QUEER RESULT OF PROHIBITION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15222, 21 May 1920, Page 9

QUEER RESULT OF PROHIBITION

— . . - s LIKELY Tp MAKE WINE GRAPE AND HOP GROWERS RICH. When complete prohibition with drastic enforcement was seen to be impending despair seized Upon the souls of our growers of wine grapes and hops, j We were told and believed that the measure meant ruin to thousands of families, the loss of the savings of a lifetime and a future without hope. Extensive hopfields were abandoned, pulling out wine grape vineyards on valley land began, and the owners of hillside vineyards unfit for other crops wero not inclined to j prune or cultivate them. I And yet to-day hops of the 1919 crop are quoted at from 70 to 80 dollars per 100 pounds, and contractors are said to be offering to contract wine grapes of the IW2O crop at from 50 dollars per ton upward delivered on the cars. The stockholders of the big wine corporation are seeing more real money than- they ever saw or authentically , heard of during the entire life of the corporation. J Evidently one can never tell. If the result of prohibition is to a good deal more than double the prices of wine grapes and hops' it is unfortunate that those engaged m these industries did not know of it earlier that they could 1 lead' the figbt against the demon rum.j One can understand why hops bring) high prices. War demands for foods; even more nourishing than beer have diverted European nop fields to the production of the more necessary crops, and the>>e is a great thirst and little wherewithal to assuage it. What beer must sell for m Germany with hops m this country at 80 cents a pound and the mark, nominally 24 cents, now worth m this country hetween 1 and" 2 cents, ciin be imagined. And barley is, m about the same position. Never before were our hop growers making so much money. ' What use will justify the tremendous prices said to bo offered for wine grapes is_ not so clear. The only uses prominently mentioned are grape syrup, for which no workable commercial process or plant has yet been devised. For dried wino grapes there is always a market, but wine grapes destined to be dried would . hardly be contracted for delivery on the cars to b<j shipped out o_f the State. Fruit whose contents is 90 per cent, water would not seem to bear long transportation. But, nevertheless, if reports from tho wine grape districts are reliable the wine grape growers are getting rich quick. — Son Francisco Chronicle.