153 
open air or terrace, with northern experience, from April to December, without 
any injury resulting. 
Wine in casks may be heated ‘by introducing a tin pipe through the bung- 
hole, which shall descend in coils nearly to the bottom and return in a straight 
line and through the pipe imparting steam. If, after thus. being once heated, 
there is such an exposure to air, as by drawing off and bottling, as to admit a 
fresh introduction of “ parasites,” the disease thus introduced may be easily 
cured by heating a second time. 
Mr. Pastuer claims also to have discovered and proved that wine can be 
advanced in ripening and improved by ‘“riation” conducted by a slow and 
gentle manner. This is a bold assertion, but such confidence is felt in the value 
of suggestions coming-from him that both of his methods, cutting, as they will, 
a tangle of old theories, will have a fair trial by his countrymen, and that with- 
out delay. 
Your committee would say, in conclusion, that from what comparison we have 
been able to make between the better samples of American wines now on exhi- 
bition at the ‘ Paris Exposition,’”’ with foreign wines of similar character, as 
well as from the experience of many European wine-tasters, we have formed a 
higher estimate of our own ability to produce good wines than we had hereto- 
fore; and from our investigations in vine culture we are now more confident 
than ever that America can and will be a great wiue-growing country. All 
that is necessary for us to rival the choicest products of other parts of the 
world, will ere long come with practice and experience. We have already sev- 
eral excellent varieties of the grape borne on American soil, and suited to it a 
soil extensive and varied enough for every range of quantity and quality. Who 
would discover a patch of ground capable of yielding a “ Johannesberger,” a 
“Tokay,” or a “ Margeaux,” need only make diligent and careful search, and, 
somewhere between the lakes and the gulf and the two oceans that circumscribe 
our vineyard territory, will be sure to find it. 
Accompanying this report is a paper from William Griffith, of Pennsylvania, 
on the propagation of the vine referred to us. This is deemed of such import- 
ance as to jusiify its publication entire. without comments on the subject by your 
committee. 
Finally, your committee cannot close this report without acknowledging the 
many courtesies extended to them by European ex ibitors and commissioners in 
facilitating the investigations incident upon the discharge of their duties. 
MARSHALL P. WILDER, 
ALEXANDER THOMPSON, 
WILLIAM J. FLAGG, 
PATRICK BARRY, 
Committee. 
SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT. 
The committee, since making their report on the third branch of the subject 
given them in charge, have visited the principal vine districts of Switzerland 
and Germany, and deem some of the observations there made worth being em- 
bodied in the supplemental report now submitted. 
The vineyards to which attention was more especially given were those of 
the borders of Lake Geneva, those of Pfalz or Rhenish Bavaria, and of the banks 
of the Rhiue, the Neckar, and the Main. 
With regard to the quality of the soil, we have the same remark to make 
here as was made in the former report, viz, that the vines yielding the best wine 
were found to be growing on the poorest soil. Geologically, the soil throughout 
all the above districts is very much the same, viz, basalt and sandstone, both 
formations usually seen in close proximity, the basalt uppermost and resting on 
