442 AMERICAN GRAPE CULTURE. 



mentation, if every thing has gone on favora- 

 bly, the wine becomes clear, and does not need 

 the operation called " fining." 



Almost every maker of wine has some pecu- 

 liarities of his own, but all dry wines are made 

 upon the same general principles. Let us next 

 present an example of making good wine in a 

 small or domestic way. We have some excellent 

 wine thus made from the lona. As we were inter- 

 ested in the proceedings, we will detail them so 

 far as to enable the reader to repeat them. 

 The object was to test the wine-making capa- 

 city of the lona under a variety of circum- 

 stances, and specimens were, therefore, procured 

 from different localities, and gathered at differ- 

 ent times, but all north of New-York. 



The grapes were crushed by hand and the 

 juice strained through a cloth, a part of it, 

 however, having been fermented on the skins. 

 It was then put in clean demijohns and bot- 

 tles, and these placed on a shelf in the room, 

 each specimen having been first tried by the 

 saccharometer, (GEschle's,) and its degree noted. 

 All were above eighty-five degrees, and some 

 above a hundred. Some were reduced to 

 sixty-eight by the addition of water. There 

 being no proper facilities for maintaining an 



