435 
the same grapes yield 60 to 65 per cent. of wine; or, in other words, 
100lbs. of crushed grapes yield about six to six and a-half gallons 
of wine, or 135 to 145 gallons of new wine to the ton. 
The average yield of wine per acre for Australia is about 200 
gallons per acre of wine grapes. 
SHOULD Grapes BE STEMMED oR STALKED. 
Experience with us, as well as wherever wine is made from the 
choicer varieties of grapes, distinctly gives an affirmative answer. 
A chemical examination of the stalk shows that there is little or 
nothing in it which enters into the composition of wine. The only 
soluble substances it possesses—viz., tannin, albuminoid substances, 
organic acid, and salts—already occur in abundance in the grape 
must. Wines fermented with husks and stalks added are harsher 
than wines fermented without stalks; they also often show an 
earthy taste, and are not so clean to the palate. These disadvantages 
are serious enough in themselves, but there are other reasons why 
wines—red wines are here inferred—should not be fermented on 
their stalks, such as the economy of space in fermenting, stalked 
grapes occupying one-third less space inside the vats; the greater 
similarity between wine running freely from the vats and press 
wine, which when stalks are present are invariably much harsher; 
another reason is that wine from stalked grapes mature quicker 
and can be marketed sooner than would otherwise be the ease. 
Stalking, moreover, is effected by a mechanical tearing and 
tossing about of the grape, which results in a thorough aeration of 
the must, an operation which ensures a more active and healthy 
fermentation, and reacts favourably on the quality of the wine. 
In the. manufacture of white wine the same objections dis- 
appear, as white wines are not fermented on either skins or stalks. 
For the easier pressing of the sweet juice out of the glutinous 
pulp, however, the admixture of stalks are of great assistance, as 
they prevent the solidification of the soft pulp. 
In that case, the stalking part of the machine should be thrown 
out of gear and the whole bunch, stalk and all, mangled between the 
rollers of the grape mill. If the type of machine does not permit 
of that, the pulp and the stalks should either be mixed together in 
the cage of the press, or else they should be superposed in alternate 
layers, as the stalks will prevent the solidification of the glutinous 
mass and keep it porous and open, thereby favouring the eseape 
of the juice when the pressure is applied. 
White wines fermented apart from skins and stalks are lighter 
in colour; it is true that the wine is at times slow in clearing, on 
account of a deficiency of tannin which the pips and the stalks 
failed to impart to it. By pressing the stalks with the pulp this 
deficiency is in some measure corrected. 
