The Country Gcntlavomau 



liciuor which will be caught by the dishes 

 should also be preserved for filling up. 



Dr M'CuUoch's temperature, 55° to 60^, 

 ought to be attended to; the fermentation 

 will thereby be regulated : it ought to proceed 

 quietly, but uninterruptedly, and the gravity 

 be taken every two or three days. If that be 

 reduced very rapidly, the wine must be racked 

 off from its lees, the cask washed, drained, 

 and slightly sulphured, and the clear returned. 

 If the fermentation be torpid, the cask must 

 be agitated. The French rules now apply ; 

 and the subsidence of the fermentation, 

 leaving a little pleasant sweetness in the wine 

 with a gravity not under thirty-six to fort}^, 

 with a decided tendency to settle and become 

 bright, furnish decisive criterions of a perfectly 

 successful process. 



The wine in the two-gallon cask is pre- 

 sumed to run in the same course, and to be 

 bunged down till the period of racking and 

 fining ; then the space in the large cask, occa- 

 sioned by the removal of the lees, is to be 

 filled with the clear wine from the small cask, 

 and any surplus quantity can be put into 

 bottles and preserved for use. 



The indispensable characters of excellence 

 to be aimed at, are, first, a degree of sweet- 

 ness, not subdued by the leaven during the 

 first fermentation, but which process is still 



going on ; so as, second, to produce a gentle 

 creaming, or mantling, in the glass ; with a 

 corresponding briskness on the palate, and a 

 clear delicate flavour. Third, perfect bright- 

 ness and transparency. 



A few concluding remarks are required. 

 The quantity of sugar, &c., is not great, and 

 therefore the leaven from the gooseberries is 

 sufficient to subdue it ultimately ; hence the 

 wine is intended to be used at an early age. 

 The mantling of the wine proves that the 

 fermentation is still proceeding; and the 

 liquor will either become a dry wine, or 

 become sour. This' furnishes another argu- 

 ment for the substitution of green grapes, be- 

 cause the green gooseberries, being a fruit of 

 the spring, leave the operator subject to the 

 risk and difficulties which the heat of the first 

 summer will subject him to. Green grapes 

 can be had after the subsidence of the heat, 

 and yet admit of the full meliorating influence 

 of the autumnal months, leaving the Avine 

 equally perfect in the succeeding March or 

 April. 



Finally — Grapes contain the tartarous acid; 

 and if the operator determine to employ 

 gooseberries, it will be an improvement to add 

 an ounce or two of cmde tartar (which is a 

 crystallized salt from the foreign wine-casks) 

 to every 6 or 7 gallons of his must. 



BEE KEEPING. 



SWARMING. 



IN introducing the subject of Api-culture, 

 or Bee-keeping, let it be understood that 

 I have no intention of holding out any high 

 prospects to your readers of making money 

 by their culture ; neither have I any exalted 

 ideas of my own knowledge of their natural 

 habits and instincts. At the same time, I am 

 willing to impart all I know about them, 

 hoping that others may be induced to do the 

 same, and give their experience, and assist all 

 who are in any way engaged in bee-keeping. 

 I am certain all who take an interest in the 

 subject will find it one of the most pleasant 

 studies, as well as one of the most interesting 

 and innocent pastimes, they can engage in. 



Perhaps there is no other subject in natural 

 history which has occupied the attention of 

 mankind so much as bees, and many are the 

 treatises which have been sent forth on the 

 subject, from Aristotle down to the present 

 time ; and though many facts have been 

 verified about them, still there is yet much to 

 learn, which can only be done by close 

 experimenting attention. 



I have been engaged among bees, less or 

 more, as long ^as I can remember, and the 

 greater part of the time I, like a great many 

 others, knew little about them; could put 

 them into a hive when they swarmed, and kill 

 them with burning sulphur when I wanted to 



