_ green hide by drawing the piece of hide over a square box just the size to fit in the 
mouth of the main sack. The outer edge of the hide, after drawing it over the box, is 
lashed to a square frame made of round poles. It is dried in the sun, and also attains 
_ an iron-like hardness. This tramping-pan is about 8 inches deep, and, when dry, is 
taken off from the box upon which it is formed, and the bottom perforated with holes 
to allow the juice to escape, when tramped, into the main sack below. 
Forked poles are now set in the ground-floor of the wine-house, and long poles 
placed in the forks, which are set at proper distances from each other. The main wine- 
sack is suspended upon these poles, and the tramping-pan placed in the mouth of the- 
wine-sack, The tramping-pan is now filled with grapes, and a stalwart Mexican per- 
forms the office of wine-pressing by virtue of vigorous tramps from a pair of remarkably 
brawny feet. The accompanying drawing will illustrate the method of wine-pressing 
described above 
The wine, when fresh from the press, is poured into barrels, and remains ten days for 
hot fermentation, and is then drawn off. It now remains sixty days, when it is drawb 
off again in a cool state, and thirty days from the second drawing it is ready for use. 
The compensation of this consulate is not sufficient to justify the employment of an 
artist. I have, therefore, executed the drawing representing the mode of wine-pressing 
in this valley myself, and, though inartistically done, nevertheless it will, in a manner, 
illustrate what I have written regarding what I know about wine-pressing (not 
farming) in this consular district. 
I an, sir, your obedient servant, 
WILLIAM M. PIERSON, 
United States Vice-Consul. 
SUGAR-MAKING IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES. 
A system of central factories has been adopted within a few years, in 
the French West India islands of Martinique and Guadalupe, for the 
manufacture of sugar. This system is a substitute for the long-practiced 
method of making the sugar by individuals upon the plantations where 
the cane is produced. The design is to separate agriculture from manufac- . 
ture, and by a concentration of capital, somewhat upon the co operative 
system, to accomplish what the isolated planter was unable to do. The 
experiment, made upon a large scale during a series of years, It 18 Maim- 
tained, has fully demonstrated the soundness of the principle. The cen- 
