AND WINE MAKING. 339 



sawed timber, six by eight inches, laid about three feet 

 apart lengthwise, and resting on erosspleces, form the 

 foundations for the casks and vats. There will be room 

 enough under the roof, aboye the middle of the second 

 story, for the crusher, stemmer, pumps, elevator, and 

 all the machinery needed. Twenty feet wide of flooring 

 extending the length of the building and properly sup- 

 ported, will afford all the space needed. The machinery 

 may be operated by steam or by hand. The two rows of 

 fermenting vats on each side will suffice to receive all 

 the crushed grapes, and a row of casks or tanks with 

 ■ double bottoms may be placed in the center of the fer- 

 menting room, into which the young wine can be 

 pumped as soon as fermentation is complete. From 

 these it can be conducted, by means of, hose, into the 

 casks below, immediately after the first racking, which 

 should be done as soon as it has deposited most of the 

 lees and become quiet and transparent. There are sev- 

 eral establishments in the State which manufacture the 

 machinery for wine making, in sufficient variety to suit 

 a large or small business. One of the most complete is 

 that of Mr. Heald, of Benicia, Solano county. 



PICKING THE GRAPES. 



The grapes must be fully ripe, but how ripe depends 

 somewhat on the character of the wine to be made. For 

 the common grades of clarets and white wines they are 

 ripe enough when the stems become brown, and the berries 

 evenly colored and translucent. But the best test is the 

 saccharometer, of which Balling's is the scale most com- 

 monly used, and of which one degree is about equal to 

 four degrees of Oechsle's, which is generally used in the 

 Bast and in Germany. Whenever our common grapes 

 show 22° to 24° Balling, they are considered ripe enough 

 to make good dry wine. But when it is desired to make 

 a Haut Sauterne from such varieties as Sauvignon, 



