AND WINE MAKING. 105 



done her part. There is no such thing as ''natural 

 wine," for wine, especially good wine, is the product of 

 art, and an artificial process from beginning to end. An 

 all-wise Creator gave us the raw materials for our suste- 

 nance and convenience, but gave us also reasoning powers 

 to convert them to our use, and make them more whole- 

 some and palatable. Shall we eat the raw potato simply 

 because it is a natural production, or are we justified in 

 cooking and roasting it, to make it more palatable and 

 wholesome ? How would the ''naturalist " stare if some 

 fine morning his good wife would set a cup filled with 

 raw coffee beans and some water before him, instead of 

 his usual fragrant beverage, and a dish of raw wheat in- 

 stead of the usual light rolls which tempt his appetite ? 

 Yet the making of coffee and bread are even less natural, 

 more artificial, than the addition of sugar and water to 

 the must. Would not the wine-maker act as foolishly as 

 the housewife who puts raw coffee and wheat upon the 

 table, instead of the fragrant cup and white roll, if he 

 has it in his power to remedy the deficiencies of Nature 

 by such means as she herself supplies in good seasons, 

 and which ought, and would be in the must, but for un- 

 favorable circumstances over which we have no control ? 

 Wine thus improved is just as pure as if the water and 

 sugar had naturally been in the grapes in the right pro- 

 portions, just as beneficial to health, and only the fanati- 

 cal numskull can call it adulterated. But these preju- 

 dices will disappear before the light of science and trutli, 

 and have disappeared already, until there is not a single 

 establishment of any consequence, either here or in 

 Europe, where it is not followed, either secretly or open- 

 ly, and to the manifest improvement of their wines. 



Yet, strange to say, these same " naturalists " will 

 enjoy sparkling wines with a great deal of gusto, although 

 they are a still more artificial product. And many of 

 them will smack their lips over some rare so-called, " Old 



