430 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



carriers, bending' beneath their heavy loads, mount a ladder to the 

 top of the tub, and by a peculiar twist of the body empty their 

 baskets of grapes into it. Within the tub is a lad, who treads upon 

 the grapes to reduce their bulk, and, in a measure, press out their 

 juice. The cart being loaded, is drawn off by a yoke of oxen to the 

 neighboring press-house. The grapes are next emptied, through an 

 opening in the wall, upon a sloping stone floor, where they are crushed 

 by an ordinary grape-mill, which, however, forces out only a portion 

 of their juice. Formerly the juice was trodden out by the feet of the 

 laborers. It runs down the sloping floor into a covered trough at 

 the lower end, by which it is led into a tank whence it is emptied 

 into the casks, and then left to ferment. 



As already said, the mill does not express all the juice from the 

 grapes, and so the " must " is shoveled through an opening in the wall 

 into a large, shallow trough at the foot of the press. Then it is 

 heaped up in the centre of the trough, into what is called the motte, 

 a form like a millstone, and subjected to powerful pressure. The 

 sides of the motte are now trimmed, the screw loosened, and the trim- 

 mings piled on the top, when the pressure is again applied. This 

 process is repeated until the must has been subjected to four press- 

 ures. Each pressure lasts about two hours, except the last, which, 

 being generally put on in the evening, continues all night. Next 

 day the must is spread out in the trough, watered from a watering- 

 pot, and raked about in the water for an hour. The water being 

 drawn off, the must is again put under pressure, and the juice ob- 

 tained is mixed w T ith the water, and the whole put into a cask to fer- 

 ment. 



The must, or juice, obtained from the milling and four previous 

 pressures is put in casks, vats, or cisterns, to ferment, and it is from 

 it that the eau de vie superieure is obtained. The yield of fermented 

 liquor in good seasons is, in the Grand Champagne, about 900 gallons 

 to the acre; in the Deux Charentes, as a whole, about 500 gallons ; 

 and in some parts of the Bon Bois as low as 200 gallons. And, al- 

 though, as already stated, the vineyards are generally small, crops of 

 20,000 to 50.000 gallons from particular ones were formerly known. 



It is to be observed that the method of fermenting the wine in- 

 tended for the distillation of brandy differs a little from that pursued 

 with the red wine of the district : the murk being allowed to remain 

 in the juice in the last case, while it is not allowed to do so in the first. 



The still comprises a reservoir, with a pump for supplying it from 

 a large stone tank below, and the usual furnace and retort, with head 

 and worm. The average capacity of the stills throughout the Grand 

 Champagne is only about fifty-five gallons at a single operation. The 

 wine to be distilled having been emptied into a square stone tank, 

 already referred to, is pumped into the reservoir, whence, through a 

 tap, it is conveyed into the retort, which is heated with coal, at first 



