AGRICULTURE. 253 



ature is a matter of the utmost importance to fermentation, 

 the proper degree being about 65 Fahrenheit ; and if the liquid 

 be kept either warmer or colder than that figure, it will be in 

 great danger of spoiling. The fermentation is accompanied by 

 a rising of little air-bubbles to the surface, where they burst, 

 making a noise that may be heard by applying the ear to the 

 bunghole, and which is sometimes so loud as to be heard in the 

 cellar at a distance of ten or twenty feet from the barrel. 



After the fermentation has been in progress three or four 

 days, the wine-maker pours in six or eight gallons of fresh 

 juice every day, until the cask is full ; and for several days 

 after that he leaves the bunghole still open, and throws out 

 all scum that rises to the surface there. When the scum has 

 ceased to rise, the barrel is closed, and not disturbed for a pe- 

 riod which should not be less than three weeks nor more than 

 three months. After this, comes the " racking off." All the 

 liquor, except about four inches at the bottom, containing sedi- 

 ment, is drawn off through a syphon, or a cock placed above 

 the level of the sediment. The remainder is filtered through 

 a doubled cotton cloth, and is then poured in with the clear 

 liquor, or used in making brandy. The sediment deposited in 

 the bottom of the cask within the first three months, is about 

 one-twentieth in weight of the juice as it comes from the press. 

 After the first racking, the new cask is filled up, the bung is 

 put in, and the wine is not disturbed till March or April, when 

 it begins to feel a more lively fermentation, for that process 

 never ceases entirely. 



It is said that the wine sympathizes with the vine, and that 

 whenever the latter is in active development, the former feels 

 a peculiar impulse also. Thus, the periods when the vine 

 sprouts in March or April, when it blossoms in June, and when 

 the grape ripens in September, are also the times when the fer- 

 mentation is the most active. At those seasons the bungs 

 must be taken off, or at least loosened, and the barrels must 

 not be moved. 



