Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/161

 of preserving grapes fresh, and of making what we call raisins.

The perfect maturity of the grape is known by the hardening of the stalk, and the brown color it assumes, indicating that the sap has ceased to flow to it.

A dry day, when there is much sunshine, is chosen, in which to cut the grapes, when each bunch is carefully examined, and any berries that are in a decayed state, or over ripe, renoved. A quantity of dry moss is then spread over a hurdle, and the bunches laid on it in such a way, that they may not touch. The hurdles are carefully removed under cover, in the evening. If, on the following day, the weather is fine, and the sun's rays not intercepted by clouds, the hurdles should be carried out, and the grapes exposed to the sun's rays. After two or three hours, the bunches are carefally turned, and when they are thus freed from all external moisture, they are restored to the fruit-house. The coinmon method is then to attach them to strings, and hang them up in a dry place, where there is little circulation of air. Some fix them by the higher part of the stalk, and each individual grape is thus isolated, and prevented from pressing and injuring its neighbour. It is not uucommon to have good grapes by this method, when it is carefully con-