Air Treatment Again. 



205 



aerification, it is the reverse with jnust. 

 ft is now some ten 3'ear8 that I be- 

 came aware of the fact, while attempt- 

 ing to make a dark red Isabella in a I 

 perfectly closed tub. Fermentation 

 is the most perfect when the must has j 

 heen well oxygenized, and in this re- ! 

 spect especially do I hope much from 

 the D'lleureuse air treatment. 



E. Baxter. 



GoLDKN' Hills Vixeyaru, Nauvoo, Ills. 



[We think our correspondent does 

 not exactlj' understand the question 

 involved. The D'Heureuse air treat- 

 ment will not be needed for wine — that 



is, ^oine complete and finished. Nor 

 do we advise to rack such wine through 

 the rose of a watering pot. -But so 

 long as wine contains ferment, it can 

 hardlj^ be called finished ; and it is 

 only to unfinished wines that air 

 treatment should be applied. AVe 

 publish in this number another article 

 on this important subject, which will 

 tend to show our correspondent that 

 air treatment is also practiced in 

 Europe. We are glad to have this 

 subject so thoroughly discussed in our 

 pages, as we think it of vast import- 

 ance. — Editor.] 



AIR TREATMENT AGAIN. 



That most influential and well con- 

 ducted German quarterly journal on 

 grape and wine culture, the Annalen 

 der Oejiologie, Carlsruhe, Baden, pub- 

 lishes detailed tables and highl}^ satis- 

 factory results of systematically con- 

 ducted operations with air - treatment 

 on must, b}' its principal editor. Dr. 

 A. Blankenhorn, and numerous other 

 parties of high standing in autumn 

 of 1867 and since, and enthusiastically 

 recommends the process. There is no 

 doubt that its use will soon be general 

 in the German wine countries. Air- 

 treatment was employed there on the 

 must at about 05^ F., and previous to 

 fermentation only. The apparatus used 

 is named Prof. v. Babo's Patent Must- 

 whip (Mostpeitsche), which consists in 

 a vertical hollow shaft, provided with 

 hollow perforated arms below. By 

 gearing and crank the shaft is made 

 to revolve quickly, so that the air is 

 urged through the hollow shaft, and 



impelled through the perforations of 

 the arms into the must. The whole is 

 attached to a plank placed over a tub 

 or tank. The construction certainly is 

 ingenious, but seems to be more com 

 plicated and less apt to be kept per- 

 fectly clean than the simple perforated 

 pipe or mouth-piece, connected by hose, 

 etc., with an air force-pump, the mode 

 recommended by the patentee of the 

 American air-treatment. The v. Babo's 

 machine can only be used on must or 

 wine in tanks, not to hasten the fer- 

 mentation of the must while in casks, 

 and could not very well be employed 

 for other purposes also, like the pump, 

 for instance, for the purification of foul 

 water in cisterns, etc., or for transfer- 

 ring the wine merely by hose or pipe, 

 without passing through a pump, from 

 cask to cask, by pneumatic pressure 

 on the wine. The price of Professor 

 V. Babo's machine will probabl}^ exceed 

 that of pump, etc., the power i-equisite 



