464 
MARCH4§ 
placed under great obligations by the very 
kind manner in which I was entertained and 
shown over the viuej'ards and through the 
cellars, not only of his company, but also over 
all the principal ones of the vicinity. He 
talked very freely with me, and answered my 
questions fully, and seemed not to care to have 
any information given considered as confiden¬ 
tial or secret. Of course, as my visit extended 
nearly two days, I cannot pretend to give a 
tithe of what was said, or to give it exactly in 
the order in which it wag said, out will vouch 
for the exact truth of the statements. 
In our conversation Mr. “W ”—1 will call 
him that, because it is not bis name, and be¬ 
cause it stands for wine and water, the pro¬ 
duct and the principal ingredient—told me 
that the demaud for Catawba Grapes for table 
use was so great that prices were firm at $80 
per ton delivered at the press; and that he 
could then only get the poorer grapes and culls, 
so that it took, on an average, sixteen pounds 
of grapes for a gallon of wine. 
I asked, “Do Catawbas alone make a good 
wine?” 
W.—“No, the best Catawbas contain about 
twice too much acid for wine-making, and if 
we use them alone the wine takes entirely too 
long a time to 'mellow'; that is, to deposit its 
excess of acid in the form of crude tartar on 
the casks, and even then it is apt to be a little 
‘rough. 1 I know of no grape that has not by 
far too much acid ” 
I asked, “How about sugar; are any grapes 
sweet enough to make a good wine without 
the addition of it?” 
W,—“None; if there were, we should have 
to keep the wine at so low a temperature it 
would be so long in ripening that it would not 
pay. We keep the ripening cellars, as you see, 
at about 80°; aud to stand this rapid fermen¬ 
tation we have to add glucose freely, and then 
glucose is only pure grape sugar; we use 
tons of it, as you can see by the quantity we 
have in store.” 
In the storage-cellars we found men barrel¬ 
ing large quantities aud marking it for ship¬ 
ment. I saw the names of extensive wholesale 
houses in large cities widely apart. 
I asked, “About what is the average price 
per gallon by the parrel delivered on board 
here?” 
W.—“From 58 to 62 cents, barrel included; 
but we use a good package, that costs about 
three cents per gallon.” 
“Well,” I answered, “here is a question in 
profit and loss I can't quite understand:—Six¬ 
teen pounds of grapes at four cents amount to 
64 cents; the iuterest on investment, the wear 
and tear of building and machinery, the labor 
and loss of making, selling at from 55 to 59 
cents per gallon net, seem to put the profit on 
the wrong side of the ledger.” 
W.—“Didn’t 1 tell you the juice contained 
an excess of acid? Now, instead of waiting for 
the slow deposition of this, we add pure water 
till we have reduced the acid to from five to six 
per mi lies, and then bring up the saccharine 
matter with glucose. We can then hurry it 
up, and ripen it quickly in those warm cellars. 
We are thus enabled to market, nearly all our 
wine before the next vintage, aud thus save 
much in casks and cellars, and get quicker re¬ 
turns.” 
“Mr. W.,” I asked, * ‘didn't you ever make a 
mistake and add a little too much water so as 
to reduce the proportion of acid a little too 
low; what then?” 
W,—(Laughing): “Well, perhaps once in a 
while, but that is not a serious matter; it is an 
easy thing to add a little tartaric acid, of 
which we always keep a supply.” 
I said, “Then it becomes really a question of 
how much water, how much acid, and how 
much glucose, as to how much wine we can 
make?” 
W.—“No, we must have grapes enough to 
‘swear by’ and to flavor the wine.” 
I asked, “Don’t people find fault with such 
wine sometimes?” 
W.—“People find fault sometimes whether 
they have cause or not; but the facts are, if 
carefully made and well ripened, no one can 
tell whether or not there is a particle of juice 
in it, it is purely a matter of conscience; the 
country is flooded with Rhine wines so cheap 
that uo one can make a pure wine aud com¬ 
pete with them in price. The West takes the 
most of our wine, and we must be able to fur¬ 
nish a wine at or below 60 cents in order to 
do a large business. Our wine is well liked 
and in demand. Although we recently en¬ 
larged our works we shall be obliged to do so 
again soon.” 
I said, “When you begin to adulterate, 
where can you stop? If you make wine at 55 
cents, won’t those New York manufacturers 
make a worse adulterated and cheaper wine?” 
W.—“I think people have the idea that a 
pure wine can’t be made below 60 cents, and 
when the price is put much below that they 
won’t buy it.” 
I asked, “Do you think it quite right to 
adulterate in this way?” 
THE RURAL 
W.—“I don’t call my way adulteration. 
Wine contains tartaric acid, grape sugar, 
water, tanic acid and a little of the essential 
oils of the grape. I leave before pressing, as 
long as possible; press hard; in this way, I get 
nearly all the tannic acid and essential oiIs, . 
also the coloring matter if a dark grape. I then 
add the other ingredients in a better propor¬ 
tion than furnished by nature. I really make 
a more perfect and healthful wine than if I 
used the pure juice. Those iviues made in 
Europe and the large cities have poor whisky 
as the base and injurious drugs to get the 
flavor and color.” 
I said, “Barnum was right; people like to 
be humbugged and are willing to pay for it.’> 
W.—“No humbug about it; if you put the 
proper elements together in the correct, pro¬ 
portion it is wine, wherever they come from. 
Is not sugar the same whether coming from 
the maple, caue or beet?” 
All wine makers may not be as frank as 
Mr. W., yet few will deny that they use more 
or less water, and I have never seen the 
maker who claimed he did not always use 
glucose or cane sugar with every gallon of 
wine made. Is it not much betterfor Ameri¬ 
cans to use grapes as fruit to eat, and leave 
foreigners to guzzle the wines? “veritas.” 
--- 
GRAPE VINES ON FENCES. 
By neglecting to provide a trellis for a 
grape-vine, I have received a suggestion that 
may possibly approve itself to some readers 
of the Rural. A vine set out by a former 
occupant of the place, as the variety was 
not known, was left to shift for itself. It 
threw up two vigorous shoots, which availed 
themselves of a picket fence close by. They 
grew up to the top of the fence, where by 
chance one shoot grew each way, fallowing 
the top of the fence, and throwing out lateral 
branches on either side, as shown in Figure 
90, page 163, though with rather less symmetry. 
I recently counted 78 would-be bunches of 
grapes trying to form on this unprotected 
and unhelped vine. It has occurred to me 
that this might be a satisfactory method for 
shielding old fences in the back-ground of the 
lawn or garden. By planting the vines on 
the leeward side, the fence would help to form 
a protection in Winter, and the method of 
training shown in Fig. 90, is one that requires 
little labor, while it is well adapted to 
forming a shield. “elm.” 
•ftliscHlatuaus. 
BOOKS AND CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
D. Landreth & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Descriptive list of seed potatoes. 
Nash&Bro., Milliugton, Moms Co., N. 
J. A book of 253 pages, describing the Acme 
Harrow, and presenting over 2,000 letters of 
commendation from those who have used it. 
Irving Allen, Springfield, Mass. Illus¬ 
trated catalogue of small fruits, grape-vines, 
trees, etc., with a colored plate of the James 
Vick Strawberry and Fay’s Prolific Currant. 
Frank Ford & Son, Ravenna, Ohio. De¬ 
scriptive and priced catalogue of the Sunny- 
side Small Fruit Nursery. Among specialties 
are Lee’s Favorite Potato aud Ford’s Early 
Sweet Com. 
Green s Nursery Company, Rochester. N. 
Y. This is au interesting catalogue of small 
fruits, large fruits, roses and ornamental 
plants, with many illustrations and a colored 
plate. Mr. Green says that he is by profes¬ 
sion a “ quill-driver” aud by inclination a 
fniitrgrower. He displays eminent talent as 
either the one or the other in this catalogue. 
Theodore Parks, Freedom, Beaver Co., 
Pa. Descriptive circular of the Parks’s Clover 
and Timothy Seeder. This is a steel tube IB 
feet long, jointed in the middle. A spiral 
shaft revolves inside the tube, conveying the 
seed along aud sifting it through small holes 
in the under side of the tube. It is claimed 
that it will sow- a space 16 feet wide as fast as 
a man can walk. 
T. B. Everett & Co., 43 South Market 
Street, Boston, Mass. Descriptive circular 
and price-list of Matthew's’ Seed Drill—single 
and combined; Matthews’ Hand Cultivator 
and Matthews’ Wheel Hoe. We have used 
these implements, and do not believe there are 
any better manufactured of the kinds. Any¬ 
body having a garden, that will use the W heel 
Hoe, will never care to do without it. Thu 
price is about five dollars. The circular gi ves 
illustrations of all. 
D. E. McShkrhy <& Co., Dayton, O. Illus¬ 
trated catalogue of the McSherry Force-feed 
Grain Drill. This has been in use for 30 
years or more, aud while retaining its original 
force-feed, it has been changed from time to 
time in other respects, so that it is now con¬ 
sidered to be perfected in every other way. 
Its peculiar excellence consists in the force- 
feed, which causes a discharge of exactly the 
same quantity of grain, and consequently a 
continuous flow of seed. The McSherry Fer¬ 
tilizer Drill aud one-hors© grain drill are also 
illustrated and described. 
C. W. DORR & Co., DesMoines, Iowa. An 
illustrated catalogue of 65 pages. Among the 
specialties may be mentioned Parsons’s Pro¬ 
lific Potato (tested by the R. N-Y. last year) ; 
Pringle’s American Triumph Oats, offering 
$600 in cash for the largest yields; Imperial 
Barley, etc. Besides the usual lists of farm 
aud garden seeds, the catalogue also offers 
fruit trees, grape-vines, small fruits and hardy 
ornamental plants—among them the Hardy 
Catalpa aud Russiau Mulberry. Instructions 
are also given as to the construction of frames 
aud their management. Free to all w'ho apply 
to the above firm. 
Proceedings at a Banquet given by bis 
friends to the Hon. Marshal] Pinckney Wilder, 
Ph. D., on his birth-day, Sept. 32,1883, to com¬ 
memorate the completion of his 85th year. At 
the banquet described in the 116 pages of this 
haudsome volume, over a hundred geutlemen, 
most of whom have occupied high positions in 
the Old Bay State or the Nation, assembled in 
the Parker House, Boston, to do honor to the 
foremost pomologistof the New World aud of 
the Old, the Hon. M. P. Wilder. For more 
than half a century he has been among the 
most eminent merchants in Boston. He is the 
father of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col 
lege, and of the State Board of Agriculture, 
as well as the founder of the United States 
Agricultural Society. For a third of a cen¬ 
tury he has been President of the American 
Pomological Society. He is President of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural Club, now in the 
44th year of its existence. For 20 years he 
was President of the Norfolk County Agricul¬ 
tural Association, for eight years President of 
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and 
for 16 years President of the New England 
Historical and Genealogical Society. He is 
also the oldest living ex-President of the Mas¬ 
sachusetts Senate, and also the oldest ex-com¬ 
mander of Boston's pride, the Ancient and 
Honorable Artillery Company. Representa¬ 
tives of all the various industries with which 
in his active life he has been connected, were 
among the men who assembled at the banquet 
to offer their congratulations to, and to express 
their sentiments of love and regal'd for one 
who, during a long and blameless life, bas 
done so much to merit the admiration, affec¬ 
tion and gratitude not only of the citizens of 
his native State, or even of his native country, 
but of the world at large. Everywhere there 
are hundreds who heartily join in the “sen¬ 
timent” uttered by the President of the ban¬ 
quet, in wishing health, prolonged life aud con 
tinued usefulness to the honored guest of the 
evening, the Hon. Marshall Pinckney Wilder. 
The Mapes’ Formula and Peruvian 
Guano Co., 158 Front St., N. Y. A valuable 
price-list and catalogue of the Mapes s Con¬ 
centrated Fertilizers. We want farmers in 
purchasing fertilizers to spend their money to 
the best advantage. Hundreds of reports are 
made in the agricultural press that chemical 
fertilizers have proved to be of no service. 
Why is this? Chemical fertilizers are plant 
food, just the same as farm manure is plant 
food. If you supply to the soil food that the 
plants grown on it do not need, it. is not to be 
supposed that the crop will show any effects 
from its use. If your soil is rich in available 
potash, why purchase potash? If rich iu phos¬ 
phoric acid, why purchase bone? If in nitro¬ 
gen, w'hy purchase nitrate of soda or sulphate 
of ammonia, the costliest of chemical fertil¬ 
izers? Why do we use farm manures? It is 
to supply to the plant all of the food 
it needs of which the soil is deficient. For 
precisely the same reason we purchase chemi¬ 
cal fertilizers, for, in truth, they are just the 
same us farm manures except that they do not 
exert a mechanical effect upon the soil and 
are far more soluble—that is, their effects are 
more plainly seen the first season We have 
advised our readers for seven years to try 
special fertilizers upon different, plots, aud thus 
to ascertain, if possible, what special plant 
food the soil needs. If we sow potash on land 
rich in available potash, our inouey and labor 
are thrown away. If our friends do uot, from 
tests, know w'hat special fertilizer is needed, 
they have either to find out by making such 
tests upon separate plots, using the several 
kinds separately and in various combinations, 
or to buy wbat are called “ complete” fertil¬ 
izers, which furnish all of the essential ele¬ 
ments of farm manure There is nothing 
more misleading to farmers in general than 
the reports we read to the effect that “ phos¬ 
phates,” or kuinit, were used without effect. 
Soils may need a special food or every kind of 
food. In the former case, a supply of the 
needed special food, and iu the latter case a 
“ complete” fertilizer will surely increase the 
crop. We beg our readers to bear iu mind 
that the greatest of agricultural experiment¬ 
ers aud chemists, Sir J. B. Lawes, has used 
chemical fertilizers alone on certain plots of 
bis “Rothamsted - ’ farm for over 40 years, 
separately aud in all sorts of combinations f 
with the result that the “complete” fertilizers 
have produced as good results as farm manure. 
* It will appear, from the above, that we can 
never intelligently answer the question often 
asked: “ What chemical fertilizer shall I buy 
for my farm?” As we do not, can not know 
w’hat special fertilizer the soil ueeds, we can 
only answer: “ Use the “ complete” fertilizer, 
the same as you would farm manure. 
The Mapes's Catalogue furnishes much in¬ 
formation to the farmer who attentively reads 
it. Those who purchase these manures may 
feel confident that they will get what they 
buy. There is no firm w’ith a better record, 
as has been repeatedly shown by the analyses 
of the several experiment stations. The cata¬ 
logue will be sent, without charge, to all of 
our rondel's who apply to the above firm. 
Kieffer Fear. —Will the Rural New- 
Yorker, New York Tribune, and perhaps 
some other journals, allow' us to make a cor¬ 
rection in their report of the Rochester Hor¬ 
ticultural meeting, where, iu speaking of the 
Kieffer Pear, J. J, Thomas was represented 
as saying that he had a peck of the pears on a 
three-year tree, and in describing the char¬ 
acter of the fruit, said it was not tit to eat? 
His tree, three years from the bud, bore fully 
throe pecks, and this was uot equal to the 
product of some of Mr. Sat ter th waite's trees; 
and the quality referred to applied only to fruit 
grown in Western New York, specimens 
grown as far south us the neighborhood of 
Philadelphia being often quite good, although 
not of the highest quality.”—The above is 
from the Cultivator of February 21. 
«♦«- 
Preserving Wood.— The agricultural ed¬ 
itor of the New York Times says that the 
best preservative of shingles or any other 
kind of timber is some oil that soaks into the 
pores aud protects them against moisture aud 
air. Crude petroleum is the best preserva¬ 
tive because it is quickly absorbed and pene¬ 
trates into the wood, contains a strongly an¬ 
tiseptic acid, viz., carbolic acid, and is free 
from all injurious and destructive substances. 
The shingles should be dipped in the oil and 
thrown into an empty barrel or tub to drain 
and dry, and it is better to do this on a warm 
day when the sun's heat will render the oil 
fluid. Gas tar (coal tar) contains an injurious 
acid and is a damage rather than a help; but 
if it is made hot and a peck of lime iB added 
to a barrel of it to neutralize the acid, it 
makes a good preservative for timber. Lime 
is useful when used in the following manner: 
It is slaked with enough water to reduce it to 
a thick liquid, and the shingles or other tim¬ 
ber are put into it while it is hot; the heat ex¬ 
pands the air in the pores of the timber aud 
drives it out, also vaporizes the moisture; as 
the lime cools it penetrates into these empty 
pores, neutralizes the acids of the timber, and 
coagulates the albumen of it, and forms in¬ 
soluble compounds with them, by which the 
timber is made more durable. Felice posts 
and shingles are best treated In this way by 
putting them iu a pit or tank with the dry 
quick-lime mixed among them, the water is 
then added to slake the lime, and the whole 
is left for two or three days. Of all these 
methods that with crude petroleum is the 
best. 
WHICH REMINDS ME. 
“ The there is never here.'' —Schiller, via 
Puck... 
Would it pay to put potatoes in cold-storage 
houses just before they begin to sprout?. 
'Tis so, the fragrant blossom 
Upon the orchard tree 
Tunis into an apple 
As sour us sour can be.—Puck. 
Mr. Hovey justly insists that the Black¬ 
caps should be called Tliimbleberries iu dis¬ 
tinction from the true red raspberry. The one 
is botauically Rubus oceidQDtails—the other 
R. strigosusor R. Idaeus... 
Rather dry skim-cheese is a different thing 
toasted. Grate into a shallow sauce-pau, 
moisten with rich milk, stir while meltiug 
over a fire hot enough to scorch without burn¬ 
ing, pour upon toasted bread and eat while 
hot. So says the Connecticut Oourant. 
The New York Tribune thiuks that Dr. 
Stewart covers the ground when he says that 
the remedy for contagious pleuro-pneumonia 
is to “ simply stop importing the disease.” 
