REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 277 



cellars for securing the pure juice of the fruit. A portion of this expressed 

 juice was then taken for the sample. The determinations made in all cases 

 comprise a Brix reading at 20 C., specific gravity determination in weighed 

 pycnometer at 15.6 C., total acid as tartaric by titration with N/10 NaOH, 

 using litmus solution on a spot plate for indicator, and the total sugar was 

 determined as invert. Fairly complete ash analyses have been made for a 

 considerable number of samples and the tartaric acid, fixed and free, as well 

 as cream of tartar have also been determined on many samples. But the 

 main study has been on sugar and acid content and we confine this paper 

 to a simple treatment of the question of total acid and sugar content in its 

 relation to by-products from the grape. 



A large number of varieties have been analyzed in fact every sort found 

 in cultivation in the territory covered thus far. For these complete results, 

 the Government publication should be consulted. Most of the varieties herein 

 considered have been analyzed each season during four years, and a sufficient 

 number of samples taken to warrant the belief that the results are fairly 

 conclusive. 



The analytical results brought together in the table cover three years 

 when the crop was rated as good, viz: 1908, 1910 and 1911, and one year, 

 viz: 1909, when the growers in the northern grape belt rated the crop very 

 poor as to quality though abundant in quantity. The results obtained in this 

 investigation tend to overthrow the statements commonly made in the past 

 concerning the quality of our native grapes. It has been freely stated that 

 the native varieties do not produce a fruit rich enough in sugar and of 

 proper acid-sugar ratio for the manufacture of pure wines. Acting on this 

 dictum it has become very common to gallize arbitrarily the wines made 

 from the native American grapes. The question now arises, is this practice 

 necessary? 



As to richness in sugar content, the eight varieties here presented, bar- 

 ring Concord and Ives, show a sugar content equal to the average fruit 

 grown in the best wine districts of Europe, and Concord and Ives do not 

 fall below a very large amount of the European fruit. However, it must be 

 admitted that the acid content is excessive in the fresh juice of a number of 

 these varieties. But the acid in the finished wine must be taken into 

 account when attempting to determine the general question of gallization. 



The analytical results on composition of each variety are arranged 

 consecutively by years for ready reference and does not require special 

 discussion. The specific gravity given is, in all cases, where more than 

 one sample was analyzed, the average of all the determinations made, and 

 the total solids were also in like manner found by average, hence it will 

 occur that these figures in a few instances do not agree to the last decimal 

 with the table giving extracts in wines, Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin 107, 

 revised, page 218. All the other data given are averaged in like manner 

 'out are essentially accurate. The acid content and the sugar free solids for 

 samples examined in 1908 are in many instances low. The fruit that year 

 was of very fine character, but also the juice samples stood sometime before 

 final analysis and thus, by reason of precipitation of tartar, the acids and 

 solids were affected. It is noticeable that the acid and sugar free solids are 



