AND WINE MAKING. 233 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



OTHER USES OF GRAPES* 



DRIED GRAPES. 



When the prices of wine and wine grapes went down 

 so low, a few years ago, that wine making was no longer 

 profitable, the drying of wine grapes for culinary pur- 

 poses was resorted to, on a somewhat limited scale. It 

 was found that three tons of fresh grapes would make a 

 ton of dried, which could be packed in plain white sacks 

 and shipped for cooking or making wine. Many low- 

 grade grapes were thus dried and shipped to the East, 

 where they were sold for an average of about three cents 

 per pound. Such dried grapes are very nice, and many 

 were thus utilized. But the movement proved to be 

 only a makeshift, as the dried grapes replaced many 

 other fruits in the kitchen, and interfered with their 

 sale, while the wine made from them in the East, where 

 water and sugar were added to increase the wine product, 

 also interfered with the sale of our pure wines made 

 from grape juice alone. Finally, it proved difficult in 

 the North to dry our juicy wine grapes, when a sudden 

 shower would sometimes come at the inopportune time 

 and spoil them. So it has been gradually abandoned, 

 until very little is heard of it to-day. 



CONDENSED MUST. 



Another of the expedients attempted with a view to 

 making a market for our grapes in seasons of low prices, is 

 to partially evaporate the must and ship the condensed 

 product. The Spring-Muehl system, which is calcu- 

 lated to work up large quantities, is a process for con- 

 densing the fresh must of the grapes, especially red vari- 

 eties, in a vacuum pan, to about one-third of its volume ; 



