El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-01-09

, loaded WIN grapes fresh from the
vines. It is rushed right through to
the market. This shipment, however, is
nothing in comparison with the vast
quantities that are being turned into
wine. The Argentinians are a wine
drinking nation. The natives are of
Spanish descent and are accustomed to
have wine with their meals. The i'm
migrants, who have come in by the
millions, and who form perhaps one
half Of the population, are mostly
Italians and Spaniards, all of whom
drink wine every day. All of the small
italian farmers have their own wine
supply, and every one who can afford
it lays in a number of casks for his own
use every season
The most of these farmers buy upon
crdit, as is the custom in many parts
Of our suthern states They pay their
bills when the crops are sold, and if
there is a good yield in prospect they
nave but little difficulty in getting all
they may want. That is so for food,
seeds and farm implements. There is
one thing, however, that the merchants
will not give credit for. That is wine.
Wine Is Sold For Cash Only.
The wine is bought and sold for cash
and the retailing is done on a cash
basis Therefore if it is seen that the
crops are likely to be short or that
money cannot easily be got the
wine sales are cut down. Last year
the wheat crop was short, and now the
war has cut everything to the bone.
The farmers cannot get credit and the
wine market has so fallen off that the
bOdegas or wine cellars are still hold
ing tens of millions of gallons.
I wish I could show you moving
picture of the vineyards that surround
the town of Mendoza The city is in the
center Of about a million acres of vine
yards. The grapevines extend right up
to the houses, and some enormous vine
yards are separated from the buildings
only by mud walls that are four or five
feet in height. There are railroads
which go 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.
the magnitude of the industry. I 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 I could see. The vines are set
out in regular order, and I could look
for half a mile or more down the black
earth between 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 vine
yard in bearing is not higher than a
mans waist. It's vines are trained upon
wires, tackled to rough posts; and from
the wires the grapes hang down in
great clusters. 1 saw vineyards Of
thousand 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 punches
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 a weed
is anywhere to be seen. The labor is
mainly Chilean and Argentinian, al
though there are many Italians and
Spaniards who come in to aid in har.
vesting the crop. The wine grapes are
left on until they are dead ripe, in
est, and are just ready to be turned
into wine.
Many Large Wine Making Plants.
Riding through the vineyards I saw
many of the large wine-making estab- /
lishments. Nearly all Of these have es- |
tates of their own, but they also buy
the grapes of the vineyardists near
them. These establishments are known |
as bodegas. Some of them are of vast
extent, the buildings covering acres. |
Others are small, but altogether they !
make enough wine each year to give /
three quarts to every man, woman and |
child in the United States and leave /
squeezed out last year was Just about I
1000 million pounds and this produced /
in the neighborhood of 300 million /
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 40 millions and the (
wine made was 51,0O0,000 liters or al !
most that many quarts. The capital in !
vested runs high into the millions of /
dollars. There are altogether about |
2, 500 wine-makinE establishments in |
the republic, and the area of the vine |
yards is over $4,000 acres.
Largest Wine Bodega in the World.
In order to give you an idea of these |
big wine making establishments shall 1
describe some features Of that Of Do |
mingo TOmba, which I have just visited. !
This bodega is said to be the largest {
establishment of the /
whole world. It's buildings cover many
acres. It's cellars have forty-One depart |
ments for storing and maturing wine. /
In its fermenting rooms there are TWEEN l
ty watts each holding 100000 gallons and 1
smaller watts with total capacity of /
more than a million. There are alto /
gether four OF five hundred watts and j
even more tanks the whole forming l
reservoirs which will handle more than I
two million gallons at one time.