PRACTICAL PAPERS—VINE CULTURE, ETC. 
313 
been so discouragingly fatal in many parts of our country, it 
might be well to give the “enrage” atrial; and, since we 
must drink the juice baptized with the names of St. Julien, 
Chateau Margeaux and all the saints of Medoc, we may as 
well enjoy the satisfaction and the very large profit of raising 
it ourselves. 
Not only do the French mix different kinds of grapes in the 
vat and on the press, but they freely compound together dif¬ 
ferent kinds of winti in every stage of maturity. This is done, 
of course, with great carefulness, the success of the merchant 
in his busines depending on his skill in concocting what will 
please the palate. Such combination may be agreeable to the 
taste of the consumer, and profitable to the merchant, but it 
may well be doubted if it is as good for the health as that 
which is simply natural and made from one variety of grape. 
A French wine grower has introduced the Catawba into his 
vineyard, and uses its juice to mix in very small proportions 
with that of native grapes to give flavor. Any considerable 
addition of the Catawba’s musky quality would be more than 
the French palate, trained to like only that which is negative, 
could very well bear. 
When American wines were tested by the jury at the expo- 
position, the French jurors, whose scale was from one to four, 
with a zero at the foot, generally complimented our Catawba 
with a zero, and they remarked that the more of the natural 
flavor the wine possessed, other things being equal, the lower 
they should estimate it. In America the very contrary is 
known to be the case. The German jurors, accustomed to 
wines of high boquet, held quite'different opinions from the 
French, and were much pleased with the American samples. 
In regard to the more delicate wines of Europe which do 
not bear exportation, an important discovery is said to have 
been made by the distinguished chemist Pasteur, of the insti¬ 
tute, which is exciting great interest, and promises nothing 
less than to secure wine against diseases and deterioration for 
an indefinite period, to enable it to be transported with safety 
any distance, and kept in any sort of a storehouse. The best 
