GRAPE VINES. 61 



put one gjillon of slacked lime for 100 gallons of wine. 

 Pidgeon dung, being almost pure lime, is often used for 

 the same purpose. It is often collected and sold for 

 this purpose in Europe. If not sparingly used, the urin- 

 ous taste is still worse in the wine. Ground plaster is 

 also used. 



51. Turpentine, tar, firwood, &c. cover the acidity 

 of wine, but impart to it the tarry taste. This is the 

 great defect of common Grecian wines ; but the Greeks 

 do not dislike that taste. Our spruce twigs would give 

 to our wines the taste of spruce beer. 



52. The best heat for fermentation is variable. It 

 merely begins at 54 degrees F. and is very slow till 60 

 degrees : from this up to 100 degrees it improves j the 

 greater the heat in the vintage time, the quicker and 

 the more violent is the fermentation, and the wine is 

 commonly the better for it. The froth of fermentation, 

 when allowed to escape, makes the wine sweeter, when 

 kept in the wine, drier. 



53. Fermentation ought to be carried on under sheds, 

 in the open air, and in close vessels, with bungs, spile 

 holes, pegs, or safety valves. The larger the casks the 

 sooner it is completed, whence the usual use of vats or 

 large tuns and tubs, holding 1000 gallons or more. Light 

 brisk wines, like Burgundy and Champaigne, are allow- 

 ed to remain only for a few hours, (from 6 to 24) in the 

 vats. White wine only 36 hours. Red wine from 2 to 5 

 days. 



54. Wines removed from the vat to casks after strain- 

 ing through the hair sieve, will continue in a slow state 

 of fermentation, depositing lees and throwing froth. If 

 the froth is removed repeatedly, or the wine often chang- 

 ed from cask to cask, it will ultimately cease. The casks 

 are kept in cellars, wells, or cool stores. 



55. The choice of casks is not useless. Old casks are 

 always preferred. New casks, unless burnt, communi- 

 cate a taste and color to wine, therefore, the inside 

 ought always to be charred ; the best casks are made of 

 oak or chesnut staves ; the larger they are the better, 

 for the sake of uniformity in the wine. 



56. Each change of casks leaving the lees behind, is 

 called a racking, the best wines require several, and 



