ADULTERATION OR FOOD.- 5 —-NO. 12- 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD.—No, 12. 
Wines .—The most frequent fraud in the wine 
trade, is the mixing of wines of inferior quality 
with those of a superior grade. In many cases, the 
cheaper kinds are flavored and substituted for the 
more expensive ones. For instance, the Sherry, of 
Xeres, in Spain, is commonly colored by the addi¬ 
tion of “ must,” boiled down to one fifth of its 
original volume ; but in England and elsewhere, by 
burnt brown sugar, or spirit coloring. Amontillado, 
another very excellent nutty wine of Spain, is often 
added to Sherries deficient in flavor; and various 
other ingredients, as the essential oil of bitter al¬ 
monds, bitter almonds in substance, cherry-laurel 
leaves, &c., are also employed for a like purpose. 
Alum is added to new and poor red wines to 
brighten their color ; and to pale, faintly-colored 
Port, the petals of red poppies, beet root, Brazil 
wood, and logwood are employed, together with the 
juice of elderberries, bilberries, privet berries, mul¬ 
berries, and sloes, to deepen its color. In cases 
where an additional astringency is required, oak 
sawdust, kino, salts of copper, alum, and extract of 
rhatany are used. A factitious boquet is also of¬ 
ten given to wine by the addition of orris root, 
sweet brier, bitter almonds, elder flowers, clary, &c., 
&c. When wine has become very acid, it is ren¬ 
dered drinkable again by the addition of a certain 
quantity of the carbonates of soda, potash, or of 
lime. Sometimes this acidity is removed by a fat- 
more dangerous remedy, namely, by the addition of 
litharge, ceruse, or the sugar of lead, in which cases, 
of course, the wine becomes highly poisonous. 
Moreover, it seems that there is not, as yet known 
to the trade, any other method of recovering sour or 
ropy wines, and the small quantity of lead, neces¬ 
sary to be employed, emboldens the dealer to con¬ 
tinue its use, by imagining that the very smallness 
of the quantity prevents any harmful effects follow¬ 
ing the constant use of wine thus treated. This, 
however, is not true. For lead, in whatever state 
it is taken into the stomach, occasions terrible dis¬ 
eases, and wine adulterated with the minutest quan¬ 
tity of it, becomes a slow poison. The merchant, 
or dealer, who practices this dangerous sophistica¬ 
tion, “ adds the crime of murder to that of fraud, 
and deliberately scatters the seeds of disease and 
death among those consumers who contribute to his 
emolument.’'' Such, indeed, may be said of all, 
who adulterate any substance which is employed as 
food. 
This subject may further be elucidated by a con¬ 
tinuance of the narrative of the same old broken- 
down grogseller, alluded to in our last, when his 
listeners expressed a desire to hear about wine :— 
“ Well, I’ll tell you that, too,” continued the old to¬ 
per, “ There’s scores of 1 Wine Guides’ that contain 
instructions for the merchants and publicans. Take 
a bottle of cheap Port wine, and get a chemist to 
analyze it. He’ll tell you that it contains three 
ounces of alcohol; fourteen ounces of cider; one 
ounce and a half of sugar; two scruples of alum; 
one scruple of tartaric acid ; and four ounces of 
strong decoction of logwood. That’s the way I 
used to make Port wine. Not a drop—not a single 
drop of the juice of the grape. Ha! ha! Fami¬ 
lies bought it wholesale—three-and-sixpence the 
bottle—rank poison! Ha! ha! Nearly ail facti-1 
173 
tious wines possess too high a color, particularly 
Sherry. The way to make such wines pale, is to 
put a quart of warm, sheep’s blood in the butt, and 
when it is quite fine, draw it off. I always did 
that—I didn’t tell the families so though.” 
Some of the audience expressed satisfaction 
that “the rich were humbugged as well as the 
poor.” 
“ Humbugged ?” ejaculated old Swiggs, “ I 
b’lieve you ! I’ll tell you how two thirds of all 
our Port wine is made. Take four gallons of cider; 
two quarts of cheap brandy ; four ounces of ground 
logwood; half a pound of bruised rhatany root; 
and one ounce of alum. First infuse the logwood 
and rhatany in the brandy and a gallon of the 
cider, for ten days; then strain off the liquor and 
mix the remainder of the ingredients with it; put 
it into a cask ; keep it for a month, and it will be 
fit to bottle. Not a drop of the grape juice ! Ha ! 
ha! If the color isn’t quite right, an infusion of 
the raspings of red sanders wood in spirits of wine, 
will soon give it a beautiful red complexion. But 
then the 1 bee’s wing.’ Ha ! ha! The bee’s wing. 
Eh I A solution of cream of tartar, colored with 
Brazil wood or cochineal, will give you the best 
crust and bee’s wing you can imagine. There’s 
for )’ou ! Port made in a month or six weeks can 
be passed off for wine that’s ten or twelve years 
old! The corks can easily be stained on the low¬ 
er ends to indicate age, and, consequently, that it 
has been long bottled ; and who’s to discover the 
cheat I Nobody but the chemist. Ha! ha!” 
u Well, I’ve learnt something to-night,” said a 
lounger. 
“Learnt something!” repeated the old man; 
“ You know nothing about it yet. You don’t 
known what poison—rank poison—there is in 
cheap wines; aye, and in the dear ones, too, for 
that matter. Sugar of lead is the chief ingredient 
to sweeten soured wine. I needn’t tell you that 
sugar of lead is a deadly poison—any fool knows 
that. Cerussa, (white lead,) is used to clear mud¬ 
dy wine ; and litharge gives a sweet to wines that 
are too acid. Bitter almonds impart to Port a nutty 
flavor ; cherry-laurel water gives it a boquet; and 
tincture of raisin seeds endows it with a grapy 
taste, which it hasn’t got and can’t otherwise 
have.” 
BERMUDA AND CRAB GRASS. 
Many of our southern planters have an ultra 
hostility to the existence of these grasses on their 
plantations. We look upon them, however, as a 
valuable means for contributing to their interests in 
two ways, namely, food, and as fertilizers. If al¬ 
lowed to grow after the crops of corn, cotton, or 
sugar cane are “ laid by,” they are in the way of 
nothing, and produce a good deal of valuable, 
forage, which may be cropped b) r animals in the 
fields, or secured as dry feed for winter’s use. Few 
grasses are more abundant or nutritious, when pro¬ 
perly grown ; and as separate or exclusive objects 
of cultivation, they will, in many instances, sup¬ 
ply what is much needed, and which can in no 
other way be more economically or abundantly se¬ 
cured. If not wanted for these purposes, they may 
be plowed under the following spring, and thus 
