flavor because the beer was boiled in a copper still over a
wooden fire and the grain in the beer was generally scorched
giving a scorched flavor to the whiskey.
   Then it was an exceedingly skillful distiller who did not
spew his still even up into the 70s which would, of course,
give the whiskey the odor of the rank and exceedingly of-
fensive "backings."
   Beginning in the 8os, however, great improvements have
been made in our methods of distillation and the product
today is really very far superior to the whiskey that our
grandfathers drank although the general public labors under
exactly the opposite impression.
   Back in the 70s the production of whiskey in Kentuck
had grown to something like seven or eight million gallons
per annum but when the Carlisle bill was passed in 79 ex-
tending the bonded period from one to three years it gave
us a boom that resulted in a production of over fifteen
million gallons in i8So, and of over thirty-one million gal-
lons in x88i, and of over thirty million gallons in i883Z.
   This was a mistake in view of the fact that the demand
at that time amounted to only about ten million gallons per
annum and the result of over production was the distillers
had to send a vast amount of whiskey to foreign countries
so as to avoid paying a tax of ninety cents a gallon at the
expiration of the bonded period.
   Most of the whiskey that was sent abroad did not find a
market, however, and was gradually returned and used up.



              KENTUCKY WHISKIES.
   A hundred years ago the distillation of bourbon whiskey
in this State was considered an industry of very small pro-
portious.
   The Kentucky distillers in those days were really Ken-
tucky farmers and the distillery was merely an adjunct to



                      R. E. WATHEN
          President Kentucky Distillers and Wholesale Liquor
                Dealers' Association. Loiweille, Ky.

the. real business of farming and had for its purpose the con-
verting of the surplus grain into an article that improved
with age: was easy to transport; was easily divisable into
any sized quantities and that was in universal demand
throughout the West and South.
   The roads were very bad a hundred years ago in Ken-
tucky, and corn was very cheap, so a farmer found great
difficulty in disposing of his surplus corn, but when he con-
verted it into bourbon whiskey he could keep it for years.
if he wanted to, and it constantly improved in value, but
at any time he could -use it as a legal tender in settlement of
any debt to bankers or merchants or stock traders, and it
was accepted in payment of salaries by preachers and by
school teachers, because they could also use it in the pay-
ment of their accounts.
   With the advent of the Internal Revenue laws in the
6os the distilling business in this State began to assurne
commercial proportions and as early as the late 6os we had
some distilleries in Kentucky mashing as much as too bus-
els of grain per day or more.
   "Back in those lines, however, a distillery that mashed
too bushels of grain per day was considered a mammoth
enterprise and the owner was looked upon as a would-be
monopolst very much as we look on houses today that
mash 5,ooo bushels of grain every twenty-four hours.
   The Kentucky whiskey made in the early days was really
a very crude product and it had an exceedingly undesirable



                   GRAEME McGOWAN
          Secretary Kentucky Distille and Wholesale Liquor
                      DealJr As'ociatio

   The demand for Kentucky whiskies continued to grow
and about the beginning of the 9os it was estimated the
country was using annually about twenty million gallons
from this State.
   When these figures were reached the Kentucky distillers
'elieved that they had attained the maximum but in a short



HqMt -



KE.NTUCKY'



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