clxii INTRODUCTION. 



Insects have not as yet been found very injurious, but the careful vine-dresser will watch closely, 

 and permit none to get colonized in his vineyard. The frost in some localities kills the young shoots 

 of the vine in April, or early in May, but the twin or latent bud will put out, and yield about half a 

 crop. To prevent serious injury by hail, let the bunches of grapes be well sheltered by the leaves of 

 the vine, which will also prove a protection from the hot sun. 



VARIETIES OF GRAPES FOR THE VINEYARD. 



These are now quite numerous, and every year adds more to the list. It will only be necessary 

 to name a few of the most popular varieties, and 



1. Catawba. Nine-tenths of all our vineyards in the west and southwest are planted with this 

 fine grape. With all its liability to rot, it continues a favorite. 



2. Delaware. This hardy and delicious table grape promises to rival the Catawba for wine. It 

 is becoming popular with some of our best cultivators. The wine is light and delicate, and preferred 

 to the Catawba by many good judges. The Delaware is less subject to rot than that variety. 



3. Herbemont makes an excellent wine, but the vine is not hardy enough to be much planted. 



4. Norton s Seedling. A hardy, free-growing vine, but little affected by rot, makes a rich red wine 

 like Burgundy, and is becoming quite popular. 



5. Schuylkill. This old favorite of sixty years ago is now but little planted. The wine resembles 

 claret when well made, but the vine bears light crops. It is almost free from rot. 



6. Isabella. Another favorite of former years that is now but little cultivated for wine. It is 

 deficient in saccharine matter to make still wine that will keep without adding sugar to the must or 

 juice; but the sparkling wine from it is delicious. 



The Concord, Hartford Prolific, and some of Rogers s hybrids, appear to suit our climate, and to be 

 free from disease, but are not yet fairly tested for wine. Grapes of recent introduction in high credit 

 for northern cultivation are the lona, and Adirondack, natives of the State of New York, and the 

 Creveling, a native of Pennsylvania. In the south, in addition to the Catawba, the Warren is largely 

 cultivated, and the Scuppernong still holds the favorable reputation it acquired sixty years ago. Other 

 varieties are being tested which it is unnecessary to enumerate here. The varieties in the vineyards of 

 . California arc said to be foreign or of foreign origin. I have no means of describing or even naming them. 



WINE-MAKING. 



This process is as simple as making cider. The bunches of well-ripened, selected grapes, are 

 mashed by passing through a pair of wooden rollers in a small grape-mill, or by a beetle in a barrel; 

 then poured into the press and the juice extracted. This &quot;must,&quot; as it is termed, is put into a 

 clean cask to ferment. A few inches of space is left to allow room for fermentation, and a tin siphon 

 is placed tight in the bung-hole, with one end in a bucket of water, through which the carbonic acid 

 gas escapes, thus preventing a contact with the air from injuring the new wine. In ten days or two 

 weeks the fermentation ceases ; then fill up the casks and drive the bungs tight. In March rack off 

 the wine into clean casks. A second but slight fermentation will take place in May, when the bungs 

 should be loosened until it subsides ; then fill up the casks and tighten the bungs. The wine is now 

 made, and in autumn will be fit to bottle. The only art in preserving the wine sound is to keep it 

 free from the air by filling up the casks and tightening the bungs every two or three weeks. So 

 important is this, that in Europe they have a quaint proverb : &quot;A man might as well forget to kiss his 

 wife on coming home, as to leave a vacancy in his wine-cask,&quot; implying that the omission would turn 

 both sour. 



From the refuse grapes, and the last pressing of the good ones, an inferior wine is made by the 

 addition of sugar, and sold at half price. The lees of the wine and the pomace of the grapes are dis 

 tilled for brandy, which, in three or four years, compares favorably with foreign. 



The pride of the wine-grower is to make a good natural wine from the pure juice of the grape, 

 without the artificial appliances of sugar or spirits. And, if this &quot; must&quot; or juice weighs over 80 (or 

 1.080) by the areometer or saccharine-scale, it will do so ; if not, then loaf sugar, dissolved in water, 



