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had lived very many years at Oporto as the agent for an English wine house, called on 

 me, and I showed him a native port wine that he thought very well of. He did not 

 think that it was grown in this country. It was made from a new grape that I am grow- 

 ing myself. 1 do not want to sell the plants ; I want to grow all I can of them myself. 

 The grape is called the Abyssinnian. I exhibited it at London last year. 



Mr. Switzer. — I think it would be a good idea if everyone who grows grapes would 

 make wine for the sake of the effect it would have in promoting temperance. It was a 

 very difficult matter at first to make wine, because we got the idea that the grapes had to 

 be squeezed through cloths. Then, when it was put in the barrel to ferment, it had a 

 great deal of impurity to throw out, so that it would be months before it purified itself. 

 We have now got over that ; and, after using all the grapes tliat we require for our house, 

 we mix together all that are left and put them through a sausage-machine, and that breaks 

 every one. They are then thrown into a large tub with a tap to it, and to keep the must 

 from getting into this t;ip we put some twigs of the grape-vine over it, so that the liquor 

 may percolate through that. In the course of a few days the wine comes to the top and 

 the skin begins to drop. That is the proper time to turn the tap, and when it is turned 

 then you would be astonished to see how dry it would dx'ain. Sometimes we put a gallon 

 of water in, and it hardly comes out coloured. If we want to have a dry wine or a sweet 

 wine we then put the sugar in and put the wine away in our casks. It soon effervesces 

 a little — it has nothing more to discharge — and in the course of a few weeks we put the 

 bung in a little, so that in case of any further effervescing it shall not blow out the end of 

 the keg. The older the wine the better, but in the course of three years it is good. You 

 may open it sooner if you like. If you let it go to four or five years, though, and then 

 bottle it off, you will have a wine that you will be surprised at. I do not put anything to 

 it but the sugar. If I want a dry wine I put in a pound, if a sweet wine three pounds 

 to the gallon. The amount of sugar depends greatly on the amount of sweet grapes that 

 I put in the mixture. I am indebted to Mr. Haskins for a hint he gave me. Three 

 years ago he took me down to his vaults and gave me a bottle of wine to take home. I 

 brought him back a bottle in return. Mr. Haskins tested the wine, and he told me exactly 

 how it was made. He said, "you do not reduce it." I said, " no." He said, " you put 

 brown sugar in ; you should not do that." I said I thought there was more sacharine 

 matter in the brown sugar than in the white. He told me that was a mistake ; and I 

 use white sugar now. 



Mr. Bucke. — In putting the grapes through the machine, do you break the seeds at 



ain 



Mr. Switzer. — No. The object of putting them through that was to break the grapes. 

 Even if it did break the seeds, they would not run out through the tap. The wine per- 

 colates through the twigs, and comes out perfectly pure. They use something like that 

 in the old country in the making of beer. 



Mr. Haskins. — Might it not be better to press them through a very coarse sieve 

 than through a sausage-machine 1 



Mr. Switzer. — That might be done, pei-haps ; but we put the machine over the tub, 

 and grind them through it. 



Mr. Beall. — Don't you press the grapes at all after they are ground^ 



Mr. Switzer. — No. 



Mr. Dempsey.— I have been cultivating grapes ever since 1 commenced cultivating 

 fruit. Then my first experience was only with three or four varieties, which, I believe 

 were then the only varieties in cultivation in America. I then resorted to exotic 

 varieties, cultivating them under glass. It always delighted me to treat my friends as 

 well as I could, and we frequently used on the table exotic grapes — the finest we could 

 grow, mixed with some of the hardiest outdoor varieties — even sometimes Hartford Pro- 

 lific — and I have seen friends select the Hartford Prolific as the best grape. So that it 

 seems as though it must be left to everybody to select the fruit that suits him best. For 

 my own taste, and for many persons', as an amateur grape I would take, first of all, the 

 Worden for an early grape. I find nothing that I have fruited superior to it. There are 

 several varieties, however, that I would be very sorry to reject. There are several of my 

 seedlings that I prize very highly as amateur grapes. I prize the Brighton very highly 



