242 MEAD. 



tract thrown up in the course of fermentation as 

 yeast, or deposited as lees, will, if remixed with 

 the liquor, have the effect of continuing the fer- 

 mentation : hence the utility of racking and fining, 

 where it is in excess ; and of re-union, where it is 

 deficient. Artificial leaven or yeast, which con- 

 tains the extractive principle in great abundance, 

 affords a supply to those juices which are deficient 

 in it, and without which they will not ferment. 

 Natural leaven (i. e. extractive matter) is soluble 

 in cold water, artificial leaven is not : during fer- 

 mentation, therefore, the latter is always thrown 

 off; so also is the greater part of the former, if the 

 process be well conducted. 



Most of the fruits of this country abound in 

 malic acid ; those that possess only a moderate 

 quantity of it, however, afford excellent wine with 

 the addition of sugar only ; still better wine may 

 be obtained by the further addition of the acid of 

 tartar. Where the malic acid prevails so abun- 

 dantly as to make its neutralization desirable, 

 DR. M c CuLLOcH, (to whom I am indebted for 

 much of the information contained in this chapter,) 

 recommends the coating of the insides of the fer- 

 menting vats with a white wash of hot caustic 

 lime. I have neutralized the malic acid, by putting 

 into the cask, after the sensible fermentation has 

 been completed, about a pound of egg shells to 

 every sixty gallons of wine. 



