REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 249 



These early engineering methods of crushing grapes, set the juice of the 

 grapes free from the skins, but soon it was realized that the free juice was 

 only a part of the whole juice of the grape, and then engineers set about 

 different ways of extracting the balance remaining in the fruit. 



The methods of pressing the grapes were more numerous than those 

 used for crushing. One of the earliest on record was to take the crushed 

 berries, lay them in an old goat skin, punch it full of small holes and twist 

 the ends together. The same method is used by the housewife in making 

 her jellies at the present time. She, however, does not use the goat skin, 

 but a cotton bag. 



Another method was to take straw, weave it into a mat, lay the berries 

 in the mat on a flat stone, place logs on top of the mat and pile up stones 

 on top of the logs, the weight causing the juice to flow from the berries, 

 which usually was gathered in earthenware jars. The next step was to 

 select a tree with a forked branch pointing downwards, cut down another 

 tree to make a pole, fastening the pole at one end under the fork, thus mak- 

 ing the old log press, which has been handed down from the ages, modified 

 in some details as the times advanced. It can still be found in use at some 

 of the old wineries at the present time. 



The early engineers did not have to do their work according to union 

 rules and regulations, therefore time was not the essence of their require- 

 ments, and the greatest strides in the development of the viticultural indus- 

 try from the engineer's standpoint have taken place within our own age or 

 during the last twenty-five years. 



The writer had occasion to visit one of the old wineries very recently. 

 The owner had been a poor boy starting as a stranger in a strange land 

 without money or friends, and had amassed a very large fortune before his 

 death. His place was supposed to be the best equipped winery in that part of 

 country when he died, and in looking over the different devices and methods 

 of handling his products, I made the remark that if the place was given free 

 of all incumbrances to any one in the condition in which he left it, with the 

 understanding that they were to operate and keep it running without altera- 

 tion, that they would starve to death if they had to face present day 

 competition. 



In this winery were the two old systems of making wine. In the first 

 apparatus used the grapes were dumped into a crusher which had two 

 wooden rollers, and after being crushed they were immediately pressed in a 

 small hand press very similar to those used as family cider presses; the 

 juice was then fermented in casks or barrels. The pomace after pressing 

 was fed to the stock, only about two-thirds of the available juice being re- 

 moved. This method had evidently been unsatisfactory, because later the 

 grapes were crushed into tanks, the crusher being placed over the top, and 

 the grapes, including stems, were crushed into these tanks and there allowed 

 to ferment, being removed after fermentation had taken place, to have the 

 juice remaining in the pomace pressed out. While this method gave more 

 color to the wine, it also left a bitter taste which was not there under the 

 former method of wine making. The man who purchased the wine liked the 

 color, but did not like the taste, so the winemaker called upon the engineer 

 to find out which part of the grape this taste came from. It was soon dis- 

 covered that the greatest part of the bitter taste was caused by the stems 



