out in the ordinary process of fermentation. Sparkling wine may be made from any perfectly-matured sweet grapes, or by the addition of sugar when the grape is deficient in that quality. It is necessary to bottle the wine while in the act of fermentation, so as to imprison, as it were, the carbonic acid gas, and hold it obedient to our call. But here arises a difficulty that cannot be successfully met, without the use of rare and expensive instruments. It is no less than to determine the strength of the gas, so as to know the proper condition for bottling with safety. Many bottles, and much wine, are lost in the manufacture of champagne, and he is considered as quite successful who does not lose one-half his stock.

In my first experiments, most of the wine was lost by the use of demijohns instead of bottles. I now use the strongest pint and quart bottles that can be procured; but still, in warm weather, lose much from the bursting of the bottles, being still deficient in the implements necessary for the successful manufacture. Another great difficulty is to procure bottles adapted to the purpose. In the champagne districts of Europe, bottles of a peculiar shape, and composed of certain safe ingredients, are used exclusively, for it is known that some of the materials used in the manufacture of ordinary glass bottles become dissolved by the wine and affect its taste, or entirely destroy the wine. I select the strongest bottles, fill them so as to leave a vacant space of half inch to an inch between the wine and cork, and then drive the cork with a wooden mallet. The vacant space serves as an air-chamber, into which the carbonic gas given out in fermentation collects in such force as often to force out the cork, or burst the bottle. Or, if these be of sufficient strength to resist the pressure, the gas is forced back into the liquor again, which holds it until brought into contact with the air, by the removal of the cork. As soon as the bottle is opened, and the wine brought in contact with the air, the gas rushes to the surface, causing the foam and sparkle of champagne.

It may be well here to remark that cider treated in the same manner will also foam and sparkle, and resemble the true wine so nearly that it is frequently sold and drank as the genuine article.

Indeed, in this country more cider champagne is used, without a drop of grape juice to redeem it, than the true wine. It is easily detected by a taste accustomed to the genuine champagne, or by a variety of tests, the most simple of which is the smell evolved by sprinkling the liquor upon living coals. Cider treated as champagne is not durable, and seldom keeps well for more than a year. It then becomes flat, loses its transparency and its sparkling character, and often assumes a thick rusty color.

In the manufacture of sparkling wines in the champagne districts grape juice is only a constituent of the splendid article sold under the distinctive designations of Green Seal, Silver Seal, and Gold Seal; and even the best judges generally prefer the made-up article to the true champagne.

NATIVE WINES.

Wines manufactured in the middle and New England States have no distinctive character. The color can readily be regulated from a white to a golden or dark wine, but the flavor and other characteristics are dependent upon artificial management, or are merely accidental. Names are given to my wines only after they have settled into their natural condition and assumed their permanent character, when they are named after the foreign wines which they most resemble in taste and color. This I consider an error, encouraged by the fact that domestic wines are too often regarded as inferior in quality to the same grade of foreign wines. Excellence is generally denied where the taste is formed and the judgment controlled by imported wines, which are made strong by additions of alcohol, in order to bear transportation without risk; yet at dinner parties, when

connoisseurs were present, I have smuggled a few bottles of our "home made" among the good foreign brands, with the satisfaction of seeing them generally preferred and almost universally commended. The very important character of BODY is too often lacking in our domestic wines. This results from the use of grapes not fully matured in all their parts, from the addition of water to the mash or must, from the haste in fermentation, and from want of age. Yet in the Bordeaux districts of France water is added at the rate of from fifteen to sixty per cent., while sugar is also added in proportion. In Spain, where the grapesare richer in saccharine matter, water is added without the sugar.

But our grapes are generally so deficient in sugar, and, in consequence, the alcoholic property, that, unless they are fully matured, we find it necessary to enrich the must rather than weaken it, in order to produce a wine equal in all respects to the Bordeaux of France or Malaga of Spain.

BOTTLING AND STORING.

For still wines, so soon as the fermentation has entirely ceased, or when it becomes weak, which may be ascertained by observing that the surface is quiet or is broken by the bursting of an occasional air-bubble, we proceed to draw the clear liquor from the sediment, and place it in another perfectly clean and sweet vessel, and close the bung either by a loose cork, or by placing a clean cloth, folded several times, upon the hole. This is kept in place by a stone or weight laid upon it. The time required before the fermentation is completed varies according to the kind and condition of the grapes and temperature of the weather. In warm weather the first fermentation is usually over in from two to three weeks, while in the cool autumn, after frost sets in, it requires a much longer period.

Much difference of opinion exists as to the best material to use in the construction of vessels in which the must is to be fermented. In the wine districts of Europe large vats made of stone are sometimes used, but wood is still generally preferred, as the wine is thought to ripen better in wood than in any other material. Great care is necessary to procure such kinds of wood as will not impart an unpleasant taste to the wine, as the liquor will imbibe, in process of fermentation, whatever taste exists in the wood. Oak is generally preferred in Europe, but would not answer so well in this country without undergoing a disinfectant process, as it is highly charged with tannic acid, and when brought in combination with that already existing in so great a proportion in our native grapes, it would give the wine a decidedly harsh and disagreeable taste. Ash would answer the purpose better, but stoneware is cheaper, more durable, and less difficult to keep sweet and clean, while it imparts no taste to the wine. A stoneware vessel can be made of any size, and in any shape best adapted to the purpose, or, what is better, we may have two such vessels so constructed that they may be connected by a tube, in which is placed a stop-cock, so that the liquor may be drawn from one to the other as often as necessary, and without exposure to the air. I, however, use but one large stone vessel, and when the first fermentation is over, draw the liquor into large glass vessels or demijohns, covered by a network of oak or willow, and holding about ten gallons each. These glass vessels are as large as can be procured, and answer the purpose where the manufacture is not conducted on a very large scale, but are of insufficient size where the operations are extensive, as the wine acquires more body, and ripens better when kept in moderately large quantities until it is fit for bottling.

Having drawn the wine from the lees, after the first fermentation, it is placed in a dark cellar, and left until the following May, as far removed from atmospheric influences as possible. I have had a stone vault constructed for the purpose of storing wine during the fermentation and afterwards. It is in a hill-side, communicating with the cellar, and is about ten feet under the surface of the ground,

and perfectly dry. On the earthen floor of this vault are placed the casks and large vessels, while the bottles are arranged in cases, and set on shelves above. About the first week in May, or as soon in the spring as the buds begin to burst and the blossoms appear, a second fermentation commences.

This is weaker than the first, and usually ceases in the course of ten days or two weeks, when the liquor should again be carefully drawn from its sediment into other clean vessels. It now remains undisturbed in its resting-place until October, when it may again be drawn off; or if but little sediment had settled when drawn off in May, it may safely be allowed to remain until the following May, when, if it is perfectly clear and emits diamond-like sparkles in the light as it is poured from one vessel to the other, it may be considered as finished, and is mature at the age of eighteen months. If, however, as is generally the case, sediment is yet found at the bottom, it should be drawn off twice in the second year, and in May or October of the third year, before it is fit for bottling and for use. This latter process insures a better and more durable wine, which will continue to improve for many years.

After the final drawing off, be that in eighteen months or in three years, the wine is put into pint or quart bottles, corked, sealed, and labelled, and then placed in wooden cases holding two dozen each. Before placing the bottles in the cases, lime, in the floury state, is sprinkled on the bottom to the depth of about two inches, and the bottles are then packed in the cases and the interstices filled with the lime even up to the necks of the bottles. The cases are then placed in order upon the shelves, marked with the date of vintage, and left undisturbed until wanted for use.

In bettling sparkling wine this plan has been found safe and economical, since the bursting of a bottle does not endanger its neighbor, as in the usual way of storing.

SOIL AND LOCALITY.

Upon the character of the soil and the locality or "exposure" depends, in a great measure, the quality of the wine. Grapes grown in a damp, rich, heavy soil are larger, more juicy, and the vines more vigorous and productive than those grown in a porous, dry soil; yet the wine made of grapes grown on the dry soil so far surpasses in excellence and durability that made from grapes grown in flat, damp soils, that we readily prefer the quality to the quantity, and plant for wine only on such soils as are well drained by a porous subsoil. A deep, loose, red soil, intermixed with rough stones, (if limestones so much the better,) and a porous subsoil, will produce grapes that will make a wine of highest excellence and greatest durability. The reason is simply that such a soil is retentive of moisture in dry seasons, while it never becomes saturated with water from the rain. The sun heat also penetrates easily to the roots, and thus brings the crop into early and perfect maturity.

The best exposures are those which slope gently toward the southwest, the south, and the west, a southwestern inclination being preferable to all others. With such an exposure and on such a soil corn will ripen from one to three weeks earlier than on flat, heavy land, and the crop will be finer where the conditions are otherwise equal.

I plant my vines in rows from six to eight feet apart and about eight feet distant in the rows, and prune most varieties to a single stake eight feet in height. I also train some varieties of vigorous growth on trellises made of wood, or of wood and wire, allowing the vines to cover the top, while the grapes hang in the shade of the leaves. The bunches grown on the trellises are larger, and the grapes are also finer and more plentiful; but the quality of the wine made from them is inferior to that made from grapes exposed to the sunshine and all atmospheric influences; yet when the vines are grown in porous soil, through which the sun heat readily radiates to the roots, and when the leaves, also, are well exposed to the sun

shine during the greater part of the day, the fruit grows as rich in sugar, and elaborates almost as perfectly the wine essentials as when the fruit itself receives the sunshine. Indeed, the fierce sun rays are not conducive to either size or quality of the fruit, reflected heat being preferable. The finest grapes, and most perfect in all respects, are grown on vines trained on stone walls, or over roofs, especially flat roofs, made of cement and covered with sand or pebbles, upon rocks, or even upon the ground where the soil is sand or gravel, so as not to retain sufficient moisture to rot the grapes.

PRUNING.

We have arrived at the conclusion, after a series of experiments, that excessive pruning on the European plan will not answer for the middle States of this country. It is true, in the cultivation of grapes for wine, that what is gained in quantity is lost in quality. The ordinary rules for pruning the vine until its third or fourth year, or until bearing commences, hold good here as elsewhere, as they only apply to the vine, and are calculated to give it vigor and endurance; but after it begins to bear, much depends upon the locality, the mode of trellising, and the variety of grape. The native grape, which is preferable for wine, is generally so vigorous that it will perfect more fruit than most of the fine European varieties; yet I have adopted the rule to prune close, in proportion to the size of the bunch and berry, having found that the smaller grapes do not need close pruning in order to enable them to perfect their wine-producing properties. Our finest wines are made from native grapes, when the vine is allowed to ramble at will over trees, and the topmost bunches, most exposed to the influence of the weather, are not only larger, but are richer and more perfect in all respects. Hence I have adopted the plan, whenever practicable, of planting so as to allow the vines perfect freedom to run over trees, and prune only the dead vines or branches, or when the vines become so matted as to exclude the sun and air.

By observing, in substance, the simple rules for the cultivation of the grape and its manufacture into wine, every family possessing a few feet of soil may grow their vines and enjoy the luxury of good grapes, and a better wine than can be purchased without large cost. Root room is nearly all the vine requires, as it will wander independently over trees, fences, walls, or sheds, crowning with beauty all it touches, shielding dwellings from the effect of poisonous gases, and furnishing a luxury in its delicious fruit, and a comfort and medicine in its wine.

BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN BASINS.

BY R. O. THOMPSON, NURSERY HILL, NEBRASKA.

It is not my intention in this paper to treat of the vast mineral, pastoral, agricultural and horticultural resources of all that vast and varied country west of the Sierra Nevadas. California, Nevada, and Oregon have been so far developed that they have passed into history, setting all doubts at rest as to their future resources or ability to support and render prosperous and happy the millions who may yet till their soil and delve in their mines.

It is but a few years since that gold was found near Pike's Peak, in Colorado.

The whole east, north, south, and west were fully aroused. Excitement ran high. Thousands and thousands left comfortable homes to become at once possessed of immense wealth. Very few knew or stopped to inquire the needs and wants of such a journey, or the supplies of food and clothing necessary to live upon while in the land of gold.

Cities were commenced and machinery was set in motion to crush and separate the golden ore from the granite rock. All the supplies to feed and clothe this busy multitude were transported across vast plains hundreds of miles. The question was soon presented to the minds of the agricultural classes who had gone there, "Can we not produce many of the necessaries of life in the rich soil at the base of these mountains?" Wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, onions, and many kinds of vegetables were planted and found to produce abundantly. The soil is capable of producing almost every agricultural product, though the season is too short for Indian corn. It is probable, however, that certain early and prolific varieties will be successfully introduced. Some of the largest onions and potatoes I ever saw were grown near Denver City. Men having located there for business purposes, finding a pure and healthful climate, determined to make their homes amid the eternal hills. Their families were accordingly removed thither, and with them went shrubs, bulbs, herbaceous plants, grapes, currants, and other varieties of small fruits, all of which were cultivated with success. The apple, peach, pear, plum, and cherry have gone there for trial. A few may succeed, but many will fail from various causes, principally from the limited knowledge of the settlers of locality, varieties, and seasons, as well as from the want of care and judgment in fruit culture generally.

Grape culture may be successfully carried on in certain favored localities in Colorado, when varieties like the Concord, Clinton, and Delaware are planted; yet I am satisfied that the great basins of Utah and New Mexico are much more naturally the home of the grape.

Neither is Colorado destitute of wild fruits, which, in the absence of cultivated kinds, are sought after and seem very palatable. Rubus triflorus, a form of R. occidentalis, black raspberry, and R. deliciosus are found here, the latter a fine fruit of peculiar flavor. Prunus chicasa and several other wild plums are met with, bearing fruit that is quite refreshing. Also Ribes lacustre, or swamp gooseberry, and two other varieties, neither of much value as fruit, and R. aureum, or golden currant, R. floridum, (but not the same found in Kentucky,) fruit large, musky, but palatable. It is distinct from the Utah varieties. I will notice a few of the flowering plants and grasses of the plains, passing into the mountains over the range into South Park and thence into New Mexico. The order SCROPHULARIACEÆ is a very interesting one in this latitude. The PENTSTEMONS comprise a large number of varieties and are worthy of much attention. P. albidus is a fine white-flowered species, and P. grandiflorum, on Platte river, Nebraska; also found on the Pecos river, New Mexico; P. cobaca, found in Nebraska on gravelly banks of Nemaha and two localities in New Mexico. There are two forms of P. acuminatus, one with long narrow leaves, the other broad and short. P. humilis is a fine strong plant; P. Hallii, with a superb blue flower, a small species, but very showy; P. glaber, P. procerus, P. glaucus, P. gracilis, with blue flowers, two to three feet high; P. barbatus and P. imbertis; from P. barbatus, a distinct and showy form, with deep brilliant carmine flowers. Two other forms of this are found in New Mexico and Utah. I hope to see this class of plants come into general cultivation, as they are all desirable and showy, and the greater part of them hardy.

Several forms of Mimulus are met with, among them M. rubellus, M. luteus and M. floribundus; Pectis angustifolia, growing along streams or hard soils, a low plant, spreading out into large tufts, entirely covered with brilliant yellow flowers.

Among Orchidaceae are Spiranthes gracilis, S. cernua, and a variety with deep