The San Francisco call., 1898-12-23
HONOR AND PROFIT.

wines and fruits in the spirit suggested by The Call.
 Commercial honor strictly observed, is more neces-
 sary the prosperity of California than to any other
 State in the Union. The great crops of the Middle
 West, the South and East are of such nature that
 their adulteraton not feasible They offer no pre-
 mum to greed in their sophistication. Corn and
 wheat, cotton, rice sugar and tobacco are hardly capable of harmful manipulation But with vine
 yard and orchard products the case different The
 slothfu orchardist who permits his trees and. their
 fruits to be infested with noxious insects saves the
 cost of cleansing them but he sends fruit to be con
 demned in the market after has left his hands and
 to inure the States entire crop for many seasons to come.
 Our spreading market for dried fruits in Germany
 is suddenly closed by official authority upon the dis covery that 1t carries scale. Of that the processes to which the fruit Is subjected to fit 1t
 for market destroy the scale. But that answer, if true, is not enough. Commerce requires something
 more We must be able to show by testimony so conclusive and authority respectable that they
 not be doubted that fruit infested by scale n its
 green state IS dried for export We must teach the
 orchardst that he cannot sell his fruit, green or
 dry, unless 1t IS clean of parasites. We must make
 him understand that crop with scale is crop lost
 out of which he can get retrrn and he will then
 understand that his profit depends the of his
 orchard. At the same time the careful planter, who does keep his trees clean will get the proper premium on his commercial honor by supplying the market from which unclean fruit is excluded.
 It Is well treat this issue from the standpoint of reason. Germany may be retaiating for our pro hibtory duty on her bounty-paid beet sugar. but we cannot fasen that charge upon her as long fur nish her pretext for excluding fruit on account oi scale If able to invite the German Consuls attention to the fact that law rigid custom forbids the drying of fruit that comes from the orchard with scale, eliminate from the contention every ele- ment, except commercial retaliation, with which the two national Governments must deal, Until we do this we handicap our own Government in any at tempt to right the matter There has long been suspicion that the exclusion of pork from Ger many was retaliation, intended covert and extra tariff protection But when our Government at tempted to deal with 1t that basis con fronted by carefully compiled extracts from news papers in the pork-raising States giving sensational accounts of the prevalence Of hog cholera It is true that these were greatly exaggerated but our plea to that effect not listened to. Finally the hog raising States have gone at work systematically to stamp the epizooty, and it IS rapidly disappearing California must act with intelligence and the lines of commercial honor. Commercial confidence is a plant of slow growth in old markets. The more de- cisive the more rapidly will 1t grow.
 Our frst-class orchard products be all mar keted green, dry canned, at profit, if we begin and continue right Only frst-class fruit should be marketed in either state. As for green fruit there is
 much that by reason of small size or outward blemish is marketable first class, should 1t be canned dried Still there Is the temptation to get something out of 1t, reinforced by the fact that its pulp and juices good as any.
 The orchardsts of Southern Europe utilize such fruit by dstilling it. There are several valuable mercial liqueurs made from such defective prunes, pears, cherries and peaches and mashtub and still part of the equipment of many fruit farms. Such fruit may also be made into jams and marmalades that are perfectly wholesome and commercially valuable. | We have not yet reached the point of these econo- mics, and try to crowd all such fruit into mar ket where it lowers the price of all fruit and harms the reputation of orchards. The strict law and rigid custom to which have referred will hasten the day when such fruit will be excluded from the green fruit market and will not be accepted to dry This will compel resort to its in such forms as return profit on it without spelling the market of its betters.
 We hope to see this matter taken in hand at the meetings of horticulturiss to the end that light upon it may be spread among the planters
 Two years ago an enterprising fig grower, finding his crop useless his hands, turned it into mash tub and distilled fig brandy Now that liquor is a valuable commercial product, especially as culinary brandy. The privilege of distil1ing it would bring | relief every fg-raiser in the State But happens that internal revenue laws make provision for fig brandy and this enerprsing grower, after trying vainly to pay internal revenue tax his liquor was compelled to submit to its seizure by the Government because it was not mentioned in the law The law should be amended so as to class the fig as berry and permit its distillaon.
 In regard to the adulteration of our wines and sending them into carefully inspected markets or any market there must be speedy, drastic and efficient ac tion Great hopes invested III the commercial organization of wine interest It promised to l study markets, promote consumption of our wines, and if possible, capture for them the control of the American market
 The discovery of Wetmore, by which their heady | quality could be eliminated by damp storage which | withdrew from them the excess of alcohol through | the natural operation of chemical affinity was mat ter the value of which cannot be overestmated When ii was applied their began to spread where be-