Wine — Its Uses. 



265 



while in bloom. The Delaware shows 

 handsomely — no rot, no mildew of leaf 

 or of bunch. Still we do not feel safe 

 of its crop till time of I'ipening, as it 

 may blight later in leaf, and so fail in 

 carrying through its present burden of 

 fruit. 



The Hartford artbrds every cultivator 

 full satisfaction. The lona makes no 

 show yet with us worth the mentioning. 

 The Clinton shows no disease nor detri- 

 ment of any kind from the unfavorable 



weather. It will be planted much more 

 largely, for it is proving reliable, and its 

 wine increases rapidly in public favor. 

 Most of the best Nos. of Rogers 

 promise well. Of the newer sorts, none 

 have taken so well as the Martha. I 

 have six vines in bearing, and the nu- 

 merous and perfect bunches please 

 every beholder. Salem vines planted 

 at same time with quite as strong growth, 

 show no fruit this first bearing year. 



Sanuu.sky, August li, 18(30. 



WINE— ITS USES. 



BV E. S. liAimiOLOMEW, WESTFIELD, N. Y. 



Wine is the fermented juice of the 

 grape; the juice of certain fruits, pre- 

 pared with sugar, sometimes with 

 spirits, etc., as currant wine, gooseberry 

 wine. Our first knowledge of wine, 

 gained from the Sacred Writings, was 

 that made from the Asiatic grape ( Yitis 

 Vineferci), used by the ancient Hebrew, 

 and now called the European grape. But 

 our more immediate and intimate 

 knowledge of loine has been gained 

 from the fermented juice of the Ameri- 

 can family of grapes, as Vitis La- 

 bi'usea, V. Gordifolia and V. ^"Estivalis. 

 The condition and elementary quality 

 depends very much on the variety and 

 ripeness of the grapes used. Wines, 

 according to their color, are divided 

 into red and white; /diwd, according to 

 their taste and other qualities, are either 

 spirituous, sweet, dry, light, heavy, 

 sparkling, still, rough, or acidulous. 

 The juice of ripe sweet grapes consists 

 of a considerable quantity of grape 

 sugar, a peculiar matter of the nature 

 of yeast, a small per centage of extrac- 



tive, tannic acid, a trace of malic acid 

 (the acid of apples), bitartrarte of po- 

 tassa, tartrate of lime, chloride of soda, 

 sulphate of potassa, and a very small per 

 centage of phosphoric acid, dissolved 

 or suspended in a large proportion of 

 water. Some varieties of grapes con- 

 tain in addition a peculiar acid iso- 

 meric with tartaric, called paratartaric 

 acid. Grape juice, therefore, embraces 

 all the ingredients necessary for the 

 production of vinous fermentation, 

 requiring only the presence of the 

 atmosphere and a proper degree of tem- 

 perature to convert it into wine. The 

 other qualities of wines, other than 

 color, depend on the relative propor- 

 tions of the constituents of the must, 

 or juice, and the manner in which the 

 fermentation has been conducted. If 

 the must be very saccharine, and con- 

 tain sutHcient ferment to continue the 

 fermentation, the conversion of the 

 saccharine into alcohol will continue 

 until checked, and there will be formed 

 a generous wine. The alcohol thus 



