68 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



leather, and thus destroy its best principles of durability. 

 Although the eggs seem also to be a glue, I suppose they do 

 not operate in the same way. The time isinglass succeeded 

 the best with me, I had left it to soak among thirty gallons 

 of wine in a keg, a full month ; then beaten m a tub with a 

 broom for an hour before it was introduced into the cask in- 

 tended to be fined ; one ounce per eighty or one hundred gal- 

 lons is the dose made use of. Some recommend to add the 

 shells, well-pounded, with the eggs ; and I have done it my- 

 self, but I abandoned that practice after I had considered, 

 that, being limestone, they must neutralize some of the tartar 

 of the wnne, which is absorbed again if it is lodged in a ves- 

 sel having some crystallized tartar adhering to its staves — 

 which is the case of all vessels in which new wine has been 

 made — will again dissolve as much of those crystals as the 

 hme will have neutralized ; for only a certain given quantity 

 of that salt can be dissolved by water, and none by alcohol ; 

 therefore, the more spiritous the wine is the less tartar it keeps 

 in solution. The must holds as much as its watery part 

 can dissolve ; in the course of the fermentation spirit is formed, 

 and all that part of the tartar which cannot be kept in solu- 

 tion by the spirit, or combined in it, is crystallized into hard 

 stone against the sides of the vessel." 



VINEYARD CULTURE IN AUSTRALIA. 



The vineyards of Asia and Europe have been established 

 for ages, and it would be superfluous here to say a word about 

 them — their history is recorded in numerous volumes. 



It is with new beginners like ourselves, that our sympathies 

 are naturally most enlisted, and with this view, the following 

 sketch of the progress of our own race on the opposite side 

 of the globe, in vine culture, is given. 



It is an extract from the first Vol., second edition, of Dr. 

 Lang's ** Historical and Statistical account of New South 

 Wales. London, 18.37." 



