State Agricultural Society. 513 



article of wine; as the hard drinker would say, "let them taper off on 

 that." Let them acquire a taste for such a beverage — for drink men 

 will have. Wine will not hurt them as will the strong decoctions of 

 spirits that are made by almost every respectable liquor dealer in the 

 dark corners of his cellar, where cocculus indicus, and many other 

 "cusses," are mixed with alcohol, flavored and brewed to represent 

 every kind of drink that ever bad existence, the basis of all of which 

 is alcohol. I do not know of an instance, neither have I ever heard of 

 one, when a man had delirium tremens from the use of fine wine. I 

 wish it understood that I do not now allude 'to medicated wines, such as 

 Redding sj^eaks of as genuine port, made from Loudon Lock, brandy 

 come, red cape, cider, and a mixture of gum dragon, red sanders, alum, 

 and tartar. This is the old crusty port that is sought for somttimes by 

 physicians to administer to their patients to give them strength and 

 nourishment. It is but a few days since that I was talking with a gen- 

 tleman about the manufacture of brandy from the grape. He informed 

 me that a New York druggist remarked that California brandy was too 

 expensive; he made an article that suited his customers just as Avell as 

 any high-priced brandy, and the cost was not one-quarter that of the 

 pure article. 



The adulteration of wine is not a practice very recently introduced. 

 Luring the days of (Jeorge IV he possessed a very small quantity of 

 remarkably choice and scarce wine. The gentlemen of his suite, whose 

 taste in wine was hardly second to their master's, finding it had not 

 been demanded thought it had been forgotten, and, relishing its virtues, 

 exhausted it almost to the last bottle, when they were surprised by the 

 unexpected command that the wine should be forthcoming at an enter- 

 tainment the next day. Consternation was visible on their faces; a 

 hope of escaping discovery hardly existed, when one of them, as a last 

 resort, went off in haste to a noted wine brewer in the city of London, 

 numbered among his acquaintances, and related his dilemma. "Have 

 you any of the wine left for a specimen?" said the adept. " Oyes; there 

 are a couple of bottles." " Well, then, send me one, and I will forward 

 the necessary quantity in time; only tell me the latest moment it can be 

 received, for it must be drank immediately." The wine Avas sent — the 

 deception answered; the princely hilarity was disturbed by no discovery 

 of the fictitious potation, and the manufacturer was thought a very 

 clever fellow by his friends. Such clean pieces of deception are prac- 

 ticed upon the public every day, and I should judge that they rather 

 like it than otherwise, for they continue to ignore the pure juice of the 

 home grape, and accept a foreign article of doubtful reputation at least, 

 simply because it bears a foreign brand. Spurious decoctions are not 

 onlj* made in all grape-growing districts in Europe, but in the United 

 States also. A case was related some time since in one of the French 

 courts, where a wine brewer was arraigned for making spurtous wines. 

 The best chemists of Paris were summoned to analyze the wine, and 

 they pronounced it the most perfect counterfeit that they had ever 

 examined, there being only one article lacking to make it perfect. The 

 Judge asked what that Was; the chemist informed him. The culprit 

 acknowledged that the Avine Avas spurious, and that he Avas ready to pay 

 his fine, for the knowledge of the deficient ingredient Avas Avorth more 

 to him than all the fines they could impose on him. 



To such a degree of perfection are the imitations of wines and bran- 

 dies carried, that it is almost impossible for the best expert to detect 

 the counterfeit. Now as to spirits; it is truly astonishing when Ave 



