AN ACCOUNT OF METHODS IN THE FAMOUS KEUKA LAKE REGION OF WESTERN NEW YORK, BY THE SECRETARY OF THE PLEASANT VALLEY WINE COMPANY.

HOW shall we make wine from grapes ? That depends entirely upon what kind of wine you wish to make. If it is a white wine, first secure good ripe grapes, look them over carefully, remove all rotten, green or other imper feet berries, put them through any grinder or machine that will simply break the skins, put them in any kind of a press, and press them sufficiently to express the must. Put this must, or pure juice, into a clean cask, and into the bung place a syphon that empties into a tub or pail of water, and let the wine ferment. This syphon excludes the air and at the same time allows the gases produced by fermentation to escape. When fermentation has ceased, put a loose bung in the place of the syphon, and let ft rest until the wine becomes clear, then draw it off into another cask that is perfectly clean and sweet, fill it full, bung it up and wait; time will do all the rest. In about two or three years you may go into your cellars and be sure of finding a good, pure, wholesome wine.

The making of champagne is more complicated, and we would advise anyone going into this business to engage the services of an expert. However, a general outline of its manipulations may be interesting. The wine which has been selected for this purpose, the product of many vineyards and many varieties, is carefully blended, and just here great skill is required that this blend may be so made that no particular flavor of either is prominent, but that the whole shall bring out that peculiarly fine flavor found only in first-class champagne.

Now this wine is ready for bottling, which is done during the warm weather of spring or early summer, when it undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle. Here another test of skill is required. Should there be too much saccharine matter left in the wine, the fermentation will be so strong that the bottles will break and the whole be a loss ; should there not be enough, there will be too little fermentation so that the wine will have very little effervescence, and be flat and insipid. But should this critical period be successfully passed and the fermentation be just right, it is then put down into deep vaults where it remains from two to three years, until the wine has become thoroughly ripened. At this time the wine has the sediment which was deposited during the fermentation (as no fermentation can exist without producing a sediment). It is then placed upon racks, where it is shaken twice each day from three to five weeks, until the sediment is entirely deposited upon the cork. It is then taken, tipped downward, to the finishing room where its first cork is extracted, and with it the sediment in this process, and part of the wine is lost. This is what is called disgorging. It then receives a small dose of syrup, made of pure sugar crystals, dissolved in old wine.

It is then re-corked, with as fine a cork as can be found, costing from five to eight cents each, and after it has been tied down, wired, labeled, capped, etc., it is ready for shipping. During this process each bottle is separately handled from two to three hundred times, and the result is a wine fit for the gods.

A few points concerning the growing of grapes with particular reference to wine making, may be useful. The land should be a gravelly soil upon a gentle slope, with a southeasterly exposure. If the land should be at all inclined to be wet, it should be thoroughly under-drained, and sub-soiled.

The vines should be planted in rows at least eight feet apart and from six to ten feet in the rows, according to the vigor and variety planted. Concord should be not less than ten feet; others less vigorous, eight, and Dele-wares and others of that nature six feet. The hole should be dug to the bottom of the sub-soil, and at least two feet square, then filled at least six to eight inches with top soil, and the vine set upon that, and a covering of three to four inches of top soil placed over the roots, which should be spread out evenly, and then the balance of the hole filled with such soil as may be most convenient. A stake should be driven three feet long by the side of the vine, not only to mark the place where the vine is planted, but to tie the young shoots upon so that they may not be blown off by the wind. When planted, the vine should be cut back to two buds, and should both grow, after they are about a foot long one should be broken off and the most vigorous one tied up.

The land should be plowed and hoed sufficiently the first year to keep free from weeds. The next season the vine should be pruned back again to two buds. In those showing great vigor two canes might safely be allowed to grow, but those showing less vigor should grow but one cane during the second season, and the cultivation should be the same as the first year. Starting in the spring as soon as the ground is dry, it should be plowed, and from the vines. The next plowing, from the 1st to the 15th of July, should be turned back to the vines.

The third year the vine should be pruned back to about three buds, and this year there will be more or less fruit. And in the spring of this third year the vineyard should be staked and wired ; that is, a stake seven and a half to eight feet long, sharpened upon one end, should be driven in the rows, leaving about three vines between each stake. And upon these stakes should be strung wires, about number twelve, the first about two feet from the ground, and the next two equal distances apart, sayabout 15 to 18 inches. This leaves quite a piece of stake above the top wire, but from year to year as these stakes are being driven farther into the ground the wires can be raised. This is the critical period of a vineyard, and no vines should be allowed to be overburdened with fruit, because if the vine is crippled at this time it will require many years of close pruning to bring it back ; from two to five clusters is a good rule. The cultivation should be the same as the year previous. If the land upon which the vineyard is planted is reasonable fertile, it will probably require no fertilizer until the vineyard is from five to eight years old.

In this region Iona, Delaware, Catawba, Elvira and Isabella are probably the best wine grapes. No doubt the Iona is the best single all-around variety.

Grape growing was begun in this region over 40 years ago in a small way, and has gradually extended until this has become the largest grape-growing region in the United States east of the Rocky mountains, and it produces the largest quantity of genuine sparkling wine. In still wines, California has become a lively competitor because it has the reputation of producing good, pure, wholesome wines, some of which are entitled to be ranked among the best productions of the world.

Rheims, N. Y. D. Baudbr.

Witch Hazel, Mysterious plant! whose golden tresses wave With a sad beauty in the dying year, looming amid November's frost severe, Like a pale corpse-ligbt o'er the recent grave" - Token.