WINE MAKING. 463 



in the wine. Science has given to this part of 

 the art, theoretically, a great degree of exact- 

 ness: a given amount of sugar converted into 

 alcohol and carbonic acid will produce a certain 

 pressure, which good bottles made for the pur- 

 pose are able to withstand. About two atmos- 

 pheres, or sixty pounds to the inch, are deemed 

 the lowest admissible degree. This may be 

 considered a pretty high pressure, but the bot- 

 tles are made to endure two-fold more than that. 

 If the pressure becomes very much higher, the 

 bottles burst ; if very much lower, the wine lacks 

 the force of effervescence that is deemed so desir- 

 able. Our present knowledge, however, will not 

 enable us to control or precisely estimate the 

 strength of fermentation from given quantities 

 of material, and hence some loss will occur under 

 the best management. After the closest calcu- 

 lation has been made, and the excess of sugar 

 reduced, there will still be much left to experi- 

 ment. The second fermentation is brought on 

 in warm rooms, and carried to the point of 

 breaking some of the bottles. When it is 

 jduged that fermentation has reached the 

 proper point, two methods are resorted to for 

 checking it: first, sprinkling cold water on 

 bottles; the second, removing the bottles to 



