170 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



UNFERMENTED WINE: ITS VALUE AND USES AS A 



BEVERAGE. 



OUBTI.ESS, like myself and many others, you have noted 



with pleasure and approval the sentiments expressed in the 



Hamilton Templar and Spectator, as well as other leading 



papers of the country, on the question of unfermented wine 



or grape juice, and its use as a beverage by total abstainers. 



The Templar shows its aggressiveness by taking this 



advanced step on this question, being the first temperance 



paper to voluntarily open up the discussion and advocate its use, by an editorial, 



in its issue of January 4th. 



The object being to correct a widely prevailing and erroneous sentiment 

 amongst temperance people, that in order to fully obey the divine injunction to- 

 " avoid all appearance of evil " in its application to the question of total absti- 

 nence, we must, to be safe, refrain from the use of the harmless and healthful 

 juice of the grape, even though preserved fresh from the press by process of 

 canning, as practised in canning fruit. 



The Spectator says, in its editorial following, that the Templar is right, and 

 that it is only the unco gude who hold that the total abstainer's pledge should 

 restrict from the use of cider, etc., fresh from the press, as alcoholic fermenta- 

 tion commences the instant the apple is ground, and that no loophole should 

 be left open for the person pledged, " in a moment of weakness " to thus be led 

 astray and finally back to the gutter. 



Let us unhesitatingly say that such sentiment is, in the least, not in har- 

 mony with the true facts of the case. If so, we break our pledge every time we 

 make use of sauce, or canned fruit, or eat bread, fermentation having set in ; 

 but by the operation of heat applied, under certain conditions, fermentation is 

 stopped and the article is still in a proper state for food or drink, as the case 

 may be. 



As practical fruit growers, this question, under recent experiments and 

 developments in the preparation of fruit juices, especially of the apple and grape> 

 becomes of vital interest to us, not only financially, but from the standpoint of 

 temperance and prohibition, and therefore, indirectly, of morality and virtue. 



Allow me to say that, having in the past taken considerable interest in the 

 matter, and having experimented along this line, and, with the valuable work 

 done by Prof. Craig, of Ottawa, in the fall of 1893, who kindly put up sixteen 

 samples of unfermented grape juice from thoroughly ripened Concords from my 

 own vineyard, each sample put up under different conditions and formulae ; 

 some of them which he sent me this last fall were very fine indeed, especially 

 one with \}^ lbs. sugar to the gallon and heated only to 160° Fah , and then 

 immediately sealed. 



