receives a receipt which is in Greece a negotiable paper. These papers bring almost the same value as the current market value of the grade of Corinths delivered. With the retention stock of Corinths the Government is able to foster native distilleries and wine makers, and with the moneys secured from their sale a bank has been started called the "Currant Bank," which loans money to the planters on their currant crop on the easy terms of 5 per cent, and assists them in other ways, as, for example, by importing copper sulphate for the treatment of the mildew. The bank will import this year 2,000 tons of bluestone for the preparation of Bordeaux mixture. The effect of this ingenious law has been to bring up the price of Corinths, which had gone down to $22 per ton, to the old figure which prevailed before the prohibitive French duty was put on, viz, to about $48 per ton, this latter being one which will insure to the producer a fair profit. This law reminds one of the Dutch methods employed in the early days of the nutmeg culture in Banda, when the Government burnt in big bonfires on the beach thousands of pounds of nutmegs every year and advertised such destruction in the European market in order to quiet the fears of an oversupply and keep up the high price of the product, of which the Government had a monopoly. The Greek law is only like the Dutch one in so far as it attempts to limit the amount put on the market instead of to increase the methods of distribution and encourage a more general consumption. It is more clever because it is directly levied upon the foreign consumer and makes a use of the surplus instead of destroying it. From the tabulation below it will be seen that the importations of foreign raisins in 1887 amounted to 20,386 tons, of a value of $2,281,981, while the production of California raisins at that time amounted to only 8,000 tons, of a value of $880,000. The importations of foreign raisins since 1887 have, as shown in the tabulation, steadily decreased, while the production of California raisins has as steadily increased, showing in 1907 (the last year for which the accounts have been made up) that the foreign raisin imports had declined to 1,983 tons, of a value of $364,403, while the production in California had increased to over 65,000 tons, of a value of $4,225,000. Your attention is most especially called, however, to the very different condition shown by the appended tabulation in reference to the so-called "Zante currants." Their importation has steadily increased from 12,593 tons in 1898 to 19,190 tons in 1907, the value of the latter being given as $1,746,941. These currants, therefore, have filled the market for similar goods produced by California growers, and that, we believe, is owing entirely to the lower duty upon those so-called "currants," permitting them to be imported at less than raisin duty and coming into direct competition with the domestic producer. Were this remedied the seedless raisins of California production would, we feel convinced, shortly take their place and thus enlarge the market of California raisins to that extent. We therefore request, first, that the present duty of 2 cents per pound on raisins be continued and made to read to include all raisins, and that the present duty on currants of 2 cents be raised one-half a cent a pound, placing them on an equality with all other raisins, and that when imported they be required to bear their true appellation of "seedless raisins." Now, I have a large amount of tabulations and statements and so forth, and I would say for your information that we have had a statistician, a very able man, at work on this for months, and this is simply in addition to what I have presented here to bring out some special features. Mr. UNDERWOOD. Do you give the cost of production in those figures? Mr. TARPEY. No, sir. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is the cost of production? Mr. TARPEY. As to the cost of production, the Government is the only one that I have ever been able to find that could state that. The cost of production on every 160 acres of land in the country is different. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is your cost of production? Mr. TARPEY. Of what? Mr. UNDERWOOD. Raisins. Mr. TARPEY. We put raisins into the sweat box at between 2 and 3 cents a pound. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is your cost of everything except interest on your capital f. o. b. the cars for shipment? Mr. TARPEY. We do not ship anything f. o. b. the cars. I am speaking from the grower's end of it entirely. The manufacturer's end is entirely separate from ours. We sell to the manufacturers, quite a number of them. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is the cost at the point of sale? Mr. TARPEY. The cost at the point of sale is altogether dependent upon how much raisins the particular piece of land raises in a year. Mr. UNDERWOOD. I asked you Mr. TARPEY. If you will excuse me, I will endeavor to answer you, and as definitely as I can. The cost of production differs with every year and every piece of land and all the conditions. One year you may have a crop that will be twice as large as another year. Your expenses will not increase anything like double. Another year you may have a very large crop, and your expenses may be less than they were the previous year. Of course you gentlemen, who are not engaged in agricultural pursuits, do not appreciate that as much as we do who are growing the stuff; but taking it one year with another, the cost will be in the neighborhood of 2 to 3 cents. A great many people have gone out of business because their land did not produce enough to justify them in continuing in the business. Mr. UNDERWOOD. Two and one-half to 3 cents a pound is a fair estimate of the cost of production at the point of sale? Mr. TARPEY. Yes, sir; that is, delivered in the packing house. Mr. TARPEY. We sell our product for that, and in that neighborhood. When I left there, there was quite a discussion as to whether they would get 2, 21, 31, and some were demanding 4 cents, and all kinds of prices; but there was very little selling, and what was selling was selling in the neighborhood of 3 cents. Mr. UNDERWOOD. To bring it down to an actual case, what did your crop cost you to produce last year? Mr. TARPEY. I do not know, because we have not made up the books for this last year. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What did yours cost? Mr. TARPEY. Personally I do not make them into raisins; I sell my grapes green. Therefore I can not tell what it cost last year. As a general rule they cost 2 cents. That would be a fair average. Mr. UNDERWOOD. Do you not make any profit in raising your raisins? Mr. TARPEY. Yes. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is that profit? Mr. TARPEY. That differs. One year the raisin men sold their raisins for 13 cents. They did not make a profit. Another year they got 4 cents a pound, and they made a profit that year. Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is the profit on an average crop at an average price? Mr. TARPEY. Without talking about the interest on their land, because every man's land is valued differently Mr. UNDERWOOD. The profit stands for the interest on the investment. Mr. TARPEY. Yes; the profit must stand for that. They expect to make their reasonable presumption, and what we are trying to produce, is-1 ton to the acre. The profit on that 1 ton would determine what your profits would be for the year. Now, some of the land produces as low as half a ton. Those people are going out of busiTheir land is not suitable. The average would be about threequarters of a ton, take it the whole raisin crop over. That produces a profit of $45 or $50. ness. Mr. UNDERWOOD. Forty-five dollars or $50 an acre? Mr. TARPEY. Yes, sir; without counting the interest on your land at all. Mr. GRIGGS. Do you mean that is the net profit per acre? Mr. TARPEY. I mean that is the net profit over the price of producing the crop, without taking into consideration the interest on the land. Mr. GRIGGS. What do you count the interest on the land? Mr. TARPEY. I suppose interest on the land is usually considered 6 per cent; a reasonable interest. Some men value their land at very much more that others do. Some land will produce twice as much a year. Mr. GRIGGS. That is what I am asking you; what is the absolute interest, not the comparative interest? Mr. TARPEY. Interest in our country is 7 per cent. Mr. GRIGGS. Interest on what amount? Mr. TARPEY. That is what I am trying to tell you. Mr. GRIGGS. What is the land worth? Mr. TARPEY. A real good vineyard is worth $300 an acre. Mr. GRIGGS. And what you want to make on that is 7 per cent? Mr. TARPEY. Yes. Mr. GRIGGS. Before you begin to count your profits? Mr. TARPEY. No, sir; we have to take the results in the market, however they come. Mr. GRIGGS. Yes; I understand that. Mr. UNDERWOOD. You assume the average value of the iand at $300 an acre and your average profit at $40 an acre? Mr. TARPEY. It would go $40 or $50 an acre. The CHAIRMAN. You claim to produce the finest raisins in the world in California, do you not? Mr. TARPEY. Yes, sir; and I was very much gratified, as a Californian, to hear so many encomiums on the California products. Mr. UNDERWOOD. These currants are hardly up to the poorer class of imported raisins, are they? Mr. TARPEY. No, sir; they fill a different place altogether. They go into buns and cakes and puddings and all that kind of thing. The CHAIRMAN. And mince pie? Mr. TARPEY. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Every manufacturer of mince-meat, while he may use some Zante currants, uses a good proportion of genuine raisins besides, does he not? Mr. TARPEY. The Zante currant is a raisin. The CHAIRMAN. No; but they take the place of raisins in some kinds of cookery, do they not? Mr. TARPEY. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. If they do not, how do they interfere with your raisins? Mr. TARPEY. Of course, the whole theory of the protective business is this: If our raisin business were injured to-morrow and our production commenced to decrease, the price of the goods abroad would increase and the consumer would be obliged to pay the difference. The mere fact that we produce so many raisins in California has driven it down by competition among the people themselves as close to the point of cost of production as a thing can possibly be, and the people get the benefit of that. The people who consume them get the benefit of it. The CHAIRMAN. I can not quite see how this increased duty on Zante currants will help your raisin business. Mr. TARPEY. It will help us in this way, that it will make a market for these seedless raisins we are producing, and the production of them will be more largely stimulated. The CHAIRMAN. Not unless the Zante currants do take the place of raisins? Mr. TARPEY. They do take the place of raisins. Mr. TARPEY. They do take the place of raisins, and we are producing the same thing in the shape of what we call Thompson seedless grapes and seedless Sultana grapes, and we want to continue the production and propagation of that grape until we have enough to supply that market that is now supplied by the Zante currant. It gives employment to a large number of people and furnishes occupation to everybody. The CHAIRMAN. I understand that. I was trying to see what effect the duty might have on the importation. That is all. Mr. GRIGGS. With us, land that grows cotton is worth $30 to $50 an acre, and we make 7 per cent on that to start with, and then whatever profit we can get out of it. Mr. TARPEY. Yes, sir. Mr GRIGGS. Do you not think you are doing as well as we are, with the profit you are making? Mr. TARPEY. The reason our profits are so low is from the fact Mr. GRIGGS. So low? Mr. TARPEY. Yes. We can Mr. GRIGGS. You get 7 per cent on $300 an acre to start with. Mr. TARPEY. Very well; but our land is worth that. devote it to a great many other things. Mr. GRIGGS. You get 15 per cent in all. Mr. TARPEY. Yes; we make about that. Mr. GRIGGS. Fifteen per cent on $300 an acre? Mr. TARPEY. Yes. Mr. GRIGGS. Do you not think you are pretty well off? Mr. TARPEY. There is the investment on the land; and it is a very hazardous business. Some years it is like your cotton crop with the boll weevil. Mr. GRIGGS. You do not think it is right and proper that you should be permitted by act of Congress to make 15 per cent on $300 an acre and we only make, say, 7 per cent on $50? Mr. TARPEY. I do not know what you gentlemen make down there, but our land is especially adapted to that. Mr. GRIGGS. You can not grow cotton in California. Mr. TARPEY. I beg your pardon, we can. We grew it there, but the labor conditions were such that we could not harvest it. The labor conditions do not permit us to harvest it at all. Our labor condition. is a very serious one in California all the time. Further than that, we do not know what time this pest and that and the other pest may attack us. We are threatened with the phylloxera in California. We have over $100,000,000 invested there. Mr. GRIGGS. Mr. Dalzell over there has it in his State. Mr. TARPEY. Yes. Mr. GRIGGS. You will have to have a small appropriation from the Agricultural Department. Mr. TARPEY. The Agricultural Department has not done much yet for us, but we expect them to. A man to be a horticulturist to-day must be more or less of an entomologist, and he must delve into science |