AG EI CULTURE. 203 



the level of the sediment. The remamder is filtered through 

 a doubled cotton cloth, and is then poured in with the clear 

 liquor, or used in making brandy. The sediment deposited in 

 the bottom of the cask within the first three months is about 

 one-twentieth in weight of the juice as it comes from the press. 

 After the first racking, the new cask is filled up, the bung is 

 put in, and the wine is not disturbed till March or April, when 

 it begins to feel a more lively fermentation, for that process 

 never ceases entirely. 



It is said that the wine sympathizes with the vine, and that 

 whenever the latter is in active development, the former feels 

 a peculiar impulse also. Thus, the periods when the vine 

 sprouts in March or April, when it blossoms in June, and when 

 the grape ripens in September, are also the times when the fer- 

 mentation is the most active. At those seasons the bungs must 

 be taken ofi*, or at least loosened, and the barrels must not bo 

 moved. 



It is an important point with wine-makers to avoid disturb- 

 ing the process of fermentation. Between times, when the 

 wine is at rest, it should be racked off, and placed in a clean 

 cask. At the end of a year and a half the wine has become 

 clear, but it continues to grow better with age for about a 

 score of years, about the expiration of which period it has ac- 

 quired a mellowness and delicacy of flavor and an oiliness of 

 consistency wliich neither gain nor lose by longer preserva- 

 tion. 



Many kinds of wine are made in California. The light wines 

 come in this state, as in other parts of the world, from the 

 northern, and the strong wines from the southern districts. 

 The wines of Los Angelica have a body like those of Spain, 

 and the wines of Sonoma and the upper Sacramento valley re- 

 semble claret and hock. A wine similar to port is made in 

 the southern part of the state, by leaving tlie grapes on the 

 vines until they are " dead ripe," and somewhat shrivelled by 

 the sun. The juice is then very strong, and, being left with 

 the pulp ten days or two weeks, takes a strong, dark-red color. 



