MICHIGAN STATE I'OMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 429 



THE APPEAKAKCE OF THE VINES 



was remarkably healthy. The leaves were turning in color, 

 but the foliage had not begun to drop ; there was no sign of 

 being affected by any frosts. The bunches of grapes were well 

 shaped, full, and the berries sound. There were no signs of 

 weakness; no dead grapes had dropped off or were lying on 

 the ground, and only some of the bunches were considered 

 mature enough to gather. 



The growing of the grape for wine is a very different 

 business from growing the grape as a fruit to eat, and the 

 trouble is that a great many people think that because they 

 have grapes they can make wine. This is a mistake. They 

 make a beverage, or a pleasant drink that may be called a cor- 

 dial, or may be called fermented juice of the grape, or anything 

 else, but it is not a wine in the true meaning of the word. 

 One of the great mysteries in wine-making is in the growing 

 of the grape so that its juice will make wine. Some seasons 

 are very favorable in this respect, and will ripen up the grape 

 to the very pitch of perfection. In other seasons the grape 

 is never thoroughly seasoned, and the result is that the wines 

 of that year are inferior. Then again it is important, in a 

 good season such as the present, to know when the grapes are 

 in their greatest perfection. If they are picked too soon they 

 are apt to contain too much acid, and if they are picked too 

 late the quantity is reduced, while the saccharine matter is 

 increased at its expense. The great point is to make a wine 

 from the juice of the grape alone, that will need no addition of 

 any kind to reduce it to a state fit for manufacture. It is well 

 known that the juice of the grape must contain not less than 

 76° in 1,000 of saccharine substance, and must range between 

 42° to 8° of acid. But the higher the grape juice goes in the 

 saccharometer above 76° without getting outside of 7 or 8° of 

 acid, the better is the wine. "When the acid is in excess of 8° the 

 grape juice or must has to be reduced by the addition of water 

 till the acid is only 8° or less, but this addition of water 



