402 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July 6, 1831. 



Books recommended to Students of .Igrkidlure. — 

 Dr Demi's Georgical Dictionary, Farmer's As- 

 sistant, Tlie New England Fanner, and several 

 other valuable jieriodical agricnltnral publica- 

 tions — the former containing some of the trans- 

 actions of the Mass. Horlicidtural Societi/, and 

 also interesting translations from the best French 

 works on Ilorticnlture, Arboriculture, ^-c, by its 

 enlightened and indefatigable President. Fessen- 

 den's New American Gardener, Loudon's Ency- 

 clopedias of Agriculture and Gardening. — Fur- 

 thermore — there is a little vohiniR extant, entitled 

 ' Compendum of Agriculture, or Farmer's Guide,' 

 containing, at least, some useful hints in this most 

 important of all occupations. 



CHAMP AIGNE CURRANT WINE. 

 Mr Fessesden, 



Dear Sir — Agreeably to request I have the 

 pleasure to hand you the details of my process 

 for making currant loine. 



INGREDIENTS FOR 30 GALLONS OF WINE. 

 3 Bushels or 150 pounds of Currants 

 75 Pounds of white Havana or dry Brazil Sugar. 

 3 Pints of wliite French Brandy, with sufficient pure 

 soft water. 



Gather the fruit in dry weather when rather 

 imder than over ripe — mash them to break every 

 berry, but not bruise,the stems — add a portion of 

 the water and after stirring well turn the mass 

 on to a strainer over a grain riddle or cheese bask- 

 et, rubbing and [iressing'gently with the hands ; — 

 by repeating the operation a few times, all the 

 vinous and saccharine matter will be extracted 

 and nnich of the pidp kept back, which occa- 

 sions not only too great a degree of fermeiitatiou 

 but diminishes the quantity of wine by the lees 

 it forms — saving much trouble in comparison to 

 the usual practice of squeczin;;; and wringing' 

 through a strainer, by the fair hands of the will- 

 ing females to whom the duty is commonly as- 

 signed — which not only forces through nearly all 

 the pulp and many seeds, but extracts a crude acid 

 from thi! stetns, that is anything but vinous. The 

 sugar shoulil be i)ut into a tub or other open ves- 

 sel with the brandy : and the liquor strained on 

 to it. When the sugar is dissolved, strain the 

 whole through a fine hair clotli or sieve into a 

 strong sweet cask of 32 to 34 gallons and fill up 

 to within 2 to 4 gallons, which leaves sufficient 

 room for the fermentation to proceed ; and drive 

 in the bung so that no air can enter or gas es- 

 cape. 



It is desirable that all parts of the process 

 should go on at the same time, and be. finished with 

 all possible despatch — observing the same neat- 

 ness as ill a well managed drtiry. The sooner the 

 wine is bottled after it is perfectly fine, the more 

 briskness it will exhibit. The maxim ' the better 

 the sugar, the belter the wine,' I have found by 

 experience to be correct, and I am inclined to be- 

 lieve, that rfoui/e rf/jjicrfioo/sug-ar, said to bean 

 indispensable ingredient for the manufacture of 

 Champaigno in France, would produce a wine as 

 much sujierior as to compensate for the extra ex- 

 jiense. I believe 3 lbs. of sugar to a gallon is 

 the common recipe — but no doubt brown moist 

 sugar is in general use. I consider 2i lbs. of drv 

 white am|ily sufficient (even dispensing with the 

 brandy) for such fruit as I have cultivated. That 

 for whits wine or Champaigno not being very 

 common, a description may not be amiss. It is 

 called the Clmmpaigne currant and is a good 

 bearer, the iVuii rather inclines to an oval, of an 



amber tint and much sweeter, but not so large as 

 the white Dutch. To its possessing a more vin- 

 ous substance, particular attention to observe the 

 process as above and management of the jilants, 

 I attribute tlie superior quality of the liquor to 

 any fictitious wine I ever tasted. — When prepar- 

 ing my vineyard at Brighton some 20 years since, 

 I was careful to rub oft" all the buds of the cut- 

 tings that were ])ut under ground and 6 or 8'inch- 

 es above, which eflectually- prevents suckers and 

 afifords a free circulation of air around the bot- 

 tom. 3 buds only were permitted to shoot, which 

 the next season were shortened to 4, and after- 

 wards pruned so as to resemble a tree shaped 

 like a ivine glass. They were planted in rows 4 

 feet apart and 5 feet from plant to plant, in quin- 

 cunx order, that is, they stand opposite only in every 

 other row, which give to each tree an atmosphere 

 of about 6 feet, — when the fruit was filling the 

 young shoots were topped 4 or 6 buds. By such 

 management nearly all the force of vegetation is 

 directed to the fruit — enriching and increasing the 

 size so much, that I was often applied to by 

 Market Gardeners for cuttings of my red currants 

 as a new and suiierior variety ; and it was with 

 difficulty I could convince them that they were 

 the same kind they cultivated. It should be kept 

 in mind that plants treated in this manner will not 

 last more than 20 years generally — though if per- 

 mitted to send up suckers every year they may 

 continue a century, but the superijirity of the 

 fruit will amply pay fm- the renewal. 



The white currant wine for which the Trustees 

 f'f the Massachusetts Agricultural Society award- 

 ed me the first premium a few years ago, had re- 

 mained in the cask I believe two years; showed 

 no briskness but was highly vinous and full sweet. 

 The white wine I have made to imitate Chani- 

 paigne has been drank by competent judges Jhr 

 very good imported from France. I have made a 

 very palatable (/inner wine from the Champaigne 

 currant that has been taken for Sautcrne, a favor- 

 ite French wine, — and from the red currant, wine, 

 equal to that of late years introduced as French 

 Madeira, such as we often find in Hotels and 

 Steamboats with the term French sunk, and the 

 Madeira price raised. — In producing such wine, 

 it is necessary to give air for a sliort time to in- 

 crease the fermentation and deprive it of a great 

 portion of the sweetness. When closing a com- 

 munication much longer than you may perhaps 

 wish, I must remark that it will be in vain to at- 

 tempt the manufacture of wine upon a large scale 

 either from the grape or any other fruit, unless the 

 operation is promote <1 witli a deep cellar or vault 

 where an equal and cool temperature can be pre- 

 served. With particular esteem, 



I remain very cordially your.s, 

 Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy. 



Boston, ith July, 1830. 



BEES. 

 IMr Fessenden — The inquiry of a correspon- 

 ilont who signs P. C. in the last number but cinc, 

 of your valuable paper, on the subject of Bees, is 

 an important one. I agree with him that the 

 ' right subject has not been sufliciently discussed.' 

 It is of much more importance that the plain 

 Api;irian sliould understand the best means to pre- 

 serve his !n\es from destruction by their enemies, 

 (among which the bee moth is by far the most 

 ruinous) than that he should be made acquainted 

 with their peculiar instinctive habits, the imernal 

 arrangements and economy of the hive, and the 



manner in which they propagate their species, &B. 

 I liave had some experience in the management 

 of Bees, and in agriculture for a number of years, 

 if you ihiuk the few remarks I am about to make 

 will subserve tlie noble cause in which you are so 

 zealously, and assiduously engaged, you arc at 

 liberty to publish them. 



I commenced keeping Bees more than 20 yearg 

 ago with tolerable success for several years, till at 

 lungth the bee moth began its ravages, and know- 

 ing of no method to prevent them, my bees were 

 completely destroyed. I despaired of any further 

 attempt to raise my favorite little insects.Jcill, about 

 8 or 10 years~ago, I heard it suggested that the 

 depredations of the moth might be jirevented by 

 raising the hives from the board, by putting a 

 small block mider each corner, (as recommended by 

 Mr Stone of Sudbury, Mass.) I procured a swarm, 

 pi an old fashioned hive, made of the trunk of a 

 ollow tree. Ex|)erience since has satisfied me 

 that the above method is an effiictual security 

 against the bee moth, but it is attended by one se- 

 rious objection, as I have found to my cost, that 

 is, it affords too great a facility to plunderers; 

 having lost one of my strongest and best swarms 

 in this way, it occurred to me that if a hive was 

 raised i an inch or so from the board by driving 

 sliingle iiails into the lower edge so close together 

 as but just to admit the passage of the bees in and 

 out, it would give the bees a better chance to defend 

 tliemselves against robbers, and be an equal secu- 

 rity against the moth. I have tried it with a num- 

 Ler of hives and am satisfied that this way is pre- 

 ferable to the other. But abetter way than either, 

 I believe, is recommended in Dr Thacher's 

 excellent Treatise on Bees, page 106. I have 

 tried it with three very weak, cast swarms, and have 

 preserved them from the interruption of a single 

 moth. Since I have last kept bees, as above stat- 

 ed, I have lost but two swarms by the moth and 

 these were lost in consequence of their remaining 

 unprotected through a summer when I was ab- 

 sent. One of them was a large, strong swarm, 

 two years old, the other a young and very weak 

 one, while hundreds of swarms, in this vicinity, 

 have been totally ruined by iheir disgusting and 

 terrible enemy the moth. — The foregoing remarks, 

 if they are worth anything, will chiefly benefit 

 those who choose to keep bees in the old faslt- 

 ioned hives. 



KIIMEDY' FOR WOUNDED FRUIT TREES. 



In a communication which I addressed to you 

 a year ago last January, I mentioned that I had 

 had the bark gnawed from a favorite young pea»i 

 tree, by a mischievous sow a short time beforc, andi 

 requested you, or some correspondent to inform me 

 what I could do to save it. — The case was proba- 

 bly thought a desperate and hopeless oue, as mj 

 request was not noticed ; indeed I considered it etf, 

 as the bark was entirely torn from the tree more tlHISi 

 two feet from the ground and the wood consider*-, 

 biy mangled. Biit I have now the pleasure to ifl- 

 form you, that the tree is yet alive and is now 

 bearing young fruit which promises to come to 

 maturity in due time. The method I took is (B 

 follows. The wound was covered with niorlBi 

 made of equal parts of the diop|iings of calt)hl 

 clay, and old lime plaster, and bound on wijji 

 coarse tow. — This remaiocd on till spring, whj^ 

 becoming hard and dry, I took it off and appliedji* 

 covering of f;rafting cement, made with 3 parB 

 rosin, 3 bees wa.x, and 1 tallow, and covered th« 

 whole with a thick inatliiig of coarse toff, m 



/ 



