BEVERAGE PLANTS 



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beverage, in one form or another, is used today by all civilized 

 and primitive peoples alike. Physiologically, alcohol is a poison 

 which, even though it is absorbed by the blood stream and 

 eliminated by the kidneys, while in the blood stream serves as a 

 brain stimulant. Alcohol produces, upon different individuals a 

 great variety of effects, many of them harmful to the individual 

 and society. Nevertheless, sugar and yeasts being as cosmopolitan 

 as they are on the earth's surface, alcoholic beverages have been 

 with man since before the dawn of history, and since it is impossi- 



FiG. 170. — A California vineyard in early spring. 



ble to prevent yeasts' manufacture of alcohol, it might be well to 

 educate humanity to the proper use of the latter. 



Wines, in addition to being the most important of the 

 alcoholic beverages, are also the oldest, and the cultivation of 

 wine grapes has been carried on for hundreds of years. The 

 European wine grape is the principal variety grown for this 

 purpose, and as one would expect, the industry seems to center 

 in Southern and Central Europe, though the United States, 

 South America, and Australia all produce wines in large quanti- 

 ties. The grape is such a universal wine making fruit that the 

 term wine, used without denoting any different fruit source, is 

 taken to mean grape wine. Wines vary in their strength, flavor 



