NOTE  ON  SHERRY  WINE. 
551 
The  question  has  been  much  discussed  as  to  whether  colza  oil- 
cake be  a  beneficial  food  for  cattle  ;  it  depends  on  the  object  in 
view.  The  experience  of  M.  Strengeld,  of  Tharand,  proves 
that  when  cattle  are  young  and  have  not  attained  their  full 
growth,  the  colza  oil-cake  is  advantageous,  as  the  growth  of 
animals  requires  food  richer  in  nitrogen  and  phosphoric  acid 
than  in  fatty  matter  ;  it  is  also  beneficial  to  milch  cows.  For 
fattening  cattle,  aliments  richer  in  fatty  matter  are  preferable. 
These  remarks  will  explain  the  contradictory  opinions  held  by 
diiferent  agriculturists. — Chem.  News,  August  21,  1868,  from 
(Preussische  Annalen  der  Landwirthschaft.) 
NOTE  ON  SHERRY  WINE.  ^ 
When  treating  last  year  of  Port,  it  will  be  remembered  that 
we  drew  special  attention  to  the  prevalent  custom  of  over-forti- 
fying, and  our  observations  called  forth  such  confident  denials 
and  out-spoken  resentment,  that  we  felt  constrained  to  give 
copious  quotations  from  official  reports  in  confirmation  of  the 
conclusions  at  which  we  had  arrived.  These  conclusions  are, 
we  may  fairly  boast,  now  undeniable,  and  we  are  confident  that 
what  we  have  to  say  now  upon  sherry  will  be  hereafter  recog- 
nized as  equally  authoritative. 
Yet,  as  there  are  plenty  of  captious  persons  abroad  who  know 
not  to  what  our  experiments  tend,  and  are  more  deferential  to 
authority  of  a  different  kind,  we  shall  precede  our  own  state- 
ments by  those  of  an  official  sent  to  investigate  the  wines  of 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  to  whom  we  have  before  had  occasion 
to  refer.  We  allude  to  Mr.  Charles  Bernard,  assistant-surgeon 
at  H.  M.  Customs,  whose  accuracy  has  never  been  impugned, 
and  from  whom  we  extract  the  following  paragraphs,  which  con- 
tain a  just  estimate  of  the  matter  up  to  the  time  of  our  taking 
up  the  inquiry  ; — 
"  The  large  shippers  and  vineyard  proprietors  of  Spain  and 
Portugal  are,  and  have  been  for  a  long  period  of  time,  manu- 
facturers rather  than  simple  producers  of  wine.  The  practice 
said  to  be  followed  in  other  countries,  of  merely  watching  and 
aiding  nature  in  the  development  of  fermentation,  has  here 
