AND WINE MAKING. 293 



all the agreeable smoothness and fineness which we ad- 

 mire in fine white wines, and I have never been able to 

 find as fine wines made by Mr. Haraszthy's method, as I 

 have seen from those who make their wines in a similar 

 way to mine. 



WINE MAKING APPARATUS. 



Grapes are gathered here in boxes holding about forty 

 pounds each, which each gatherer, when filled, carries 

 out to the avenues between the blocks, from where they 

 are hauled to the cellars in wagons. Boxes were formerly 

 made very loosely, so that a great deal of juice was wasted, 

 but they are now manufactured with bottoms of a single 

 board, and well nailed, so that there is but little leakage. 

 The crushers, stemmers, and presses in the smaller estab- 

 lishments are similar to those described in the third part 

 of the book. The large establishments, however, use 

 crushers and stemmers, as well as various kinds of hydrau- 

 lic presses, which do an immense amount of work, with 

 comparatively few hands, and do it in a very thorough 

 manner. They are generally run by steam power, and will 

 work up from eighty to one hundred tons of grapes per 

 day, if run to their full capacity. 



Cooperage of all dimensions is now made in the State, 

 although most of the material for oak casks comes from 

 the East in shooks and is set up by the coopers here, as 

 California oak is too brittle and coarse-grained to work to 

 advantage. Casks of one thousand to two thousand gal- 

 lons are worth about ten cents per gallon. The casks for 

 shipping East are generally so-called puncheons, holding 

 about one hundred and sixty gallons, and are much 

 cheaper, costing about three dollars and fifty cents each. 



LIQUEUR WINES. 



It may be expected that I should say something about 

 liqueur wines, which form a considerable part of the pro- 



