AND WINE MAKING. 155 



of the wine, however, can safely be sold now, or kept in 

 casks. All the wine to be kept should be racked once 

 about every six months, and the casks kept well filled. 



DISEASES OF WINE AND THEIR REMEDIES. 



Wine properly made, and with all ingredients in right 

 proportion, will seldom suffer from any disease. Cases 

 may arise, however, which may make it necessary to give 

 it a different treatment, or fine it by artificial means. 



TREATMENT OF FLAT AND TURBID WINE. 



The cause of flat wine is generally lack of tannin. If the 

 wine has a peculiar flat, soft taste, and looks cloudy, this 

 is uniformly the case. Draw the wine into another cask, 

 which has been well sulphured, and add some pulverized 

 tannin, which can be had at any drug store. The tan- 

 nin may be dissolved either in water or wine, about an 

 ounce to every two hundred gallons of wine, and poured 

 in at the bung, after which the wine should be well 

 stirred with a stick inserted through the bung-hole. 

 Should it not become clear in about three weeks, it must 

 be fined. This can be done by adding about an ounce of 

 powdered gum arabic, or isinglass, to each forty gallons. 

 The gum arabic will dissolve in cold water, but isinglass 

 requires hot water ; stir the wine well when it has been 

 poured in. Or take some wine out of the cask, and, for 

 each forty gallons of wine, add the whites of ten eggs, 

 whipped to foam with the wine taken out ; pour this 

 mixture into the cask, stir well, and bung tightly. 

 After a week the wine will generally be clear, and should 

 then be drawn off. An easier and speedier method to fine 

 is to put it through a filter filled with paper pulp, but 

 the apparatus is somewhat costly. As it is accompanied 

 by directions for use to those who purchase it, it would 

 be superfluous to describe it here. As stated before, if 

 the wine has been properly made and fermented, such 



