All vegetables contain more or less of extractive matter; those that possess little may be assisted in their fermentation, by that process being conducted in wooden vessels, wood supplying the extractive principle to the liquor; the same juices therefore which would ferment very well in wood, would scarcely ferment at all in glass or earthenware. The extractive matter and the sugar are seldom completely destroyed in any wines; the existence of the former is evinced, by the skinny matter frequently deposited upon the insides of the wine-bottles; the latter may be detected, by a nice palate, in the very driest of our wines; its predominance indicates an inferior wine. From the preceding observations, my readers have probably anticipated my opinion of _honey, in wine-making_. I regard it merely as _a substitute for sugar_; and to those who approve of its flavour I recommend the following _directions_, which I have successfully followed for several years, having my home-made wines enriched with a considerable portion of foreign flavour.--Dissolve an ounce of cream of tartar in five gallons of boiling water; pour the solution off clear upon twenty pounds of fine honey, boil them together and remove the scum as it rises. Towards the end of the boiling, add an ounce of fine hops; about ten minutes afterwards, put the liquor into a tub to cool; when reduced to the temperature of about 60° Fahrenheit, add a slice of bread toasted and smeared over with a very little yeast; the smaller the quantity the better, for _yeast invariably spoils the flavour of wines_, and where there is a sufficiency of extractive matter in the ingredients employed, it should never be introduced. The liquor should now stand, and be stirred occasionally, till it carries a head, when it should be tunned and the cask filled up from time to time from the reserve, till the fermentation has nearly subsided. It should now be bunged down, leaving open a small peg-hole; in a few days this may also be closed, and in about twelve months the wine will be fit to bottle. Many makers of both wine and cider have been unconsciously benefited from the acquisition of tartar by their liquor; it being a frequent practice to tun into an empty foreign wine cask, whose incrusted sides have supplied their wine or their cider with a portion of that necessary ingredient for perfect vinification. It is a practice with some to add _spices_ to their Mead during the fermentation, such as ginger, cloves, mace, rosemary, lemon-peel, &c. This is bad œconomy; a much smaller quantity will communicate the required flavour if the addition be made after the fermentation has ceased.