416 THE GENERAL SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



and periodically, in this country. When we have 

 that good fortune, the grape abounds so much beyond 

 all other fruits in the vinous juice, that pure wine 

 may be made without the addition of water ; and in 

 three years, the wine will be in perfection. When 

 water is used to the grape, a portion of sugar is 

 added, as in other home wines. The reason our 

 grape wine is often so thin, is the want of a press in 

 common use, by which the skins of the fruit and part 

 of the stalks, that is to say, the murk, is embodied 

 with the wine, and contributes to its substance and 

 richness of flavour. The green gooseberry makes a 

 strong wine and of a fine Madeira colour ; its chief 

 defect is, perhaps, a peculiar gooseberry flavour, which 

 is scarcely got rid of in many years' keeping. The 

 white currant makes a very excellent and pure wine ; 

 the black, a wine still more powerful. It has of late 

 become the custom, and very successfully, to train the 

 black currant to the walls and sides of houses, as the 

 grape. Apricots also are said, on some few experi- 

 ments in plentiful years, to make a fine wine. In 

 conclusion, however ancient the manufacture, there is 

 much room for improvement in it ; and we submit to 

 our numerous country readers, a prospect of the 

 gratification and the advantage of sporting good 

 wine on their tables, at eight pence the bottle." 



To treat on the subject generally, it must be ac- 

 knowledged, that neither our soil nor climate are, in 

 any considerable degree, appropriate or equal to those 

 of warmer and more constant climes, for the produc- 

 tion of wine. This fact, had it needed an experiment, 

 received a decisive one, some threescore of years since, 



