Читать книгу The American Practical Brewer and Tanner - Joseph Coppinger - Страница 5

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Since writing the Preface, I have been induced to make an addition to this little work, in order to increase its usefulness, by giving the French mode of tanning, as practised by the famous Mr. Seguine. Of such importance did the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Paris consider this improvement, that they thought it worth while to appoint a committee of their own members to go down to one of the provinces where this gentleman resides, and there, on the spot, superintend his operations, which they did with minute attention; and it is from the journal of their reports to the academy, that the different processes of tanning leather in this ingenious artist's way are here given; an improvement that can, no doubt, be successfully applied to that important manufacture in this country, affording the tanner the opportunity of turning his capital twelve or fourteen times in a year, instead of once. This single advantage alone so forcibly recommends its adoption, particularly in a country like ours, where capital is scarce, that further comment is unnecessary. I have also added the Bordeaux method of making and preparing claret wine for shipping, as practised in that city and its vicinity; which practice may possibly hereafter be successfully applied to the red wines of this country. The more so, when it is known that in the reign of Louis XVI., the merchants of Bordeaux presented a memorial to that monarch, praying him to put a stop to the importation of the wines of Kaskaskias into France, as likely, if permitted, to be injurious to the trade of Bordeaux. There was at that time a College of Jesuits established in that country, the superiors of which caused the wine to be cultivated with great success, and quantities of it were at that time sent to France. As that territory is now in our possession, and its soil and climate peculiarly favourable to the growth of the grape, which is indigenous there, may it not be an object well worth the attention of our government, to encourage and improve the growth of the wine in that section of the union; which wise measure would, probably, in a few years, supply our own consumption, and leave a considerable surplus for exportation. To offer an apology for giving these subjects a place in this publication, seems wholly unnecessary, when their importance is considered.