The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1879-02-06
Mine-MaKlng " In the Charente.

lance; In the rear, on the one hand tn
city surrounded by its grass-growI
battlements, Itself half hidden amid
wreath of foliage, but with its cathedra
tower, its spire, and its masts of ship
ping traceable in every line against Tia,
eastern sky; on the other, landscap,
dotted with chateaus and farm houses
aud occasionally village, with her,
and there a clump Of trees, or a platoon
ofaged willows marking watercourse
shining down upon all this peaceful
scene, genial October sun completes
the picture and gives to it richness
aud warmth Of coloring which no paint
er could hope TO reproduce. Where
two cart roads intoIsect each other II
about the centre of VI. Godet's vineyard
Of 100 acres, the vintagers, motley
group of men, women and lads, are
taking their MONDAY rest as we ap.
prOach. One cannot but recall the pic.
lures he has seen of a gypsy bivouac, Sc
uncOnsci0usly rich in color are the co.
stumes of these 80 laborers, gathered
together mostly at random by the pro-
prictOr, from the crowds who have Of
fered their services. Great tubs stand
full to overlooking with tempting clus-
ters of white grapes, and lad, pictu-
resquely clad in a red shirt and flat
blue cap, presses them. down with a
club, mercilessly mangling them in a
common mass of pulp and juice. Scat
tered around upon the grass, stretched
at full length, some upon their faces
with their heels high in air, others
upon their backs and sleeping soundly,
lie the men, weared with having labo-
red since O'Clock in the morning.
Most of the women, too, in their white
caps, short skirts and hideous wooden
shoes, lie nestled away in some grassy
nOock with great blue umbrellas stand
ing over them to protect them from
the sun. A solitary dog keeps watch at
the outposts, an ill-favored cur who at
our approach beats an ignOminiOus re-
treat and dovotes himself to sundry
bones and crusts with which the vim
tagers' midday meal has strewn the ad-
iadent sod. A pleasant scene, one
would exclaim; and so it was. Yet
these vintagers, dreaming away their
MONDAY hours and careless of the NOR
row, have, after all no easy task. The
STOPPING posture which the gathering
of the grapes from the vines, not over
two feet in height, entails is not the
least wearisome feature of their labor.
Beginning, too, before the sunrise and
working until dusk, they laugh the
eight-hour law, it will be seen, to
scorn. A faithful worker will in day
pick grapes enough to make 125 gallons
of wine, and that, too, for wages
amounting to only 60 cents and his
board. This is the largest price paid.
The average male vintager receives on
ly 25 cents, and the women receive 25
cents per day, together with board.
From his vineyard of $50 acres NJ. Co
det will realize this season $50 barrigles
or casks, of 800 gallons each. This is a
fair average annual yield. In fact, in
this region, which has not been attacked
seriously by the phylloXera, the crop
this year promises at least to equal that
of 1877. The greatest care is required
in the protection and nourishment of
the vines. No vine is productive until
its fifth year; on the other hand, some
vines bear their best craps at the age of
80 years. The phylloxera, in anticipa-
ton at least, has proved a source Of Sc
rious anxiety to vine-growers in this
Charente-Inferieure department. A
single one of these insects wills, in one
season. reproduce its kind TO the numb
er of 10000. From the vineyard at
evening the days vintage is carried in
wagon-loads to the press. There it is
first passed through pulping machine
very similar in style to a large-sized
dlhVC OlObiOS-Ni ihSOl1 NhiCli NOil-
pletely destroys every vestlge of its ORR
ginal symmetry, and delivers up well
tering mass of stems, seeds and juice.
This conglomeration, or ''mash, as a
dlstiller would term it, is piled upon
the floor of press in the form of a
pyramid tlattened at the apex, and
then, by either hand or horse power,
an immense pressure is applied from
above by a fiat wooden surface descend
ing on a spiral. The process is very
similar to that seen in good old New
Jersey cider mill. Under the tremen-
dous pressure thus applied the grape is
divested of every drop of juice it ever
possessed. The precious fluid runs off
into n basin, thence into trough lined
with copper to prevent absorption, and
is thence delivered into the great hogs
heads, which stand waiting to receive
it. The fermenting process then be-
gins; in about two weeks the wine is
drawn of into other casks, leaving be-
hind it any impurities 1t may have col
lected during its manufacture, and is
ready to be put away into the
cellars and held for any requisite time
to be ready for the market. AS may be
inferred, the wine and brandy trade Of
this section necesstates the use of i'm
mence quantities Of casks and barrels.
AS a consequence, the cooperage busi-
ness of La Rochelle is not unimport-
ant. Nearly 100000 barrel slaves are
here annually from Northern
Europe.
The capacity of the grain fleet
at Milwaukee is $685. |
bushels, against 1,269,O0O bushels last |