The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-03

| u. -, oSP " N~~-
will grapes sell for this fall?
! That is a question which is pain
fully agitating thousands OF men
who own vineyards, some OF whom
have Stakeholder whole fortune on
/ the grapevine. To less extent
it is troubling all of the dealers and
middIemen who have to do with the
distribution of the grape crop.
Prohibition has converted the
growing and selling of grapes from
, a quiet, stable industry into wild
| and speculative one. The vine
yardist, once a peaceful and con-
tented fellow, has become an ex-
cited and distraught one, who alter
nately dreams of fabulous wealth
and quakes at the threat of bank
Tuptcy.
The answer to the all-important
question, as to what price he should
get for his crap formerly came
from a few large dealers. Ninety
two per cent of the grapes grown
in America are grown in California,
and most of these are wine grapes.
The rest are raisin grapes, also
grown in California, and the Con-
cord grapes grown in a few eastern
states and sold for table consump-
ton and for making of grape juice.
Hence the wine makers and the
grape juice makers took the great
bulk OF the grape crop every year
at a fixed figure. The market was
sure and the price did not vary
greatly.
When the threat of prohibition
doomed large, the grape growers
saw in it nothing but prospective
ruin. They fought it with all their
might. and went down to a bitter,
bowling defeat. A year ago last
spring, vineyards could be bought
for a song. Some far-sighted men
who had the song bought lot Of
them.
Fall came with a large crop of
grapes. 1t brought also an army
of buyers. Before prohibition the
price of wine grapes had varied
from $40 to $50 a ton, and the price
Of Concord grapes from $50 to $40
q ton. With the manufacture OF
wine prohibited by an amendment
to the federal constitution, and with
the manufa cture of grape juice
greatly reduced by a high tax,
grapes began to sell at from SIS a
ton w, Especially up. Last fall
wine grapes were actually sold for
as high as 1925 a ton.
A Prohibition Miracle.
The grape grower who had sold
his vineyard tore his hair. The man
who had bought it made the pur-
chase price on a single crop. All
concerned were reminded that they
lived in a world where the incredi-
Bile happens. Prohibition, which
was expected to render the grape
vine no more valuable than a
gourd, had actually made grapes
dearer perhaps than they had ever
been before in human history.
There was never any doubt who
bought those grapes. They were
bought by hundreds of thousands
of persons who made wine in their
homes. 1t was estimated on pretty
reliable information that IS per
cent of the raisin crop also went
into the making of hooch. ,
1t dawned upon the grape grow
er that if he had lost one market, |
he had most certainly gained an
ether, apparently much larger both !
as TO capacity and price. Forth /,
with there was a boom in vine |
yards. Those that had sold for a !
song a year before were not moved /,
by anything less than a symphony |
orchestra this spring. Thousands |
Of acres were planted in grapes. |
One man worth several millions has |
riSked his whole fortune by plant |
ing about $4,000 acres.