proceedings of the farmers' club. 287 



Rhubarb Wine. 



Mr. P. L. Merritt, of Bainbridge, N. Y., says that agents are traversing 

 the State making extravagant representations in regard to wine produced 

 from the rhubarb plant; and by exhibiting samples of the wine are induc- 

 ing many farmers to go largely into the cultivation. As he does not like 

 to be humbugged, he asks the- opinion of the Farmers' Club upon the 

 subject. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The only humbug in the case that I have heard of," 

 is that these agents are selling the roots of the common pie-plant upon 

 false representations of its being something peculiar, and more productive 

 of wine than anything that can be obtained from any other source; when, 

 in fact, a beverage called wine can be made from the stalks of any rhubarb 

 plant, though, perhaps, the kind known as Linnteus is the best. 



Prof. Mapes. — I have been in the habit of making wine from rhubarb, 

 but after all it is nothing but rhubarb cordial. It is a beverage which 

 may be made in large quantities from the stalks of the rhubarb — some per- 

 sons have stated as large a quantity as 2,500 gallons per acre. No doubt 

 an acre will produce four times as much as an acre of grapes, and it has 

 been sold for $2 per gallon, but if the farmers of central New York are 

 going largely into the business the market will be glutted so that it will 

 be hardly salable at any price. Besides, it is probable that large quanti- 

 ties would be made, worthless for any purpose but vinegar. A good arti- 

 cle cannot be made unless the cane sugar is converted into a product 

 resembling grape sugar. This is done by first converting it into rock 

 candy and then boiling twelve hours in water slightly acidulated with 

 sulphuric acid. The acid is afterward neutralized with the cream of chalk 

 stirred in as long as it produces any effect. The stalks may be cut in a 

 common chaffing machine, and pressed in a cider mill. Put eighteen gal- 

 lons of the juice in a cask of thirty gallons, with ninety-six pounds of the 

 prepared sugar, and fill up with water. It will then ferment seven or 

 eight weeks in a temperature of sixty degrees, when it should be bunged 

 tight and kept till spring before racking off. It must be bottled or 

 drawn into another cask before the weather becomes warm, else it will 

 take on a second fermentation, become turbid, and then cannot afterward 

 be fined. If drawn into a clean cask, it is better to stand until the next 

 autumn before bottling, or "it may be kept, as well as any other wine, in 

 the cask. I have some which has stood in my cellar five years, has been 

 repeatedly drawn from, and by many persons is liked better than grape 

 wine. 



When to Prune and When to Cut Timber. 



An Indiana correspondent thinks that " a young orchard, that is grow- 

 ing, should not be trimmed until the trees have received the full benefit of 

 the preceding fall store of starch and nitrogen, as these substances form 

 the organic structure of the tree. If it is trimmed too early, a great quan- 

 tity of nitrogen is lost, the tree and its growth proportionably checked; 

 and we would prefer, in old bearing trees, to defer trimming until the 

 apples were one-third formed. The proper time of cutting timber is about 

 the middle of August, as then the wood will be nearly, if not quite, ripe; 



