GRAPE VINES. 53 



Burgundy, Oporto, Malmsey, Carcavelos, and many 

 more. Let us be honest and give them as such, with 

 pompous American names if we like. 



4. Wines can be made with almost all juicy fruits, al- 

 though the real wines are the produce of the grapes. 

 Thus, currants, gooseberries, elder berries, huckle-ber- 

 ries, persimons, black-berries, oranges, peaches, pears, 

 apples, pine apples, &c. have all been used to make pe- 

 culiar wines. Those of apples and pears are called 



/Cider and Perry. Each other kind ought to have also 

 a peculiar name, because they all differ somewhat from 

 wine. 



5. These fruit or domestic wines will only be men- 

 tioned slightly. The wine of currants or Ribesium., is 

 the most important for us, because it is already often 

 made, is nearest to the best grape wines, and can be 

 made to any amount with profit. Several kinds are 

 made, which are very good when not spoiled by the ad- 

 dition of brandy, which makes them firy and pernicious* 



6. Currant wine or Ribesium, always requires water 

 and sugar, because currants contain malic acid and no 

 tartaric acid. But it requires no brandy nor whiskey. 

 To make it more like wine, some good wine, with a lit- 

 tle quicklime and argol, may be put into it before fer- 

 mentation. 



7. Mr. Dyers' currant yard near Providence, Rhode 

 Island, may be mentioned as an example worthy of imi- 

 tation. This yard contains 40 acres; each acre has 

 1400 currant bushes, and produces yearly 120 to 150 

 bushels of fruit, which, with water and 4000lbs. of su- 

 gar, make about 1600 gallons of wine from each acre, 

 selling at 75 cents and one dollar per gallon. Thus each 

 acre producing ^1200, or S800, deducting the cost of 

 sugar, casks, cultivation, &c. as I was informed. 



8. At this rate, the whole yard would give 64,000 gal- 

 lons of wine, and an income of §32,000 ! if all made into 

 wine and sold. Mr. Dyers makes two kinds of wine, 

 Groseille, or Red Ribesium, and Malmsey, or White Ri- 

 besium. He uses no brandy nor strong liquors. Both 

 are excellent, and equal to many fine foreign wines. He 

 exports much of it to the West Indies. Is not this a pro- 

 fitable industry ? 



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