The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-06-20

N"po"in "clnUyFo GeIiS ue tnat tne
secret OF making good brandy is t.
take out the fusef oils. but to leave the
essential oils and parts necessary to be
oxidized to make it age properly, ant
the machinery here Is adapted to thai
purpose. l wish / could describe It
| walked in and out among great hogs
heads, each of which would hold a.
much as $4,000 gallons, and l saw vats
in which ten and twelve Thousand
were stored In one room the brandy
was run through coil of pipes, and In
another found that it was vaporized
again and again, each time losing
some of its fusel oil. Seven great
watts, holding 5000 gallons of brandy
are used for this purpose, and outside
the winery | saw hundreds of great
barrels connected with pipes into
which the wine and brandy were run
during part of the processes. The
cost of the buildings of this brandy
factory is more than $3.50, 900, and they
are lighted by electricity. The COOP
er shop of this establishment is worth
notice.
This big vineyard embraces about
six square miles of territory. The
whole is laid off with perfect regularity
into blocks of uniform size and streets
OF regular width. 1t is, in fact, city
l4OO vines, and the main streets which
run through them from east, to west
are forty-eight feet wide, and they
are cut up by avenues sixteen feet in
width. There are about $50 vines to
the acre, and | was surprised to find
| that the vines were trimmed down
almost close to the earth every year.
Some Of the vines are very old, and
others have just been planted. The
| grapes are ripe about the last of July,
and the picking Of the grapes begins
about the first of August They are
picked in boxes holding fifty pounds
each, and there are 1900 of these
boxes ready for use. The picking is
its height about q thousand men are
employed.
The vineyards are plowed regularly
and their cultivation is carefully
watched with hoe and harrow. Capt.
Mcintyre has been for eight years
engaged in vine growing and every
thing Is managed on q scientific basis.
Even in the picking Of the grapes the
greatest care is used The grapes
are sorted as they are picked. The
men gather the grapes in pairs, each
man carrying box. AS they go from
vine to vine they put the bad grapes in
one box and the best ones in the other,
and these are used for different grades
begins early in the day, and if the
weather is very hot it is suspended
and resumed only late in the afternoon
and carried on into the night, so that
the pickers work the usual number of
hours. A good picker ought to
average forty boxes of grapes day,
and some men can pick as much as
ton and half.
FOOD ON A CALIFORNIA FARM.
1t may interest you to know what
men eat i'll one of these big farm board
ing houses. The cooks have to make
out orders for just what they want and
every item has to be specified,
From a monthly order before me I see
that they consumed last month three
barrels of sugar, one barrel of rolled
oats, and large quantities of corn
starch, macaroni, beans, peas, sausage,
rice, sago, tea and coffee and meat.
Nearly all the meat and vegetables
come from the farm, and all of the but
ter and milk. The men have their
breakfasts at s a. M, and are allowed
forty minutes to eat. At six they go
out to work with their teams and at
ll.3O they stop for dinner and lay off
until quarter of one. They stop work
at and have supper at l. AS far as 1
could sec they seemed to enjoy them
selves and to be q sort of happy-go-
lucky crowd. They have a baseball
club Of their own, and there is dancing
club which they keep up. Some Of
them are good boxers, but they nearly
all belong to that class of workmen
which you find in California, who drift
along from place to place, working all
along the coast from Los Angeles to
Seattle, and not seeming to care for u
home of their own.
A LOOK AT THE HORSES.
spent some time in looking at the
fine horses on this ranch. There are
383, which were brought here in
special cars from the Palo Alto ranch,
and there is q race track here of a
mile in length for the training of them.
The kindergarten is little pen con-
tanning circular track perhaps a
quarter of mile in length, and the
trainer stands in the center of this with
whip and cracks this at the colts as
they run about it. Senator Stanford told
me one day his theory as to this mode of
training. Said he:
Delleve there are certain muscles
which the horse uses while he is going
fast that are never called into play
when he Is making his ordinary gait.
The horse which is never speeded
does not call into play these muscles.
He may have the germs of them, but
they lie dormant and fiabby. l believe
by the cultivation of these muscles by
speeding the colt that they grow and
become stronger from year to year and
the colt thus acquires his perfection.
The chief thing is to prevent them
overriding. You can ruin the training
OF years in an hour, and the greatest
trouble Is In getting good trainers.
My idea Is to excite the colts to do
their best without over-exertion, and
this done from day to day with any OF
the great horses of the day, taken
when they were young, would have, ]
believe, made them to do better work
than they are now doing"
| am told here at Vina that the Gear
has offered to Gepd Senator Stanford
enything he wants in his stables in re.
turn for couple of good horses from
Palo Alto for breeding purposes. 1t is
not known positively what horses will
be sent to Russia, but the trainers here
think that among those picked out will
be the stallion GOOD Gift" "GoOd
Gift" is by Electioneer out OF 9
thoroughbred mare. He has good
record and Is beautifully formed. Sen
ator Stanford thinks that the Orloh
breed would, II II could be introduced