Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-10-10

this season readily, by all who have
foresight, when making pert wine from
Mission grapes, which are deficient gen.
orally in tannin, color and flavor. If
such pomace cannot be obtained in the
immediate vicinity of the winemaker, II
can be easily ordered and produced to
demand by those fermenting the kind
Of grapes required. Several parties in
this State have experimental in this
way successfully. Already the custom
has been introduced by Mr.. Kohler in
his winery at Los Angeles, where he is
using the pomace of certain white grapes
in order to obtain a tannic wine to trea
sherries with. Mr.. Crabb, of 0akville
found this method of great advantag,
last year TO his port wine, and Mr.
West, of Stockton, and Mr.. De Turk, o.
Santa Rosa, equally so with clarets.
RAIsINs.
The use of saccharometer in deter
mining the necessary sweetness to pro
duce good raisin must necessarily
come into vogue if we are to accomplish
uniform and valuable results. How
much sugar there should be in the juice
of a Muscat grape at the time it is
picked, in order to make good raisin,
has never yet been satisfactorily deter.
mined, but this much ought to be appar.
ent after little reflection: In drying
the raisins the juice becomes condensed,
the watery part evaporates and syrup
of natural grape-sugar remains. The
less sugar there is in the juice the drier
the raisin will appear to be when 1t Is
thoroughly cured, owing to the absence
of such sugar, and the more likely 1t Is
to spoil when it encounters moist at
mospheres, as it is known that condensed
grape juice, containing very large per-
ceniage, say 20 or so per cent. of sugar,
will not ferment. All good raisins may
therefore properly be called sugar.cured,
although they depend solely upon
the natural sugar of their own
juice. That peculiar juiciness
that is looked for in a good raisin cannot
be obtained from grapes which are def.
cient in sugar, because in order to dry
them sufficiently to make them keep
well there is not sufficient left of liquid
matter to make them palatable. FIRE.
quent illustrations have occurred to
show the Importance of allowing the
Muscat grape to become sufficiently ripe
before it is picked for drying. In many
cases producers have observed that
where they have picked their grapes two
weeks earlier than their neighbors, their
raisins have been thoroughly cured the
soonest. Itmay therefore be laid down as
a principle that only thoroughly ripe
grape with sufficienoy of sugar can be
used to.make good raisin, and also, in.
ferentially, that only those raisins pro.
dueed from euch grapes will keep we'll
when subjected to climatic changes.
The use of an artificial drier to
cure raisins which are deficient in
sugar will never overcome all the diff
culties which have been experienced by
raisin- makers, although they may con.
vert grapes otherwise unsuited to raisin-
making into merchantable product, to
be sold promptly and with care not to
subject them to moist climates. Such
raisins, however, are only fit for cooking
purposes and not for dessert.
STUDIES WITH ELECTRICITY.
Arrangements have Just been made
with DR.. Fraser to conduct, under the
auspices of the Commission in this city,
a series of experiments with view to
possible results from the ap.
plication of electricity and magnetism i'll
wine.makipg and maturing operations.
Among the several problems that have
been put down for possible solution is
the effect of the magnetic current on fer
As soon as definite results
are obtained reports will be given to the
public,