532 [ASSEMBI.T 



— about ten per cent — add also a little loaf sugar. We shake the 

 vines so that the ripe grapes fall into sheets spread to catch them. 

 We make wine from a wild grape, which is something like the Mus- 

 cadine, and of other wild grapes. The odour of the Scuppernong 

 grape is highly agreeable and powerful, filling large rooms. One 

 gentleman is making very good brandy from grapes, imported as well 

 as native. Some suppose that our Warren grape was originally im- 

 ported: it is named from Warren county, Georgia. I think it is a 

 native grape. 



Dr. Underbill — W^e have heard of Herbemont's Madeira. 



Mr. Terrill — ^It was a good wine: he is deceased. One of ouir 

 difficulties with the Scuppernong, is the pruning of it. We must be 

 very careful. It must be pruned in November at the fall of its leaves j 

 otherwise it is injured much, if not fatally. The culture of the 

 Warren grape is extended all over our country. It ripens rather 

 later than the Isabella. We do not like the latter much in Georgia. 



Charles Henry Hall — Wine, if properly made, should be without 

 the addition of brandy. When its processes, its fermentation, are 

 made as they should be, it is only necessary that they should be pre- 

 served in proper situations, as in the caves made for that purpose in 

 Europe, where the temperature is right for their preservation. Some 

 of these caves are formed in the sides of hills and holes are made 

 from the surface of the ground to the caves to give exit to the gases 

 formed. I call upon our learned friend Dr. Underbill for informa- 

 tion; he raises grapes on the large scale, a production of great 

 importance. 



Dr. Underbill — Nearly all, if not all fruits, contain the vinous 

 principle. When the must of grapes or other fruit is warmed to about 

 one hundred and five degrees of Fahrenheit, then the alcohol contained 

 in them comes over, and such is the nature of this chemical process 

 that afterwards adding the brandy or alcohol to the wine is unavail- 

 ing; no chemical combination restores it to its original condition. 

 German chemists attribute the vinous principle to the saccharine 

 matter contained in the fruits. Since I commenced my vineyard the 

 doctrines of Temperance have gained great extension. My great ob- 

 ject in the introduction of grapes and wine into our country, was to 

 displace, if possible, the use of ardent spirits; and wine is indeed in- 

 dispensable for many medical purposes, as is well understood by all 

 physicians. 



