80 APPENDIX. 



stances to it that will strengthen it, whether sugar or spirit, 

 but either will injure the quality, and the produce will not be 

 of fine flavor or possess the mellowness that is indispensable 

 to good wine ; in fact, the ''manufacturing''' should be as much 

 avoided as possible. The strength of wine depends upon the 

 amount of sugar contained in the juice of the grape, a portion 

 of this sugar is decomposed and its alcohol combined with 

 a,nother portion of the sugar during the fermenting process : 

 now if the fermentation is hurried too rapidly, and is not sus- 

 pended at the proper time, the spirit will, by another fermen- 

 tation, the acetous, be converted into vinegar, and the whole 

 irrecoverably lost, as no *' manufacturing or doctoring" will 

 ever correct a cask of wine after that change has occurred. 

 The acetic acid may be neutralized, but it will never be 

 sound, good wine ; for this reason — a too rapid fermentation 

 should be guarded against. Very weak wines are more liable 

 to become acid than stronq- ones, for the amount of alcohol 

 elaborated, when there is an abundance of sugar, serves to 

 check the rapid vinous fermentation, and prevents its running 

 into the acetic change. 



Some have tried adding sugar to the juice, but the diffe- 

 rence between cane and grape sugar is such that the product 

 has not been satisfactory. 



I think the juice of well-matured Catawba or Cape grapes, 

 that are produced in this vicinity, is strong enough to insure 

 good wine without any addition either of spirit or sugar. 



Julius Brace. 



December, 1850. 



ON SPRING AND SUMMER PRUNING. 



R. Buchanan, Esq. : — 



Dear Sir. — To your request that I would communicate a 

 detailed statement of my mode of training and pruning vines, 

 I cheerfully comply — and as I think much experience and 

 observation are required to arrive at the best methods, I shall 



