THE MANUFACTURE OF WIXE. 265 



with a crank). Have ready a perfectly sweet cask, that lias a 

 hole, about an inch in diameter, bored in one side near the bot- 

 tom ; fit into this hole a stick from six to eight inches long, with 

 a hole bored from end to end of sufficient size to let the juico 

 flow freely through it. Stop this hole tightly with a plug; an 

 the grapes are mashed, pour the juice, skins, pulp and all, into 

 the cask. When all are in, cover closely with four or iive 

 thicknesses of woollen blankets ; let it remain in this condition 

 until fermentation has advanced sufficiently to cause the grapes 

 or must (as I believe wine-makers call it) to rise to the top and 

 begin to crack open, the cracks being filled with little yeasty- 

 llke bubbles, which will be probably in from four to eight or 

 ten days, according to the temi)erature of the weather. !Now 

 have ready a perfectly clean barrel, purified with sulphur; put 

 into a pail ten or twelve pounds of sugar, take out the little 

 l)lug. and let the juice on the sugar. As you fill the pail, stir 

 tlie sugar occasionally from the bottom, so as to dissolve enough 

 of it to make the juice sufficiently sweet. If the sugar should 

 all dissolve before the juice is all drawn out, of course put in 

 more. When the barrel is full, put the bung in lightly, so as to 

 give it a chance to ferment. The little cups you speak of were 

 used more as an experiment than a necessity; when those were 

 used, the bung was fitted in tight and a small hole made in the 

 bung, and a tin tube inserted in it, rising from the bung, tlio 

 long end being in the bung, and the short end in a little tin cup 

 filled, and kept full of water, care being taken to keep the bar- 

 rel always full ; but, as I said before, this Vv-as not necessary. 

 After tlie juice had been barrelled, as above described, let it 

 stand till some clear, cold day in February. Then draw off tho 

 juico and put it in another barrel, care being taken to have it 

 perfectly clean and well fumigated as the first -was; save a pail- 

 ful, and when all has been drawn off, stir into this pailful the 

 whites of ten or twelve eggs, beaten to a froth, as you would 

 for cake. When well stirred, pour this in the barrel with tho 

 rest. After being w^ell incorporated with that in tho barrel, 

 bung it up tightly, and for two years 'touch not, tasto not, 

 handle not,' and as m'lch longer as you can resist the tempta- 



