WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA. 299 



are employed for the same purpose; that is to act, for the 

 time being in the capacity of an alkaloid, and to retard or 

 prevent impending changes. The mere mention makes it 

 plain, that innumerable articles could be reduced to the 

 fluid, syrupy or solid state in the manner described, for the 

 sake of economy, to prevent loss by spoiling in transporta- 

 tion or storing, to reduce the freight by decreasing the bulk, 

 and to return the refuse to the soil as manure, after it served 

 as food for animals. All this, and much more, will be gen- 

 erally adopted before many years pass by. 



RETROSPECT. 



The foregoing attempt to demonstrate the importance of air 

 treatment for the American wine industry, and to foreshadow 

 some of the changes which it is bound to effect; equal 

 changes by the same powerful agent, the support of all organ- 

 ism, are certain in numerous other industries. The revolu- 

 tion worked by Besseniers air process in the manufacture of 

 iron and steel, is but the forerunner in the manufac- 

 ture of organic substances of almost any kind by air treat- 

 ment, a revolution, however, pregnant only of unalloyed 

 benefits to the whole human family. In this progressive 

 spirit I hope it will be received by those millions whose 

 health it will secure, and whose labors it shall lighten, be it 

 in wine making, brewing, malting, distilling, sugar or oil 

 making, tanning, or the manufacture of extracts, transporta- 

 tion or storing, the purification of spirits from noxious fusil 

 oils, or of plain drinking water from organic contaminations. 



To prevent misconstruction it should be stated that the 

 inventor of air treatment is far from considering the details, 

 as here described, rigid rules for all cases alike; but mere de- 

 tails, which, according to the species of must, treated in the 

 hands of intelligent experts, will give satisfactory results. 

 For instance, when a few weeks more time for fermentation is 

 no object, one vigorous air treatment of the must for one half 



