gallons each year.. At
20 cents a gallon, q low figure for ordinary
sales, this would represent from $12, 40O, 900
to GA. 400, 900 locked up in the wine casks
OF California. During the four years the
growers have received little or no income
from their busin ess, and unless they can
get at some Of the money represented in
their storage of stock, there will be many
failures before the grapes of 1892 are
pressed.
One of the extensive grower, Charles A.
Wetmors, Of Liyermore Valley, has already
been forced to assign because on a stock
valued At $4,000 he could not realize
enough to keep up an Indebtedness OF less
than $25, 900. Mi. Wetmors is secretary of
the State Viticultural society.
The fact, as admitted by the growers
them selves, is that the industry has been
almost ruined by the putting of bad wines
ON the market. Vineyardists, often ex-
have gone to winemaking to secure
the profit that their vines would not
othe. wive bring, and they not only produce
an inferior wine, but allow it to sour
through ignorance of the art of preser-
walton.
a New England farmer makes older and
barrels it up. When they find that the
stock is sourine they sell it for whatever
they can get, and it ia rushed overland and
sold for the ordinary California wine. The
result is the ruin of the industry, and it
has brought the growers to a point where
the dealers will not take their wine at the
price of production.
California wines that were recently sold
in New York Brought IS cents a gallon for
LOCO barrels, with the freight of 10 cents a
gallon paid by the seller.
NJ. NJ. Estee, the republican politician. is
the most widely known Of the American
wine growers, and 10 one OF the best local
auth critics on the industry. He has large
whey ards in the Napa region and controls
one of the biggest wineries in that valley.
Mr.. Estee admitted to a Times represent
tative the other day that the industry was
not So good as it had been and that tit ia
rather running down if anything" The
trouble, he declared, has been with the pro-
ducers and dealers principally. The & ow-
ers have not made Rs good wine az they
should have made. said he. and the dealers
have failed to sustain the market. Mr..
Lstee said he thought the ffty-cent tariff
was just about right, and that he would
have it neither more nor less, but he did not
explain why it had not relieved the dealers
OF the surplus stock of good wines.
G. Ca py IL Co., a well-kpown firm of pro-
ducers. insist that the American teople will
never consume the wine that California can
produce and that there must be an opening
for the product in foreign countries. They
not only declare t hat the tariff is unneces-
sary for the protection of the industry in
this country, but that they are willing to
compete for the trade in even France and
Spain il traffic is free and open. "We have
to sell our wines as cheapiy as we would
have to under any conditional said Il mem
Der of tho firm, land all that the tariff does
is to enable the New York dealers to put
French labels on the California product
nj sell it at the rates of imported vines"
The California Wine Growers union de-
clare that the vineyardists have been losing
money for four years, but it hopes that q
better condition will result from a general
prosperity of the people if the coming presi-
dental campaign results in a change OF ad-
ministration.
President P. G. Rossi, of the Italian Swiss
colony, producing annually ar immense
amount of win in Sonoma county, saws
that the business has been going from bad
TO worse for four years, and that there is
no solution Of the difficulty in sight. The
colony has continued in existence only by
putting agents on the road and selling
directly to retailers.
Millions Of dollars are invested in Cali
fornla wine growing and the prospe cts of
general failure are very serious. It ia sig
nlhcant that all the producers speak hope
fully Of a short grape crop.
Guarantaa ruro