The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-09

ITOnn LOO lOuCH LdTtdTlC dClu, IL LIdJ ut
amelioraled by the addition of potash
and lime, which would form insoluble
compounds with the acid and be deposi-
ted in the cask, as argal or cream of tar
tar, or q sufficiency of water is added to
reduce the sourness of the fluid to an
agreeable standard, then quantity OF
sugar is added to make the mixture show
percentage of saccharine matter sutli-
cient to generate alcohol in quantity
equal to that contained in the wine
which this fabricated article is to simu-
late. These processes have been in use,
in more or less degree for ages. Pliny
makes mention of the mixture OF honey
with grape juice to strengthen it, and
Aristeus taught this method. Different
substances we're used, "salt, sea water,
ashes, chalk, gypsum, raisins, and, later
yet, potassa, brandy and water" The
use of these articles were secrets of the
trade, carefully kept and handed down
as heirlooms in the family.
From the year 176S 10 the year 1S40,
French, English and German scientific
men we're interested in the fabrication of
wines, and at this day nearly all the
wines of the world are Chaptalized or
Gallized make, by processes advised by
Chaptal and Gall, being simply an addi-
tion of water and grape sugar, made from
potatoes, to grape must. These fabrica-
ted wines possess great similitude to nat
ural wines of the better class, and are
often in taste and quality supposed to be
better than natural wines from the same
grapes.
Still another variety of so-called wines
is made by the fermentation of succu-
lent vegetable matter with sugar and wa
ter, chemical products being added to
give agreeable qualities, oftentimes with
no grape juice in the mixture, its Gnanth-
ic ether being derived from the distilla-
tion of castor oil with potash. We may
call this spurious wine; of it large guam
titles are made and consumed in Ger
many and France, one-half of the guam
tity of the wine consumed in in Paris
being spurious.
These various processes or amelioration,
fabrication and adulteration, may be
more or less employed; distilled liquors
may be added, as in Madeira, sherry and
port, the wine may be impregnated with
carbonic acid gas, as in champagne, Ell
ther by natural or artificial processes, or
with laughing gas; the mash may be
boiled to a syrup and then fermented, or
the wine may be made form some fresh
juice, sweetened with sugar and diluted
with water.
We essay to speak only of natural
wine, of which some fair specimens have
been made in this region. The great
difficulty, however, is to produce from
the same vine in the same locality for q
heightened term of years, q wine which
will approximate any given standard of
excellence.
It is an acknowledged fact that lusus
nature sports and hybrids are not as per-
manent in their existence as their parent
stocks. There is wide opening for re-
search in these matters, rs well as into
the true period of the life of plants pro-
pagated by cuttings, buds, layers and
gratis. Such Investigations would have
practical bearing in illustrating many
agricultural aud horticultural subjects; /;
for instance seed of the Vitis Labrusca, a
variety of grape indigenous to America,
uncontaminated, should perpetually re-
produce itself. But the original plant
from which the seed came must, in the
course of nature and years, die. We
have no right to suppose that plants from
this original, propagated by cuttings,
buds, layers or gratis, would outliye the
parent stock, circumstances being the
same.
1t is supposed that the Catawba, once
so popular, was sport, hybrid of the
Vitis Labrusca, in which case the cuttings,
buds, lagus or gratis from the original
Catawba, should follow its career and
live no longer than its immediate parent,
and not so long as its remote parent, the
Wits Labrusca, unless its parent from the
other stock was longer lived than the
Wits Labrusca. We can, with no GER
tainty, expect that plants from Cataw-
ba seed, unaffected by pollen from an
other variety of grape, will be identical
with the original Catawba, it being, as
assumed, a sport or hybrid; but the re-
sulting plant may be a new variety, pos
sibly weaker in vitality than the Cataw-
ba, its status having been lessened by its
original abnormal generation, while
hybridized seeding might vary still more
and suffer greater deterioration, or posi-
bly, be strengthened by the plant supply
ing the pollen.
In view of these facts, hypothetical
though they may be, we need have no
great surprise at the failure and death of
our Catawbas, and of other varieties, by
analogous processes.
As set forth in Mr.. De Caradeuc's let
ter, about the year 1862 general failure
of the vines of the country commenced,
which has continued up to the present
time, as evinced by the numerous articles
in the Southern agricultural journals,
wherein one experienced vinc-grower
suggested new set of vines every eight
years, another shallow planting, some
advocating close pruning, others that
the vines should run at will on trees,
some proposing the adoption of Pasteur's
system of ripening vines, and others that
of De la Henreuse.
In foreign countries the life and pro-
ductiveness of the grape is variable; the
Oidium and the Phylloxnia committing
great ravages, while all the vines iu the
Island of Madeira have died in recent
years. Vines were planted there in
1920, and have frequently been replant-
ed.
A vine said to be the largest in the
world grew at Santa Barbara, California,
and showing by its decay that its
term of life had been almost ac-
complished, it was dug up, and
exhibited at the Centennial at Philadel-
phia in 1876. From reliable accounts it
was but so or 60 years old, while cut
ting from it now grows at Santa Barbara,
being 16 inches in diameter three feet
from the ground when 16 years old.
This extraordinary growth is abnormal,
and should not be considered in forming
an idea as to the age or size grape vine
may reach. The size of the vine, how
ever, serves in general to assist in esti-