Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-04-04

WY ASHINGTON, D. c., March 31.-If
M high-grade table syrups made from
w grapes and non-alcoholic wines made
from the regular wine grapes prove to be
popular with the American consuming public,
the California grape growers may be able to
stay in business and prosper
Otherwise large numbers of them will
probably have to go out of business and hill
side lands, which are suitable for nothing but
grape culture, will lie fallow. That is the
way experts of the department of agriculture
size up the situation of the grape farmer as
it is affected by the coming of prohibition.
The wine growers themselves look forward
to July /, 1919 with profound pessmism.
Their vines, worth $100,O00,00 to them,
will, they declare, become about as va uable
as so much neysuckle.
The grain and hop farmers, who have been
supplying the breweries and distillers, are
less shaken. The slight inconvenience that
they will feel when the nation goes dry fades
into nothingness beside the woes of the grape
growers.
Eighty-ive per cent of the wine made in
the United States is from California grapes.
1t is not only the growers of the so-called
wine grapes of California who will be affected
by the ban on wines The grape industry is
more complicated than that. Only the first
crop of raisin and table grapes-about two
fifths of the whole yield-can be used for
raisin and table purposes. The second IN
ferior crop is used in brandy and in fortlty-
ing sweet wines. This is why all California
grape growers are agitated The claim that
the vineyard acres, which are mostly on hill
sides and lands ulsuited for truck cultlVa-
ton will be total loss to them unless some
aid is provided.
All sorts of suggestions are offered and ex
perments made to help the growers. The
government, private enterprise, and Call
fornia trade and agricultural bodies are al
racking their brains to find a practical and
profitable way of conserving the $4,OOO,OOO
grape crop, which will mature in California
| this year.
Unfortunately, the wine grape is not e
| adaptable fruit 1t is too full of juice anC
too thin skinned to be shipped for table use
or dried. 1t is too sweet to be used i'll grape
| Juice, which is made CT sour grapes and de-
ponds on sugar to give it body and sweetness
Moreover, other grape growers Adequately
handle the demand for grape juice, largely
| from New York vineyards. Grape juice
made from wine grapes as an experiment was
pronounced too rich and sweet to suit popular
| taste. Grape sugar, another suggestion, mas
been declared impossible.
Private concerns are investigating the pros
| poets of non-alcohOlic wines from WINE
| grapes Wines of this sort are now made II
large quantities in italy, according to rep
resentative of the Anti-Saloon league. They
do not ferment, no matter how long they are
kept If this project should be successful
and the products gain public favor, the grape
question would be partly settled at least.
Attention to side line grape products, sucf
as vinegar and potash, is recommended to the
California growers. The department OF ag
riculture states that the United States is lg
norant of nine-tenths of the uses to Whlcf
grapes may be nut. In Europe, the seed are
| used in making tannin, coloring matter,
coffee substitute and soap, and oil is extract
ed from them Abundance of other materials
in this country does not tend to make sucf
conservation popular, but considering tina
the California grape crop averages $50 ,00(