THE SUBJECT GENERALLY. 415 



foreign. Quality and improvement have not been so 

 materially the object, as the quantity required. Since' 

 the war, Cape wine has been introduced and con- 

 sumed among us in very considerable quantities ; but 

 of late years, its consumption has been reduced to 

 almost nothing, except for mixing with foreign wines. 

 The quality is, however, generally inferior, probably 

 from the want of skill and capital in the colonists ; 

 moreover, the wine has not proved to be a good 

 keeper. The motives for a still greater extension of 

 the home manufacture of wine, and its farther im- 

 provement, are as follow : its superior cheapness, 

 since it may be produced, of the very finest quality, 

 at little, if any more than one-third of the price of 

 ordinary Cape wine, and with that attachment to the 

 flavour, which great numbers of persons acquire by 

 use. One great defect in our home-made wines, 

 arises from the supposed economy of using very 

 coarse sugar, which imparts to the wine the ordinary 

 and disagreeable flavour of molasses. A species of 

 foreign wine is commonly made in England, namely, 

 the Orange and the Raisin. The first, if not de- 

 teriorated by coarse sugar, is a fine cordial wine, at 

 three years old nearly equal to Frontiniac ; and the 

 latter from good Muscatels, and skilfully manufac- 

 tured, is fit to set upon any moderate table. It 

 requires no sugar ; and further, is real wine, as it is 

 not only produced from the grape, but from that of 

 the warm climates. In France, raisin is the general 

 term for grape, and raisins or preserved grapes are said 

 to retain the full quality of the fruit. A plentiful 

 and ripening season for the grape occurs but seldom 

 T 4 



