State Agricultural Society. 505 



these points, but may be excused for the reason that my lines are directed 

 to beginners only, through whose ignorance and carelessness a great 

 deal of wine is spoiled every year, and offered for sale onlj r to be rejected, 

 for acetic acid is no product of the grape, but of decayed or oxydated 

 alcohol. Wines started once that way cannot be cured entirely, and 

 had better be stilled as soon as possible. 



The practice of many drawing wine from the same cask every day 

 for a length of time, or boring holes in it lower and lower, should be 

 discontinued, for it not only-sj)oiIs the wine but the cask also. When a 

 cask is partly empty for some time, in a dry atmosphere, the staves will 

 shrink and admit air, may the bung be ever so tight. These sieve-like 

 openings allow not only the escape of the alcohol, but that of the ether, 

 which gives the aroma also, the latter being even more flighty than 

 alcohol. Such wine, when not positively soured, will appear flat and 

 may be considered nearly worthless. 



I have been speaking all this time of fine, light, dry wines, as they 

 should be, and as they are mostly wanted, not of those strong, heady, 

 half fermented ones, which in fact are not wines at all fit for use, and 

 have spoiled our market East to a great extent. These will stand bad 

 practice longer in draught, at home, which circumstance can easily be 

 explained, as follows: Alcohol escaping, by opening so often, gives a 

 fresh impetus or chance for a light after-fermentation, which fills the 

 cask again with gas, and hence the opinion of many, that this or that 

 man's wine will keep to the last drop. But such wines cannot be sent 

 with safety any distance, as they are liable to spoil, burst the cask, and 

 even a man's stomach, if it is not well bound. 



Ordinary foreign wines imported, very Often suffer on that account. 

 Frequently they are sent before they are ripe, and as good luck will 

 have it, sometimes arrive safely enough, with the exception of being 

 turbid and forcing out the corks, if sent in glass. But there is this 

 difference: what they lack in quality they make up in price. And I may 

 here add, in conclusion, because this holds good throughout, that wines 

 are admired for their taste and the invigorating effect they produce; 

 taste makes their price, and not the amount of alcohol they contain. 



From this it may be seen that not only the producing and making of 

 fine wines is all that is wanting. The well keeping and handling, also, 

 when for use, is very important, and needs correcting as much as any- 

 thing else. 



In giving these statements, I have in view, as may well be supposed, 

 my own experience and practice in the winery of the Orleans Hills 

 Vinicultural Association, and it is my firm belief that I justly can do so. 

 I have had not even one cask of wine spoiled yet, even in the warmest 

 weather. Besides, large shipments have been made East, and never 

 yet a complaint of anything being spoiled has been made. 



JACOB KNAUTH. 



CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 



My experience in grape growing has been confined to San Joaquin 

 County, where we have every variety of soil, from sand to stiff black 

 clay, but a remarkably even climate; the thermometer during the Sum- 

 mer and Fall months ranging from seventy to ninety degrees. The 

 subjects of planting and pruning were so fully discussed at your last 



