540 [Assembly 



acid in the first fermentation. I have indeed made wine without 

 any ingredient added, which kept well; when the grapes were not 

 only very ripe, but shrunk by drying. But the quantity of wine is 

 very insignificant for the quantity of grapes; and therefore, for this 

 and other reasons, this mode of wine making is not at all advisable 

 for a living vineyard business. And the wine thus made, is quite as 

 intoxicating when intemperately used, as that made with keeping 

 ingredients, as the alcoholic principle is generated by fermentation in 

 all that is properly called wine. 



I now proceed to give the following brief rules for the benefit of 

 vintners generally. 



1. As to gathering the grapes. I have the Scuppernong berries, 

 as they ripen in succession (for near two months), shaken down with 

 a forked stick from the canopies above, into a large sheet below. 

 Other grapes I have picked off in clusters by hand. 



2. As to mashing the grapes, I do this with a machine of two 

 wooden rollers placed on a frame and tub or vat, and turned by hand 

 at diverse ends. (This machine was invented by Mr. Herbemont, 

 and described in his treatise on wine making.) 



3. As to keeping ingredient, and guarding against undue fermen- 

 tation. I strain the juice as running from the press through several 

 folds of a woollen blanket, and then add sugar, from two to three 

 pounds per gallon, and mix it thoroughly. I then put the prepared 

 juice into a cask fumigated with a sulphur match. I will simply 

 add a remark, that if I wish a highly colored wine of dark grapes, I 

 ferment a few hours the mashed mass, before the last named process. 



S. WELLER. 



SOILING CATTLE, &c. 



Chairman^— Our regular subject is soiling of cattle, first, and kitch- 

 en garden, next. 



Judge Van Wyck-— As I described the grazing system at the last 

 meeting, the field remains covered with the litter and the manure of 

 the cattle, and I know of no better condition of the pasture for a 



