292 



THE MANUFACTURE OF WINE, 



with a crank), Have ready a perfectly sweet cask, that has a 

 hole, about an inch in diameter, bored in one side near the bot 

 tom ; fit into this hole a stick from six to eight inches long, with 

 a hole bored from end to end of sufficient size to let the juice 

 flow freely through it. Stop this hole tightly with a plug ; as 

 the grapes are mashed, pour the juice, skins, pulp and all, into 

 the cask. When all are in, cover closely with four or five 

 thicknesses of woollen blankets ; let it remain in this condition 

 until fermentation has advanced sufficiently to cause the grapes 

 or must (as I believe wine-makers call it) to rise to the top and 

 begin to crack open, the cracks being filled with little yeasty- 

 like bubbles, which will be probably in from four to eight or 

 ten days, according to the temperature of the weather. Now 

 have ready a perfectly clean barrel, purified with sulphur; put 

 into a pail ten or twelve pounds of sugar, take out the little 

 plug, and let the juice on the sugar. As you fill the pail, stir 

 the sugar occasionally from the bottom, so as to dissolve enough 

 of it to make the juice sufficiently sweet. If the sugar should 

 all dissolve before the juice is all drawn out, of course put in 

 more. When the barrel is full, put the bung in lightly, so as to 

 give it a chance to ferment. The little cups you ^speak of were 

 used more as an experiment than a necessity ; when those were 

 used, the bung was fitted in tight and a small hole made in the 

 bung, and a tin tube inserted in it, rising from the bung, the 

 long end being in the bung, and the short end in a little tin cup 

 filled, and kept full of water, care being taken to keep the bar 

 rel always full ; but, as I said before, this was not necessary. 

 After the juice had been barrelled, as above described, let it 

 stand till some clear, cold day in February. Then draw off the 

 juice and put it in another barrel, care .being taken to have it 

 perfectly clean and well fumigated as the first was; save a pail 

 ful, and when all has been drawn off, stir into this pailful the 

 whites of ten or twelve eggs, beaten to a froth, as you would 

 for cake. When well stirred, pour this in the barrel with the 

 rest. After being well incorporated with that in the barrel, 

 bung it up tightly, and for two years touch not, taste not, 

 handle not, and as much longer as you can resist the tempta- 



