For over 200 years the grapes grown on this continent were almost wholly for wine-making. Yet the production of grapes was not sufficient to sustain a wine industry until the middle of the nineteenth century. When, with the introduction of new varieties of grapes and of better methods of growing them, the crop became sufficient in volume to support wine-making as an industry, its progress was checked by the enormous demand for table grapes, a demand not known in other countries, and by the cheapness of California wines. Furthermore the grapes most commonly cultivated, as the Concord, Worden and Niagara, do not make good wines; and knowledge and facilities for wine-making have not been such that the best wines could be made with varieties adapted for the purpose. All of these obstacles, to which we may add the fact that Americans are not a wine-drinking people, have prevented the building up of a wine industry as it exists in other grape-growing countries. Although the United States stands second or third in the list of grape-producing countries it took lowest rank in wine production in 1900, falling below the small countries of Greece and Switzerland and such comparatively undeveloped countries as Chili and Argentine. Since by far the greater proportion of American wines come from the European grapes of the Pacific coast, it can be seen that wine made from American grapes is but a drop in the bucket in the world's production. Reliable statistics of viticulture in the United States were not taken until 1890, but careful estimates, as we have seen, had been made by several men at different periods. These with the last two census reports show the output of wine in this country to be, in round numbers, as follows: Gallons 1850 250,000 1860 500,000 1870 5,000,000 1880 15,000,000 1890 24,000,000 1900 30,000,000 ============ According to the _American Wine Press_,[87] the leading authority on wines in this country, the vintage of 1907 shows the following figures: Gallons Southern States 1,000,000 New Jersey 250,000 New York 4,000,000 Ohio 2,500,000 Missouri 1,500,000 California, dry 30,000,000 California, sweet 10,000,000 Western States 500,000 All other States 500,000 ------------ Total wine yield 50,250,000 ============ Subtracting the product of California from the total we have approximately the yield of wine from native grapes.