The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-01-10
Argentine Grapes for the United States
BY FRANK G.. CARPENTER

down. Last year the wheat crop was
short, and now the war has cut every
= thing to the bone. The farmers cannot
get credit and the wine market has SO
fallen off that the bodegas or wine cell
lars are still holding tens of millions of
gallons. The present crop will greatly
add to this supply. All this causes the
low price of cent pound on the vines.
| wish l could show you moving pic
ture of the vineyards that surround the
town of Mendoza. The city is in the GEN.
ter of about million acres of vineyards.
The grapevines estend right up to the
houses. and some enormous vineyards are
separated from the buildings only by mud
walls that are four or five feet in height.
There are railroads which so out through
the vineyards, and you can take the belt
line and ride for miles around the city.
going through nothing but grapevines
all the way.
In fact, this is the best way to see the
magnitude of the industry. | took the
train this morning and was about two
hours on the way There were vineyards
on both sides of the track as far as l
ular order, and I could look for half a
mile or more down the black earth be-
tween them. Each row has its canal, and
in some places the water is conducted
about the roots of the vines. In others
it runs through the middle of the row.
The vines are cut back every Year just
as in France, and an old vineyard in
bearing is not higher than a mans waist.
Its vines are trained upon wires. tackled
to rough posts; and from the wires the
grapes hang down In great clusters. saw
vineyards of 1900 acres, the grapes of
which were all white, and other tracts
equally large where the grapes were dark
blue or purple Almost all were quite
as big as damson plums, some single
burches weighing four or five pounds.
The trimming of these vineyards is
so carefully done that the whole looks
like an ornamental garden, and the
fruit is SO cultivated that not weed
Is anywhere to be seen. The labor is
mainly Chilean and Argentinian, although
there are many Italians and Spaniards
who come in to aid in harvesting the crop.
The wine grapes are left on until they are
dead ripe, in which condition they are
at their sweetest and are just ready to
be turned into wine.
Riding through the vineyards I saw
many of the large wine-maling establish
ments. Nearly all of these have estates
of their own, but they also buy the grapes
of the vineyardsts near them. These es-
Establishments are known as bodegas. Some
of them are of vast extent, the buildings
covering acres. Others are small. but al
together they make enough wine each
yeae to give three quarts to every man.
woman and child in the United States and
leave some to spare. The amount of
grapes squeezed out last year was just
about 1,000,000000 pounds, and this pro-
duced in the neighborhood of 3,000e0 900
liters of wine. This is for the province
of Mendoza alone In the province of
San Juan. which adjoins it, the pounds of
grapes treated were about 170,0000OO and
the wine made about 81, 900 liters or al
mose that many quarts. The capital in
vested runs high into the millions of dol
lars. There are altogether about $500
wine making establishments in the re-
public. and the area of the vineyards Is
over 100000 acres.
In order to give you an idea of these
big wine making establishments | shall
describe some features of that of Do
mngo Tomba, which / have Just visited
This bodega is said to be the largest
wine making establishment of the whole
world. It's buildings cover many acres.
It's cellars have Al departments for storing
and maturing wine. In its fermenting
rooms there are 20 watts, each holding 1OO,-
600 gallons and smaller watts with u total
capacity of more than million. There
are altogether 400 or 500 watts and even
more tanks, the whole forming reservoirs
which will handle more than 100000 gall
Ions at one time. The establishment has
1872 cars for bringing the grapes from the
vineyards to the winery and SO travelling
tanks of 2500 gallons each for the trans
port of wine and grape juice from it's
other bodegas. The capital of the insti-
tuition is $3,00o,0o0 and am told it is pay
ing dividends of IL per cent and laying