Part 22 (1/2)

Table-grapes from both eastern and western grape regions are now almost entirely s.h.i.+pped in carload lots. Since few grape-growers are prepared to load a car quickly with grapes, some kind of cooperation is required, or the crop must be handled by large buyers. Cooperative methods are becoming more and more popular, although a large part of the grape crop, both East and West, is now handled by buyers.

There are several important advantages in selling through a cooperative organization. Thus, in selling cooperatively, the grapes are graded and packed in accordance with one standard; more favorable transportation rates can be secured by a cooperative a.s.sociation; and, most important of all, the output can be distributed to the grape markets of the country without the disastrous compet.i.tion that attends individual marketing. In some of these organizations, also, supplies needed by the grape-grower in producing a crop are purchased more economically than by individuals; in particular, grape packages can be purchased better by an organization than by an individual.

As the grape industry and compet.i.tion grow in the different regions of the country, the necessity of forming marketing organizations becomes greater. Such organizations must be founded on the principles which many experiments have shown best govern fruit-marketing a.s.sociations.

It is not possible to discuss these principles at length, but the following fundamentals will suffice:

An ideal cooperative a.s.sociation is one in which there are no profits nor dividends. Every member of the whole organized a.s.sociation is a producer. All of the product grown by a member is sold through the a.s.sociation. The a.s.sociation is democratic, all members having an equal voice in its management and all sharing alike in its successes and failures. When profits arise of necessity, they are distributed to the members of the a.s.sociation in proportion to the amount of business each has done. The work of the organization is conducted at as near cost as possible and profits are declared only after expenses, depreciation, interest on capital for future operations are deducted.

Thus it is seen that the plan of the organization is to give each member as nearly as possible the exact price his fruit has brought in the markets.

VINEYARD RETURNS

Grape-growing as a business is a comparatively new industry in America. It is true that the first attempts at growing this fruit were made to found an industry, but these were complete and dismal failures, and the start in growing grapes in America eventually came as a pleasing hobby. In evolving from a hobby into vineyard culture on a large scale, the business side of the industry long lagged. At present, with increasing compet.i.tion, manifold uncertainties in vineyard conditions, and much unbusinesslike administration, interest in cultural operations, with which pioneers in the industry were chiefly concerned, is eclipsed by the conception that grape-growing is a highly developed commercial enterprise requiring for success careful business management.

Unfortunately there is nowhere a substantial body of figures from which growers can obtain a fair conception of what the outgo and income of average vineyards in grape regions are. The value of such data to investors or to those making an effort to keep track of the finances of their business is obvious, and an attempt is made here to put the reader in possession of figures that ought to be helpful. The data given, although scant and fragmentary, show fairly accurately the cost of producing grapes, selling prices and profits in the culture of this fruit in one of the great grape regions.

The New York Agricultural Experiment Station is carrying on experiments to determine the outgo and income from vineyards in the Chautauqua grape-belt. The work is not yet finished, nor could the findings be published in detail before being sent out by the Station, but F. E. Gladwin, in charge of the work, has consented to set down summaries of costs and returns taken from vineyards at Fredonia, which will serve as a guide to planters of grapes in this region at least:

_First Year_

Interest on value of land @ $200 per acre $12.00 Preparation of land 8.00 Cost of vines per acre 12.00 Planting 4.00 Cultivating 6.00 ------ Total expenditure for first year $42.00

_Second Year_

Interest on value of vineyard @ $225 per acre $13.50 Cultivating, hand hoeing, etc. 9.25 Pruning 1.00 ------ Total expenditure for second year $23.75

_Third Year_

Interest on value of vineyard @ $250 per acre $15.00 Pruning 2.50 Posts (cost of) @ .10 240 24.00 Setting and driving 6.50 Wire and wiring, staples, etc. 11.65 Tying and twine 1.45 Cultivating, plowing, harrowing 9.25 Spraying 4.00 No. baskets sold @ .16 per basket 500 $80.00 Cost of baskets @ $20 per thousand 10.00 Picking @ .01 per basket 5.00 Packing @ .01 per basket 5.00 Hauling .003 1.50 ------ Outgo for third year $95.85 ------ Income $80.00

_Fourth Year_

Interest on value of vineyard @ $300 per acre $18.00 Pruning 2.50 Tying 2.90 Spraying and materials 4.00 Cultivating, plowing, harrowing, hand-hoeing and plowing back one furrow 9.25 Trellis upkeep, driving posts, tightening wires, etc. 2.50 Pulling and poling out brush 1.69 No. baskets sold @ .16 per basket 1000 $160.00 Cost of baskets @ $20 per thousand 20.00 Picking @ .01 per basket 10.00 Packing @ .01 per basket 10.00 Hauling .003 3.00 ------ Outgo for fourth year $83.84 ------- Income $160.00

Outgo for four years $245.44 Income for four years 240.00

_Estimates for Succeeding Years_

Gross income $125-200 Outgo 75- 85

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XIX.--Iona (3/5).]

CHAPTER XIV

GRAPE PRODUCTS

Over-production, with the attendant losses caused by glutted markets, is a factor which, like frosts and freezes, is ever in the mind of the grape-grower. No season pa.s.ses but that some of the grape regions of the country suffer from over-production. Not uncommonly the grape industry in a region is better off in a season when the crop is small and prices high, than when the crop is large and prices low. In every part of the country where grapes are grown, over-production has been a great deterrent to viticulture; this, in spite of the fact that grape-growers have availed themselves of the opportunity to manufacture products from this fruit. Thus, wine and raisins are made from the grape in California, and a large part of the harvest in the East goes into wine, champagne and grape-juice. But the growth of prohibition now threatens the wine and champagne industries of the country, in fact may be said to have driven them to the wall, making the need of new outlets in manufactured products a greater necessity.