288 THE MANUFACTURE OF WINE. 



As soon as the leaves are formed, liquid manure 

 may be applied if the number of vines cultivated will 

 permit of it, and this application of liquid manure 

 may be continued until after the middle of July. It 

 should then cease for the season. Meanwhile, as 

 soon as the young shoots are well formed, all the 

 weakly ones should be rubbed off, carrying the pru- 

 ning recommended in former pages to even a greater 

 degree of severity than there noted. 



By these means the grapes will be obtained ripe 

 much earlier and of a higher (not stronger) flavor. 

 The importance of having the grapes ripe early will 

 be appreciated when we consider that, other things 

 being equal, the heat and dryness of the season in 

 which they ripen will be the measure of the per- 

 fection of the grapes, at least in this latitude. Now, 

 in 1858, the mean temperature of August was 69 

 Fahrenheit, while the mean temperature of Septem- 

 ber was only 61, and as the amount of rain which 

 fell in each month was equal, the grapes which were 

 ripe by the beginning and middle of September were 

 much richer in saccharine and other wine-making 

 elements than those which were produced in the cool 

 and damp atmosphere of September and October. 



From the foregoing observations it will be evident 

 that in preparing must for wine we must pay par- 

 ticular attention to the quality of the grapes and the 

 circumstances under which they were raised. Thus, 

 in Cincinnati, no sugar is added to the juice of the 

 Catawba ; it is fermented just as it comes from the 

 press. But in more northern climes, not only does 



