the French islands free to all nations. But the Council did not observe this result. The inhibitory clause was inserted in the treaty of Utrecht, and monopolies were retained in France.

Few taxes were levied by the Council on the colonies. There was an export duty of two per cent ad valorem on their products, but no tax upon imports. Salaries of all colonial officers, and the expense of fortifications and general defense, were paid from the French treasury, occasioning a heavy taxation upon the French people, and hightening the fiscal difficulties of the government. The benefit of the exclusive trade which was to compensate the burden of colonies thus managed, was lost through the bold and active operations of the British-American and West Indian smugglers, with whom the very officers appointed by the Council connived. The policy, indeed, of the Council itself paralyzed all Commerce in a little while, except this contraband traffic and the slave trade, until it at length succeeded in ruining itself. In 1720, the government resumed the administration of colonial matters.

In 1715, two years after the treaty, the British sugar colonies, (Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c.,) complained to the home government that the New England provinces had established a great trade with the French and Dutch colonies, in contravention of the treaty, which operated to their injury, as the supplies of sugar, molasses, &c., thence derived, lessened the demand for their products. They mention the Dutch colony of Surinam as an especial theater of this trade, where provisions, fish, &c., were sold in return for molasses, which the New Englanders made into rum. This was the first rude complaint that had been offered.

About this time the trade of St. Thomas, a small Danish island hitherto held exclusively by the Danish West India and Guinea Company, which had employed but one vessel to transact the whole Commerce of the island, was opened to the Dutch and to the British colonists of North America. The island was then nearly starved out, but this measure greatly stimulated its prosperity. The privilege to the Dutch was not long afterward withdrawn.

Under the freedom granted in the African trade, New England engaged, or rather continued therein, though to a small extent compared with the British merchants. Rhode Island was particularly concerned in this traffic. Rum, made from the West India molasses, was exported to the African coast in considerable quantity, as well as other goods, with which the negroes were purchased from the factors and from traders of their own complexion. By far the greater proportion of the slaves were carried to the British sugar islands, from which they were distributed to others. In no year between 1703 and 1775, were there less than 2,200 negroes imported into the island of Jamaica. Large numbers were, however, brought in the English and colonial vessels to the North American colonies. The great market here, was at the South, (though Virginia passed many laws against the traffic,) yet many came to New York, a slave-market being established in the city in 1712, and a small number were brought to New England. In 1707, Rhode Island laid a duty of 37. a head upon all negroes imported in that colony, probably as a measure of war-revenue. The year the market was established in New York, the negroes had become so numerous that the people were alarmed by a Black insurrection, real or supposed, and in the panic prevailing 119 of these unfortunate beings were executed. Chalmers states the whole number of slaves in the colonies, in 1715, at 58,850.

Art. II.-WINE, AND THE WINE AND SPIRIT TRADE.

WHAT WINE IS-LAND FAVORABLE TO ITS PRODUCTION--VINTAGE, ETC.-MODE OF MANUFACTURING WINE-ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF WINE-ANALYSIS OF WINES-PRODUCT OF WINE IN OHIO EXTENDING-IMPORTS OF WINES AND SPIRITS INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM 1843 TO 1853DUTIES ON WINES AND SPIRITS--IMPORTS OF BRANDY AND GRAIN SPIRITS-BEER, ALE, AND PORTER FROM ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND-STATISTICS OF THE WINE AND SPIRIT TRADE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND OF LIVERPOOL-CHAMPAGNE-ADULTERATIONS OF WINE AND SPIRITS, ETC.

WINE, as every reader of the Merchants' Magazine is aware, is the fermented juice of the grape. In the more southern states of Europe, the grapes, being more saccharine, afford a more abundant production of alchohol and stronger wines, as exemplified in the best port, sherry, and Madeira. The influence of solar heat upon the vines may, however, be mitigated by growing them to moderate hights on level ground, and by training them in festoons under the shelter of trees. In the more temperate climates, such as the district of Burgundy, the finer flavored wines are produced; and there the vines are usually grown upon hilly slopes fronting the south, with more or less of an easterly or westerly direction, as on the Côte d'Or, at a distance from marshes, forests, and rivers, whose vapors might deteriorate the air. The plains of this district, even when possessing a similar or analogous soil, do not produce wines of so agreeable a flaThe influence of temperature becomes very manifest in countries further north, where, in consequence of a few degrees of thermometric depression, the production of generous agreeable wine becomes impossible.

vor.

The land most favorable to the vine is light, easily permeable to water, but somewhat retentive by its composition; with a sandy subsoil, to allow the excess of moisture to drain readily off. Calcareous soils produce the highly esteemed wines of the Côte d'Or; a granite debris forms the foundations of the lands where the Hermitage wines are grown; silicious soil interspersed with flints furnishes the celebrated wines of Château-Neuf, Ferté, and La Gaude; schistose districts afford also good wine, as that called la Malgue. Thus we see that lands differing in chemical composition, but possessed of the proper physical qualities, may produce most agreeable wines; and so also may lands of like chemical and physical constitution, produce various kinds of wine, according to their varied exposure. As a striking example of these effects, we may adduce the slopes of the hills which grow the wines of Montrachet. The insulated part towards the top furnishes the wine called Chevalier Montrachet, which is less esteemed and sells at a much lower price than the delicious wine grown on the middle hight, called true Montrachet. Beneath this district and in the surrounding plains the vines afford a far inferior article called bastard Montrachet. The opposite side of the hills produces very indifferent wine. Similar differences, in a greater or less degree, are observable relatively to the districts which grow the Pomard, Volnay, Beaune, Nuits, Vougeot, Chambertin, Romanée, &c. Everywhere it is found that the reverse side of the hill, the summit, and the plain, although generally consisting of like soil, afford inferior wine to the middle southern slopes.*

The vintage in the temperate provinces generally takes place about the end of September; and it is always deteriorated whenever the fruit is not ripe enough before the 15th or 20th of October; for, in this case, not only

is the must more acid and less saccharine, but the atmospherical temperature is apt to fall so low during the nights as to obstruct more or less its fermentation into wine. The grapes should be plucked in dry weather at the interval of a few days after they are ripe; being usually gathered in baskets, and transported to the vats in dorsels sufficiently tight to prevent the juice from running out. Whenever a layer about 14 or 15 inches thick has been spread on the bottom of the vat, the treading operation begins, which is usually repeated after macerating the grapes for some time, when an incipient fermentation has softened the texture of the skin and the interior cells. When the whole bruised grapes are collected in the vat, the juice, by means of a slight fermentation, reacts through the acidity thus generated upon the coloring matter of the husks, and also upon the tannin contained in the stones and the fruit-stalks. The process of fermentation is suffered to proceed without any other precaution except forcing down from time to time the pellicles and pedicles floated up by the carbonic acid to the top; but it would be less apt to become acetous were the mouths of the vats covered. With this view, M. Sebille Auger introduced with success his elastic bung in the manufacture of wine in the department of the Maine-et-Loire.

With whatever kind of apparatus the fermentation may have been regulated, as soon as it ceases to be tumultuous and the wine is not sensibly saccharine or muddy, it must be racked off from the lees by means of a spigot, and run into the ripening tuns. The marc being then gently squeezed in a press affords a tolerably clear wine, which is distributed among the tuns in equal proportions; but the liquor obtained by stronger pressure is reserved for the casks of inferior wine.

In the South of France the fermentation sometimes proceeds too slowly, on account of the must being too saccharine; an accident which is best counteracted by maintaining a temperature of about 65° or 68° F., in the tun-room. When the must, on the other hand, is too thin and deficient in sugar, it must be partially concentrated by rapid boiling before the whole can be made to ferment into a good wine. By boiling up a part of the must for this purpose, the excess of ferment is at the same time destroyed. Should this concentration be inconvenient, a certain proportion of sugar must be introduced immediately after racking it off.

The specific gravity of must varies with the richness and ripeness of the grapes which afford it; being in some instances so low as 1.0627, and in others so high as 1.1283. This happens particularly in the south of France. In the district of the Necker in Germany, the specific gravity varies from 1.050 to 1.090; in Heidelberg from 1.039 to 1.091; but it varies much in different years.

After the fermentation is complete the vinous part consists of water, alcohol, a coloring matter, a peculiar aromatic principle, a little undecomposed sugar, bitartrate and malate of potash, tartrate of lime, muriate of soda, and tannin; the latter substances being in small proportions.

It is known that a few green grapes are capable of spoiling a whole cask of wine, and therefore they are always allowed to become completely ripe, and even sometimes to undergo a species of slight fermentation, before being plucked, which completes the development of the saccharine principle. At other times the grapes are gathered whenever they are ripe, but are left for a few days on wicker-floors to sweeten before being pressed.

In general the whole vintage of the day is pressed in the evening, and

the resulting must is received in separate vats. At the end usually of 6 or 8 hours, if the temperature be above 50° F., and if the grapes have not been too cold when plucked, a froth or scum is formed at the surface which rapidly increases in thickness. After it acquires such a consistence as to crack in several places, it is taken off with a skimmer and drained; and the thin liquor is returned to the vat. A few hours afterwards another coat of froth is formed which is removed in like manner, and sometimes a third may be produced. The regular vinous fermentation now begins, characterized by air-bubbles rising up the sides of the staves, with a peculiar whizzing as they break at the surface. At this period all the remaining froth should be quickly skimmed off and the clear subjacent must be transferred into barrels, where it is left to ripen by a regular fermentation.* The following is given by a practical wine producer as the usual mode of manufacturing wine:

The wine press, or curvier de pressoir, consists in the majority of cases of a massive shallow tub, varying in size from four square feet to as many square yards. It is placed either upon wooden trestles or on a regularly-built platform of mason work, under the huge rafters of a substantial outhouse. Close to it stand a range of great butts, their number more or less according to the size of the vineyard. The grapes are flung by the tub and cask full into the curvier. The treaders stamp diligently amid the masses, and the expressed juice flows plentifully out of a hole level with the bottom of the trough into a sieve of iron or wickerwork, which stops the passage of the skins, and from thence drains into tubs below. Suppose at the moment of our arrival the curvier for a brief space empty. The treaders-big, perspiring men, in shirts and tucked-up trowsersspattered to the eyes with spatches of purple juice, lean upon their wooden spades and wipe their foreheads. But their respite is short. The creak of another cartload of tubs is heard, and immediately the wagon is backed up to the broad open window, or rather hole in the wall, above the trough. A minute suffices to wrench out tub after tub, and to tilt their already half-smashed clusters into the reeking pressoir. Then to work again; jumping, with a sort of spiteful eagerness, into the mountain of yielding, quivering fruit, the treaders sink almost to the knees, stamping and jumping and rioting in the masses of grapes, as fountains of juice spurt about their feet and rush bubbling and gurgling away. Presently, having, as it were, drawn the first sweet blood of the new cargo, the eager tramping subsides into a sort of quiet, measured dance, which the treaders continue while, with their wooden spades, they turn the pulpy remnants of the fruit hither and thither, so as to expose the half-squeezed berries in every possible way to the muscular action of the incessantly-moving feet.

According to a statement in the Dictionnaire Technologique, the annual produce of a hectare of vineyard, upon the average of 113 years, in the district of Volnay, is 1,779 litres, which fetch 0.877 francs each, or 200 francs the piece of 228 litres, amounting in all to 1,672 francs. Deducting for expenses and taxes (contributions) 572 francs, there remain 1,100 francs of net proceeds; and as the value of the capital may be estimated at 23,000 francs, the profit turns out to be no more than 5 per cent. The net proceeds in the growths of Beaune, Nuits, &c., does not exceed 600 francs per hectare (2.4 acres,) and therefore is equivalent to only 2 per cent upon the capital.

The quantity of alcohol contained in different wines has been made the subject of elaborate experiments by Brande and Fontenelle; but as it must evidently vary with different seasons, the results can be received merely as

• Ure's Dictionary.

approximate. The only apparatus required for this research is a small still and refrigeratory, so well fitted up as to permit none of the spirituous vapors to be dissipated. The distilled liquor should be received in a glass tube, graduated into one hundred measures, of such capacity as to contain the whole of the alcohol which the given measure of wine employed is capa ble of yielding. In the successive experiments, the quantity of wine used and of spirit distilled over, being the same in volume, the relative densities of the latter will show at once the relative strengths of the wines. A very neat small apparatus has been contrived for the purpose of analyzing wines in this manner, by M. Gay Lussac. It is constructed and sold at a moderate price by M. Collardeau, No. 56 Rue Faubourg St. Martin, Paris. The proportion given by Brande has been reduced to the standard of absolute alcohol by Fesser; and that by Fontenelle to the same standard by Schubarth; as in the following tables: