FRUIT CULTURE. 799 



Fill the vessel full, up to the bung-hole, which cover with a sand-bag, to allow the fer 

 mentation to escape. &quot;Watch the barrel daily, and clean or scrape away the scum, which will 

 be thrown out in large quantities. As the wine falls below the bung, fill up daily (after 

 clearing away the scum) with sugar water, made with two pounds of sugar to the gallon of 

 water. 



The fermentation will continue from three to six weeks, according to the weather. 

 When it has ceased, pour into the bung-hole about one gill of brandy to the gallon of juice, 

 to flow over the surface and prevent its souring (the brandy may not, however, be indispens 

 able). Then bung the vessel up tight. During the cold weather, in say the following 

 February, when the wine is perfectly still and clear, draw it off into any other clean vessels; 

 then quickly clean, scald, and rinse thoroughly the barrel in which the wine was made, and 

 return the wine to it, bung it up, and draw it off as required for use. 



If you wish to make a very palatable champagne, have the champagne bottles ready 

 when you rack off the wine; put a tablespoonful of common syrup in each quart bottle; then 

 fill with the wine, leaving about one and one-half inches space below the bottom of the cork, 

 which fasten very securely with strong twine, as the pressure of the gas to escape is very great. 

 The wine will improve by age, after the drawing off as above recommended. An old brandy 

 or whisky barrel is the best for this purpose. Never use a new barrel, as the wine will 

 taste of the wood. About fifteen pounds of grapes will give one gallon of juice. The riper 

 the grapes, the better the yield of the juice. One gallon of grapes in bunches weighs about 

 four and a half pounds. Keep the wine in the cellar, where it will not be exposed to 

 extremes of temperature. An approximate estimate of the quantities required for a thirty- 

 gallon barrel will be as follows: 



To Make Thirty Gallons of Wine. One hundred and fifty pounds grapes, yielding ten 

 gallons juice; twenty gallons water, strained through the pulp residuum; forty pounds sifted 

 sugar; two and a half pints common cider brandy. If carefully made, the wine will be 

 wholesome and palatable, with a flavor like grape-juice Madeira. It is stated that wine made 

 according to the above directions was preferred to all others at the &quot;Washington hospitals 

 during the late war. 



Figs. The fig is a native of Asia and Africa, it properly belonging to a warm climate, 

 although it may be raised in some portions of the Middle States with suitable care. In many 

 of the Southern States it thrives quite well, producing fruit of excellent quality. The prin 

 cipal obstacle to its culture in the United States, however, is the cold of winter, which 

 sometimes destroys, even in Florida, trees that are unprotected. On the Pacific coast the fig 

 finds a more congenial climate. Figs can only be well ripened, and raised for preservation in 

 a dried state, where the summer and autumn are warm and dry. The tree is remarkable in 

 one respect, viz. : in producing fruit without its being preceded by any apparent blossom. 

 There are, however, blossoms that are concealed in the interior of a fleshy receptacle, which 

 is hollow, pear-shaped, and nearly closed, but which is lined throughout with a number of 

 small flowers. Fresh figs are very sweet, being destitute of acidulous flavor, and, although 

 greatly relished by some at first, are too sweet and cloying to be palatable to others, until 

 they have acquired a taste for them. They are a very agreeable, wholesome, and nutritious- 

 food, and in warm climates are regarded as one of the favorite fruits. The tree grows some 

 what in the form of a shrub, three or more stems sometimes growing from one root. It 

 attains a height of from twelve to twenty feet, the limbs being stout and branching. It 

 commonly produces two crops of fruit each year; but in Asia Minor, where the best figs of 

 commerce are chiefly grown, three crops are frequently grown, the fruit of the third crop 

 ripening after the leaves have fallen. The first crop, ripening towards the last of June, and 

 the summer yield, which gives employment to a large population, comes to market in Sep 

 tember and October 



