October, 1889. 
GARDEN 
185 
ORCHARD 
WVW SJ W vv \/\/wv 
Timely Topic*. 
After all the rot I find that some varieties 
have escaped pretty well. Carber, one of 
the very earliest, has ripened a good crop 
with scarcely any rot. Marsala also is near- 
ly exempt. Cynthiana and Norton had but 
vervlitile. I cui a branch to-day of Early 
Victor, with ten bunches of almost perfect 
grapes that lay close to the ground held up 
by the lowest wire on the trellis, and near- 
ly overshadowed with foliage. Now this 
branch had more sound fruit than was on 
ten vines beside it. Marsala is so nearly ex- 
empt from rot, that it would be the thing to 
plant if of better quality. The Concord, 
Worden and Martha have shown me that 
they can make a clean job of it when they 
undertake to rot. On one hundred bearing 
vines of these there is not half a bunch of 
perfect grapes. It is said there are excep- 
tions to all rules and so it is in regard to 'he 
grape rot. One single variety sent me by 
Dr. Wiley of S. C., long ago, without a 
name, and which I have named Dr. Wiley, 
seems entirely exempt. It is of medium 
size in bunch and beri y, black, quality quite 
good, the vines moderately strong in growth, 
and bears a fair crop each year. I have yet 
the first rotten berry to find on it, except 
when stung by insects. I have no vines 
for sale. Weather is so dry and hot here that 
the early grapes are drying on the vines. A 
northern man asks how the Hermann grape 
would do up there. Not at all, it requires 
the whole season to mature it even here. It 
would not color at all in latitude 43 degrees. 
United States that all or nearly all of our 
wines here are more or less sugared and in- 
deed greatly improved thereby. 
Two kinds of wine may be made from 
one variety of grapes differing so widely 
that it will take a very good judge to tell 
that they are from the same grape. One 
process consists of pressing the fruit lightly 
so as to extract only the sweet juice between 
the skin and pulp, and this mode makes a 
wine of a lighter color and much smoother 
to the taste than when fermented with the 
husks. After the hrst pressing the husks 
and stems are put into a vat with sugar- 
ed water in the proportion of about one half 
to the amount of the extracted juice. If a 
heavy wine is desired two and one half 
pounds of No. 1 white sugar to the gallon 
should be used; if a lighter article is preferr- 
ed, two pounds of sugar will be quite suffi- 
cient. This must be allowed to ferment forty- 
eight hours in warm weather but should the 
weather be cool it will require a much long- 
er time. During fermentation the mass 
should be frequently stirred up, so as to ex- 
pose it to the air; then press out all the 
liquor, strain through cloths or a hair sieve, 
and put into clean, sweet vessels, filling 
them up to within two or three inches of 
the top. Then close the bunghole with a 
stopper about half the size of the hole but 
wrapped with cotton so as to fit tightly. This 
will permit the gas to escape but will pre- 
vent the outside air, with its germs of decay, 
from entering. Or a small sack of fine sand 
may be laid on the bunghole and pressed 
down firmly. When fermentation has ceas- 
ed, which may be ascertained by lifting the 
sand bag or taking out the cotton plug on a 
clear day and listening until i o seething is 
preceptible, the barrels may be bunged up 
tightly. 
\V I ■■ t - tl a k i n ” , 
This is the harvest month for the vintner, 
especially where wine-making is largely 
employed in the utilization of the grape 
crop, and it may not be out of place here to 
offer a few suggestions and hints on the 
modus operamli of wine-making in general. 
To make a good wine the grapes must be 
ripe, gathered on a clear day and all imper- 
fect and green berries taken out. There are 
varieties which contain more acid than is 
necessary and which will not make a palat- 
able wine without the addition of sugar. 
Elvira, for instance, will require about half 
a gallon of sugared water to the gallon 
or pure juice, made in the proportion of 
about two pounds of sugar to the gallon of 
water. This is added to the husks when the 
grapes are crushed and helps to bring out 
all that there is in them. Some of our read- 
ers may say that this is not wine and may 
call it adulteration, but it is not so, for sugar 
is one of the main constituents of the grape 
and, when acid predominates, must be added. 
Chemists tell us that in undergoing fermen- 
tation the cane sugar is converted into grape 
sugar, hence it is all the same. Let me tell 
the wine-drinkers of the Eastern half of the 
A superior quality of wine, such as I 
would call “gilt edge,” may be made by 
taking well ripened Norton grapes and run- 
ning them betw een the rollers on to a sieve 
with meshes large enough to let the berries 
through but keeping the stems back. Put 
it into •• suitable vessel and from the time 
fermentation begins until it ceases the whole 
mass should be stirred every half hour. 
Then treat it as described above, straining 
and draw ing off into clean vessels. This 
was told to me by an old wine-maker who 
made as fine wine as ever I drank. Wine 
made in this way, of well ripened Norton 
grapes, will remind one of the Port and Bur- 
gundy to be met with occasionally, forty or 
fifty years ago. 
For medical purposes Norton grapes should 
be crushed stems and all, fermented in a mass 
until well used up, and then pressed, using 
no sugar. The tannin in the stems ami seeds 
give it much ot' the medicinal qualities it 
possesses. One half pint of this wine, when 
properly made, heated and a little cinnamon 
and cloves added, will seldom fail to cure 
the worst case of bowel complaint, and 
moreover it is not bad to take either. 
A saccharometer is necessary in wine- 
making to ascertain the weight of the must 
and giving us an idea of what body the wine 
will be. In the absence of this instrument, 
however, we may make use of a fresh egg 
or a sound potato for our test. If either of 
these float so that even the slightest part is 
visible above the surface of the must, there 
will be a rather heavy wine, and if it pro- 
jects much, say half an inch, above the sur- 
face, the wine will be quite heavy and will 
be likely to run above 100 degrees on the 
must scale. I have known Norton must to 
weigh 110 degrees, which makes a wine that, 
when ripe, will revive anyone who is sorely 
fatigued in either body or mind, or in both. 
An ordinary v\ ineglassful of it will in a mo- 
ment tingle to the tips of his fingers and 
arouse him without the slightest effect in 
the way of intoxication. 
Our readers wfill not wonder why I dwell 
upon this variety (Norton) so much when I 
say that I consider it the most valuable 
grape on this side of the Pocky Mountains. 
It is a healthy productive vine, the fruit less 
suuject to rot than nearly all others, and 
while the best red wine grape along with 
Cynthiana, it is an excellent table grape and 
and may be kept through the winter in good 
condition. 
Grape J nice. 
A1 hough I have alluded to this in the Au- 
gust number there are so many who prefer 
it to fermented wine that I give here what I 
consider an improvement in the manner of 
preparing it. Instead of pressing out the 
the juice from the fresh grapes I plucked 
the berries from the stems and boiled them 
until soft. A li f tie water is necessary in the 
boiler or some of the grapes at the bottom 
may burn before the juice has been sufficient 
ly extracted. When the grapes are quitesoft 
take them out and drain through a sieve. 
Then press them and boil all the juice until 
no scum arises. Have bottles ready suffici- 
ently heated to prevent cracking; fill them 
up full, with the hot juice, cork at once 
tightly, cuttlie c.orksoff even with the mouth 
of the bottles and dip them in melted ce- 
ment. Set them away in a dark place in 
tbe cellar, and you have a delicious article 
of drink, any time thereafter for years. I 
use a half pound of good white sugar to the 
gallon of juice, put in while boiling; this is, 
however, not really necessary but gives it 
more body. When using it, fill a tumbler 
Half full of juice, fill up w T itb fresh water 
and it is simply delicious and just the thing 
for the sick or the well. It is just the thing 
for the strict! v temperate folks, and a glass- 
ful of it will revive one wonderfully when 
tired and fagged out. It may be put up in 
five or ten gallon vessels if well bunged up 
and sealed, but when such a body is once at- 
tacked in warm weather it must be used at 
once or it will soon turn into wine and then 
into vinegar. This boiling the grapes whole 
seems to give more aroma to it, and makes 
a supeiior article. — Samuel Miller. 
In O. & G. for Sept, you quote Geo. W. 
Campbell: “We need also a Delaware with 
more vigorous growth, larger fruit and 
healtlr er foliage.” With me the Brighton fills 
the bill. — Chas. C. Cornett, Ind. 
