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CaSKS AND VATS. 
Two classes of materials are more commonly used in the 
construction of these vessels, viz., wood, and bricks and cement. 
Timber for Wine Casks and Vats. 
The wood best suited for coopering work is the oak, which, 
in that capacity, stands without rival. Of oaks, some are more 
suitable than others. The best is a sub-variety of Quercus robur 
or European oak, viz., Quercus pedunculata or Slavonian oak, 
from the forests of Croatia, Hunagry, and Russia, where it grows 
on the alluvial flats flooded by the Danube. The soil of these 
flats is exceptionally suitable for the growth of the oak tree, 
which, for the purposes of shipbuilding, cabinet and joiners’ work, 
and for coopering, must embody special features. This oak supplies 
these requirements, which are: equal proportions and dimensions 
and qualities; show the compactness, uniformity, and elasticity of 
the fibres; and the absence of knots and borer holes. Apart from 
these physical properties, it also contains a fair proportion of 
tannin and a special sugar called “quercite,” which has on the wine 
a very beneficial effect, causing it to clear readily, and imparting 
to it a peculiar but faint fragrance, without at the same time adding 
to it an excess of extracted matter, which is to be found in chestnut 
and other timber. 
Amongst other kinds of oaks used by coopers are also the 
Burgundy oak, the Dantzig or Memel oak, and the American oak. 
The latter, which is useful for providing those wider boards through 
which manholes are cut out in the larger sized casks, is less com- 
pact than the Slavonian or Dalmatian oak, and it also at first im- 
parts a somewhat bitterish taste to the wine. 
Besides the oak, other timber, such as the chestnut, the acacia, 
and the redwood of California (Sequoia), supply wood suitable 
for staves. } 
Amongst Australian woods, the mountain ash (Eucalyptus 
sieberiana) of Gippsland and New South Wales, from the moun- 
tains of South-Eastern Australia, supplies an excellent wood for 
fermenting vats or for large casks. It splits freely and smoothly, 
and is easy to work. For small casks, with thin staves, this timber 
does not do so well, being rather soft and porous. 
For vats, either for fermenting or when headed up, for storing 
wine, the two leading West Australian timbers, karri (E. diversi- 
color) and jarrah (FE. marginata), are much used in South Aus- 
tralia as well as in Western Australia. Of the two, karri is more 
elastic. Their worst features are their tendency to warp, and their 
heavy density. It is said that if felled towards the end of summer 
jarrah will be less given to warp. The first grows in the fertile 
