250 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF VITICULTURE 



being in with the grapes during fermentation. The engineer then com- 

 menced devising ways and means of extracting the stems from the grapes. 

 One of these early machines was a long tray set on an inclined plane under 

 the crusher rollers, the bottom of this tray being made out of woven wire 

 of about %-inch mesh and the tray provided with a rapid shaking motion. 

 After the grapes were crushed they fell on to this tray, and the loose berries 

 were shaken through the screen, into a receptacle. The stems, being too 

 large to pass through the screen, traveled to the end of the tray and dis- 

 charged on to the floor. 



While this machine did fairly good work, it was very wasteful, a very 

 large portion of the grapes clinging to the stems being thrown away. This 

 device was used in several modified forms for a number of years. 



The next machine made for stemming grapes had a long wooden cylinder 

 about four feet in diameter by four feet long, pegs being driven outside this 

 cylinder and allowed to project out about two inches, a metal spiral being 

 formed between these pins to convey the grapes towards one end. This 

 cylinder revolved inside another cylinder made of iron bars placed one- 

 half inch apart, a square opening being cut in the outside cylinder at one end 

 to allow the grapes to fall on to the central revolving cylinder. The pins on 

 this cylinder pulling in the grapes, the berries were torn from their stems by 

 coming in contact with the iron bars, the spiral being fastened on to the inner 

 cylinder caused the stems to travel outwards while the grapes passed through 

 the bars, some whole and some crushed. These machines were later pro- 

 vided with a conveyor screw to feed the grapes to the stemmer in the right 

 proportion and a grape crusher was placed below which crushed the whole 

 berries that had passed through the bars. This machine was the first success- 

 ful grape stemmer and crusher and it had the distinction also of removing 

 the stems before crushing the berries. It was made in 1878 and was the fore- 

 runner of many different styles of machines for doing this work. 



This machine was placed in a winery which was built into a hill, the 

 upper floor coming level with the roadway at the rear. The machine was 

 placed just outside the building and alongside the driveway. The grapes 

 were thrown into this machine, which removed the stems and crushed the 

 berries and discharged the must into four-wheel carts which were used to 

 carry the must to the fermenting tanks. 



Soon after the elevator came into use, the first type being a canvas belt 

 on to which wood cleats were securely fastened, two pulleys transmitting the 

 power which delivered the grapes into the crusher. This style of elevator 

 could not work at very steep angles and was soon replaced by the chain and 

 cleat elevator which could work at much greater angles and consequently 

 saved a great deal of room in the building, and increased the elevation to 

 which grapes could be raised. This improvement brought in the gravity 

 flume or chute system. The stemmers and crushers were placed in a central 

 tower discharging the must from that point into a system of flumes which 

 was connected to all the fermenting tanks in the cellar. This was a very 

 great saving, both in cleanliness and labor. The teams did not have to wait 

 while discharging their load, but could work right along, not seeing or caring 

 where the grapes went to. The blocking of the chutes, causing them to over- 

 flow, is responsible for many of the gray hairs on the head of the cellar 

 master, who delighted in showing his nice, clean cellar at just the moment 



