808 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
to disease. It was noticed that the mildew set in with great 
destrnctiveness after the two hard winters of eighteen hun¬ 
dred and fifty-four and eighteen hundred and fifty-six. 
The thorough covering employed in Hungary would secure 
it against such occasional risks, and also might render it possi¬ 
ble to grow European vines in our country. By its means, 
too, we could, perhaps, make the “Scupper” live in our north¬ 
ern states, and obtain from it a sparkling wine of foam and 
flavor unsurpassed. From these considerations and others we 
recommend to the wine growers of our more northern states to 
lay down and thoroughly cover their vines regularly every 
fall; and to those in milder regions to bank up the earth 
against the stalks as is done in France. 
We have derived most of our instruction in vine dressing 
from the Germans, in whose native country there are no sun¬ 
beams to spare, and the celebrated Eisling grape is said to hardly 
ever ripen; and thus, perhaps, we have been led to attach too 
much importance to letting the fruit remain on the vine as long 
as possible before gathering. If we have been in error, it 
would be well worth while to know it, for besides the loss by 
shrinkage, the ravage of insects and birds, quadrupeds and 
bipeds, during the last fortnight of the vine dressers’ watch¬ 
ings is most disheartening. Now it is contended by good 
authority in France that early vintages are best, and that it is 
important, not merely in regard to quantity but quality, also, 
to gather the fruit before it becomes over ripe. Possibly what 
is true of white wine may not be so of red wine, to which last 
named kind attention is so widely directed in Europe. Here 
the proportion of white wine to red is very small, and it may 
be said that the red is the rule and white the exception, 
k Our wine growers in America understand very well the 
principles to be observed in the manufacture of white wine, 
..and many of them, as regards care and nicety, are as good 
models as need be desired. But it cannot be denied that the 
practice of selling the ripest and finest grapes for table use 
and converting the unsaleable into wine prevails to a great 
extent among American virieyardists, and the result is the 
