I02 Notes a7id Gleanings. 



The school of Dr. Gall, which now flourishes in Missouri, teaches that 

 '■'■wine having all of its natural ac'idhy and astringency is diseased, — not whole- 

 some nor palatable or agreeable : and therefore, when the juice of the grape 

 does not contain sugar enough, more should be added ; and, if it contain too 

 much acid, sugar and water should be added, as both are component parts of 

 the juice of the grape. The wine will be just as pure, more healthy, and more 

 palatable^ consequently better.'''' 



This, I think, is a mischievous delusion, as sugar added to the juice of the 

 grape is changed by vinous fermentation into alcohol ; and it is simply adding 

 alcohol and water to the wine. No acid is neutralized, as the sugar can be only 

 used as a source of alcohol. 



As an illustration of what may be done by adding sugar and water to the juice 

 of the grape, take, if you please, one gallon of the juice of the grape, the alco- 

 holic strength of which is ten percent; add sugar to this until its alcoholic 

 strength is thirty per cent ; then tone this with two gallons of water. Vinous 

 fermentation will change the whole to wine. You will now have three gallons 

 of mixed wine, containing its natural alcoholic strength, — ten per cent, — with 

 only one-third of the other nutritive properties of the grape. 



Again : take the pomace, or husks, after the bulk of the juice of the grape 

 has been expressed ; add sugar and water : the natural yeast of the grape will 

 produce vinous fermentation, and change it into wine. This is simply alcohol 

 diluted with a large quantity of water, modified more or less by the delicate 

 qualities of the grape ; yet a large proportion of our native wines are of this 

 class. 



This practice, which has nothing to recommend it but the prospect of gain, 

 throws open the door to every liquor-compounder in the country, who, using the 

 reason God has given them, can imitate every kind of wine in the country with 

 their alcoholic liquids, and then assert with confidence that their wines are as 

 pure as any in use ; that they contain nothing but what the grape contains ; 

 that they are free from the natural acidity and astringency of the grape, and 

 therefore healthy, and agreeable to the taste. More than one-half of the wines 

 of commerce in this country are now of this class. y. Af. McCulloitgh. 



Cincinnati, Nov. 7, 1868. 



A New Vegetable. — Phytolacca {dccandra ?'\ is referred to in a recent 

 number of the " Revue Horticole," by M. Vilmorin, as a desirable table-vegeta- 

 ble, — the stems being tender, and suitable for soup, or to be eaten as asparagus, 

 and the leaves aflfording a good spinach. The plant is enormously productive, 

 perfectly hardy, and decidedly ornamental. 



Weeds on walks may be kept under by watering the gravel with the fol- 

 lowing solution : Dissolve two pounds of blue vitriol in an old pan, and then 

 dilute it with six or seven gallons of water : apply this through the fine rose of 

 a watering-pot, and it will destroy every sign of vegetation, and after a shower 

 render tlie gravel as bright as when just put down. The walk should not be 

 trodden on when newly wetted, as the vitriol will destroy the shoes. 



