102 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ages, are successfully combined by fskillful tasters, who 
thus produce a result finer, perhaps, than could be reach- 
ed by the production of any one vintage whatever. The 
taster is the man upon whose judgment the process de- 
pends. 
Thus, when the mixtures are complete, the wine is put 
into large vats, containing from a thousand to five thou- 
sand bottles, where it remains until it is drawn off. By 
this time it has perfected itself as far as it can, when it is 
put into bottles and deposited in the coldest cellars that 
can be made. When the spring comes on, the second 
fermentation of the wine takes place, and this is often at- 
tended with a heavy loss by the breakage of bottles,- But 
those which stand the racket are then carefully wired for 
a year or two, and laid down flat, when a sediment 
gathers on the lower side of the bottle. The bottles are 
afterwards turned to stand perpendicular, and shaken 
every day, until the sediment which forms comes to the 
top, leaving the wine clear. After this period the bottle 
is not disturbed until the final process is reached, when 
this sediment must be got rid of, and it is to be done by a 
rapid and skillful movement. 
The string is cut and the cork goes off with a pop, and 
with it all the sediment that had been collected. Then a 
small per centage of the finest crystalized sugar, with from 
one to three per cent, of the best brandy in the world, is 
added to snpply the vacuum made by that small portion 
of wine which escaped. The bottle is instantly corked 
firmly, and the wine is ready for exportation. 
The reason for putting same sugar in, is to overcome 
the asperity, roughness, or even bitterness, which might 
be detected in the best vintage by a fine palate ; and this 
infinitessimal quantity of brandy is added as a corrective, 
to produce a chemical whole, combining and blending all 
the elements together. A powerful machine drives the 
cork home, and thus, from five hundred to ten thousand 
bottles a day, pass through a great establLshment, The 
government of France reported last year something like 
sixteen millions of bottles exported. The German States 
consume five millions, while England takes only about 
six hundred thousand; France, Belgium, and Spain, con- 
sume but two millions ; other smaller nations in the ag- 
gregate use but two, and the balance comes to the United 
States. 
It will thus be seen that we drink move champagne in 
America than all the rest of the world put together. Every 
quality of it is sent here, and almost any quantity with- 
out labels, that each dealer will put on what label will 
best suit his customers, varying the price as he can make 
it, for it is absolutely within our own knowledge that we 
have drank champagne of all prices and all brands, at the 
same table, when there was but one quality of champagne 
under all the brands, and that of the most infamous des- 
cription . — Democratic Age. 
THE STUDY OF FARM ECONOMY. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Dr. Lee, on pp. 
17, 18 and 19, devotes a rich article to the above subject, 
and it is well handled ; yet pardon a less skillful, a less 
scientific friend of yours when he dares to differ. I here 
give you where we differ, and will leave it to the experi- 
ence of others to decide. 
I take his last paragraph, the last subject, “making vnn- 
tcr butler. Now, sir, 1 will not dare to say my house- 
wife is any smarter than a great many others ; yet I do 
affirm that we have on our table, the first week in Febru- 
ary, as pretty yellow butter and as rich flavored as you 
will find, usually, in many, aye, the most of families even 
in May. I admit it is not so rich in color or flavor as May 
butter is here, and ought to be elsewhere. If you will pro- 
vide field peas, corn and turnips, I will agree to show you 
good looking and good butter any month in the year. We 
are now cooking a few cotton seed, say 1 gallon to each 
cow, with meal and turnips daily, and our butter is as I 
say. I have known this done by my old mother, a native 
of Maryland, “forty years ago.” 
I read, with pleasure, v/hat our Dr. says about Ber- 
muda Grass, and I endorse fully, “the best grass on the 
farm is Bermuda.” I have seen hay from it, and some 100 
or more of as pretty cattle, Ayrshires principally, on a 
pasture as I ever saw in Kentucky, even on the farm of 
H. Clay himself. I believe, on land good for forty bush- 
els per acre, that Bermuda will feed more horses or cattle, 
from 1st of April to 1st of October, than will the same 
quality of land in Blue, Orchard or Timothy, in Kentucky 
or Virginia. I knov/ all these grasses, but more of Ber- 
muda. Fifty acres of fair land, well set in Bermuda, 50 
choice Devons of 2 years old, with winter pasture, would 
be an income sufficient to educate a large family. 
Keeping Sweet Potatoes is another matter we shall dif- 
fer upon. I have housed sweet potatoes some twenty to 
twenty-five years, and seen them housed by my father 
many years before I left my nativity. I have lost more 
potatoes this season than ever before, and it is “the cry ^ 
in more than one-half the families I have visited. I had 
potatoes planted in three fields, with the intent of giving 
the largest portion to hogs, In Oct, I saw there w^ould 
be a scarcity at best, so I dug before frost, the field in corn, 
perhaps some six or eight acres, so I could give the 
pea field to hogs before frost. They were banked as 
usual, level off land, laydown corn stalks about three 
inches thick, cut all off to a circle of say six ti eight feet 
in diameter, 'land slightly elevated, place in the centre a 
box six inches wide, six feet long, holes bored in sides 
from top to bottom, bank up potatoes all round compact 
as possible, until raised near or about five feet high to a 
point, then put corn stalks all around, some four inches 
thick and bank earth about as thick ; leave hole in box 
open until freezing weather, when a little more earth may 
be put put on the heap. No boards, no roof, I have put 
up potatoes in a rain, have known many bucket of water 
thrown on after being bulked, but never lost potatoes as 
the present year. 
I have a potato house, have seen them for “some forty 
years” or less, and would rely upon them sooner than on 
banks 1 have seen hundreds of bushels lost irom one 
house, because too warm and too tight, seldom when open 
enough. . , 
In 1842, 1 visited a planter down in Louisiana in JMaich 
and saw a house about 16 by 20 in which the hands were 
overhauling the potatoes, and there was not a bushel un- 
sound to 250 bushels. , , , • 
I visited a gentleman, over 70 years old, this season in 
Mississippi, a native of South Carolina, and saw his po- 
tato house. I will describe it; the best I have seen, as it 
was very neat and all snug. The house about 12 by 16 
and 9 feet high. Framed and weather boarded, covered 
with shingles. . , -n j 
The sleepers were, say, 6 inches deep, with a sill under 
each end and the middle, under side lined with plank, 
filled in with saw^-dust and floor laid down. No cold air 
could pass up. re. 
The walls were ceiled with rough plank about o feet 
high and filled in with saw-dust. Rough boards nailed 
to upper joists and the gables left open. A 3 feet pass 
way from door to window in the rear; on each side were 
4 bins, made of inch plank, not touching, in which I saw 
as pretty potatoes in February as I ever saw in October, 
The house excluded air pretty much, yet neither too 
warm, nor would it be too cold in cold weather ; in fine 
weather the door and window was to be opened, with a 
half door to be shut, so as to keep animals from enter- 
ing. 
The greatest thing to fear is too much warmth. Sweat- 
ing will do no harm if there is an absorbent, 1 have been 
