AGRICULTURE. 203 
the level of the sediment. The remainder is filtered through 
a doubled cotton cloth, and is then poured in with the clear 
liquor, or used in making brandy. The sediment deposited in 
the bottom of the cask within the first three months is about 
one-twentieth in weight of the juice as it comes from the press. 
After the first racking, the new cask is filled up, the bung is 
put in, and the wine is not disturbed till March or April, when 
it begins to feel a more lively fermentation, for that process 
never ceases entirely. 
It is said that the wine sympathizes with the vine, and that 
whenever the latter is in active development, the former feels 
a peculiar impulse also. Thus, the periods when the vine 
sprouts in March or April, when it blossoms in June, and when 
the grape ripens in September, are also the times when the fer- 
mentation is the most active. At those seasons the bungs must 
be taken off, or at least loosened, and the barrels must not be 
moved. 
It is an important point with wine-makers to avoid disturb- 
ing the process of fermentation. Between times, when the 
wine is at rest, it should be racked off, and placed in a clean 
cask. At the end of a year and a half the wine has become 
clear, but it continues to grow better with age for about a 
score of years, about the expiration of which period it has ac- 
quired a mellowness and delicacy of flavor and an oiliness of 
consistency which neither gain nor lose by longer preserva- 
tion. 
Many kinds of wine are made in California. The light wines 
come in this state, as in other parts of the world, from the 
northern, and the strong wines from the southern districts. 
The wines of Los Angelica have a body like those of Spain, 
and the wines of Sonoma and the upper Sacramento valley re- 
semble claret and hock. A wine similar to port is made in 
the southern part of the state, by leaving the grapes on the 
vines until they are “dead ripe,” and somewhat shrivelled by 
the sun. The juice is then very strong, and, being left with 
the pulp ten days or two weeks, takes a strong, dark-red color, 
