THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 63 



to sustain a wine industry until the middle of the nineteenth century. 

 When, with the introduction of new varieties of grapes and of better meth- 

 ods of growing them, the crop became sufficient in volume to support wine- 

 making as an industrv, its progress was checked bj' the enormous demand 

 for table grapes, a demand not known in other countries, and by the cheap- 

 ness of California wines. Furthermore the grapes most commonly culti- 

 vated, as the Concord, Worden and Niagara, do not make good wines; 

 and knowledge and facilities for wine-making have not lieen such that the 

 best wines could be made with varieties adapted for the purpose. All of 

 these obstacles, to which we may add the fact that Americans are not a 

 wine-drinking people, have prevented the building up of a wine industry 

 as it exists in other grape-growing countries. 



Although the United States stands second or third in the list of grape- 

 producing countries it took lowest rank in wine production in 1900, falling 



fermentation depends upon many conditions and varies from two or three to fifteen or twenty days, 

 depending upon the amount of sugar in the must, the temperature, activity of ferments, etc., etc. 

 Wine-makers observe several distinct stages of fermentation which must be closely watched and 

 controlled. A most important influence is exerted on fermentation by temperature. The limits 

 below which and above which fermentation does not take place are 55° and 9o°F. In general it is 

 desirable that fermentation take place at temperatures ranging about 70°. When it is found 

 that the sugar is practically all converted into alcohol, or that such conversion has proceeded 

 far enough, the new wine is drawn or pumped from the fermenting vats into casks or barrels where 

 it ages though it may require special treatment for clearing. Before bottling it is usually necessary 

 to rack the wine into new barrels twice or three times to stop secondary fermentations which 

 invariably take place. 



Special treatments result in several distinct classes of wine. Thus we can divide wine into nd 

 and white as to color. Red wines are produced from colored grapes the color being extracted in the 

 process of fermentation. White wines are made from light colored grapes or if from colored fruit 

 the must is not allowed to ferment on the marc and so extract the color. We may again divide 

 wines into dry and sweet. Dry wines are those in which the sugar is practically all converted into 

 alcohol. Sweet wines are those which retain more or less sugar. These are often fortified by the 

 addition of alcohol. A third division is that of still and sparkling wines. Still wines are those in 

 which the carbonic acid gas formed by fermentation has wholly escaped. Sparkling wines retain 

 a greater or less amount of this carbonic acid gas. 



All of the above classes are further divided into well marked types according to their color and 

 taste, their alcoholic content, and the countries in which they are produced. The following are the 

 leading wines made from native gjapes: Catawba, Delaware, Concord, Norton's Virginia, Ives, 

 Sciippernong, lona. Claret, Port and Champagne. Of these Claret, Norton's Virginia and Ives are 

 red dry wines. Catawba, Delaware, lona and Scuppcrnong may be either dry or sweet white wines. 

 Port is a red sweet wine. 



