Notes and Gleanings. 187 



^vicked to interfere with it. Your readers may think these comparisons " far- 

 fetched ; " but they are not so in reality. If a wine contains too much acidity and 

 astringency, it is diseased, and not as wholesome nor as agreeable as when less 

 so. I only follow the old adage, that "an ounce of preventive is better than 

 a pound of cure." My reason, judging by the tests which I apply, shows me 

 there is too much : it also shows me the means to remedy this ; and whether to 

 do so is not only a question oi policy, but a duty I owe to the consumer, know- 

 ing as I do that the wine will be more healthy and palatable. 



I come now to the last phrase of your correspondent, where he says, with a 

 show of great unction and disinterestedness, "that the art of wine-making, as at 

 present practised, is properly the art of wine-exteiision, and has for its object 

 moiiey-7naki7igj that great abundance and low prices will alone put a stop to the 

 manipulations of the wine-maker." 



Indeed ! Does the gentleman, then, mean to assert that/zr grows grapes and 

 makes wine solely for philanthropic purposes ? Those who know him best 

 would perhaps hardly believe this. I acknowledge freely that I make wine, 7iot 

 alone for the jaleasure it gives me and others, but also for the purpose of money- 

 making ; that I try to make the best wine, to get the best price for it. And this 

 leads me to galleying, because I know (and I dare my opponents to prove the 

 contrary) that thus I make the best and most ivJiolesoine wine. If wine became 

 ever so abundant, and ever so cheap, I would still practise it, because I should 

 be sure to find a market for my ^^(9(?rtr wine when others could not sell their 

 indifferent wines. Quality will win the day ; and, unless my opponents can 

 bring the proofs to which I have so often and so urgently challenged them, they 

 will not convince me that they are right and I am wrong. I assert again, that 

 my wines are just 2.s pure as theirs, because I add nothing but what the grape 

 already contains, more healthy and more palatable, consequently better. Let 

 them prove it otherwise if they dare and can. Hollow phrases will not win the 

 day with a thinking public, bi t arguments, facts, and proofs. Let us have them, 

 Mr. McCullough, if your please. George Husniann. 



Hermann, Mo., July, 1868. 



One of the kings of the vegetable kingdom, the acknowledged king of 

 monocotyledons, — the grtitDracczna draco, or Dragon-tree, at Orotava, — is no 

 more. A furious gale last autumn levelled to the ground that immense crown 

 which had grown and flourished for sixty centuries. The storm of July 21, 1819, 

 had deprived the tree of a part of its head ; but still it remained a striking object 

 of wonder. In February last, still in excellent health, its immense crown was 

 covered within numerable panicles of scarlet fruits ; and the huge trunk, although 

 completely deca3-ed in the interior, sustained vigorously the spreading mass of 

 fleshy branches and sword-like foliage. On the west side, where the ground was 

 sloping, a solid wall had been built under about a third of the trunk : but, on the 

 other side, two or three half-rotten staves propped the more projecting branches ; 

 and in this neglected state the hurricane found it, and wrought its destruction. 

 An excellent photograph of the trre as it appeared a few years since is pub- 

 lished in Prof Smyth's " Teneriffe." 



