72 



The Grape Culturist, 





grafting on the stocks in the nursery. 

 But Ave have never seen any ill effects, 

 if the graft took at all, from the ex- 

 cess of root power in the stock. It 

 seems like if the graft pushed forth so 

 vigorously that it soon absorbed all 

 the nourishment, and we have had 



the scion made sound, healthy wood 

 of 25 to 30 feet long, on a very strong 

 old stock. Yet our friend's conclu- 

 sions are evidently sound logic, but 

 sometimes, as in this case, facts and 

 circumstantial evidence are stronger 

 than oven sound reasoning. — Ed.] 



D'HEUEEUSE AIE TEEATMENT. 



Alleged improvements, involving 

 sweeping changes in many industries, 

 should above all bear the light which 

 close practical investigation may shed 

 upon errors to which new as well as 

 time-venerated doctrines are subject; 

 corroborative tests only can establish 

 their value. Theories, apjiarentl}' 

 sound, by neglect of some essential 

 condition, may fail to be confirmed 

 by tests. One of the most general 

 and firmly rooted notions has been 

 the dread of access of air during fer- 

 menting or preserving operations ; 

 the most satisfactor}^ proofs only will 

 establish the fact that exclusion of 

 air should be abolished, and that the 

 suggestion of air-treatment as a safe, 

 cheap, easy and effectual agent for 

 wine and other industries is well 

 founded. For the sake of our Amer- 

 ican wine industry it is proposed to 

 review the principles on which air- 

 treatment is based, the manipulations, 

 the advantages claimed, and the con- 

 ditions to be observed, the knowledge 

 of which, by exercise of common 

 sense would enable any unbiased in- 

 dividual to test and judge for himself. 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 



One broad principle underlies nearl}* 

 all applications of air-treatment for 



the purpose of imparting stabilitj'? 

 and to prevent deterioration in or- 

 ganic substances by a rapidly oxidiz- 

 ing and eliminating action on the 

 albumenous parts, which all crude or- 

 ganic substances contain, so that by 

 ordinary elementary exposure the sub- 

 stance may decompose or decay and 

 thus form, in the admirable economy 

 of nature, sustenance for other organ- 

 ism. The presence of the albumen- 

 ous parts is an essential condition of 

 decomposition, their removal insures 

 stability, comparativel}' or absolute. 

 Currents of air passed through the sub- 

 stance to act uniformly on all parts, 

 eftect first of all an oxidation of the 

 albumenous matter, which is rendered 

 insoluble and thus eliminated either 

 during fermentation, by which the 

 sugar is converted into alcohol, or by 

 absence of fermentation at a temper- 

 ature above 135° F., at which organ- 

 ism is killed, or by both modes in con- 

 junction. These few plain intelligible 

 facts constitute the whole basis of air- 

 treatment, the applications are sim- 

 plj' deductions. 



It is certainh' an error that all albu- 

 menous matter coagulates at a certain 

 high temperature ; if this were correct, 

 a fluid so heated for hours could, if clear 

 and limpid, contain no albumen. Expe- 



