CHAPTEK XX 



THE MICROBE OF WINE 



WINE making, like beer making, dates back to 

 very ancient times. In the Noachian myth, Noah 

 gets drunk twice on wine. That was several thou- 

 sand years before Christ. In the sacred books of 

 the Brahmans and other oriental religions wine is 

 frequently mentioned. This was several thousand 

 years more ancient still. 



From those remote days to the present wine has 

 been produced in large quantities, practically all 

 over the civilized world. In the United States, at 

 the present time, about 75,000,000 gallons are used 

 yearly. In older countries, pro rata population, 

 much more is used. Properly used, wine is bene- 

 ficial to the individual, and of great value to the 

 world. 



But for every drop which has been used, or will 

 be used in the future, the world is, and must be, 

 indebted to a certain species of microbes. 



This invisible friend belongs in the same genus 

 with the microbe of beer, but it is a different species. 

 The form is different; in its mature state it is 

 more elliptical, while its spores are oval. Like the 

 microbe of beer, it propagates both by Budding 

 and by the Production of Spores. In Fig. 51 ap- 



70 





