One of the principal methods of adulterating wines is under the present system devised by act of Congress and by the regulations made thereunder by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for fortifying wine. We have already seen that the law as it now stands recognizes an adulterated wine as wine and permits it to be called by that name. The law also provides for the fortification of so-called sweet wine in a manner which produces a highly adulterated and injurious article. This was done under previous revenue laws and is continued under the law, which was approved on September 8, 1916. The language of the act in regard to fortified wines is found in Sections 42 and 43 of the above act, as follows:

Sec 42

That any producer of pure sweet wines may use in the preparation of such sweet wines, under such regulations and after the filing of such notices and bonds, together with the keeping of such records and the rendition of such reports as to materials and products as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may prescribe, wine spirits produced by any duly authorized distiller, and the

Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in determining the liability of any distiller of wine spirits to assessment under section thirty-three hundred and nine of the Revised Statutes, is authorized to allow such distiller credit in his computations for the wine spirits withdrawn to be used in fortifying sweet wines under this Act.

Sec. 43

That the wine spirits mentioned in section forty-two herein mentioned is the product resulting from the distillation of fermented grape juice, to which water may have been added prior to, during, or after fermentation, for the sole purpose of facilitating the fermentation and economical distillation thereof, and shall be held to include the product from grapes or their residues commonly known as grape brandy, and shall include commercial grape brandy which may have been colored with burnt sugar or caramel; and the pure sweet wine which may be fortified with wine spirits under the provisions of this Act is fermented or partially fermented grape juice only, with the usual cellar treatment, and shall contain no other substance whatever introduced before, at the time of, or after fermentation, except as herein expressly provided: Provided, That the addition of pure boiled or condensed grape must or pure crystallized cane or beet sugar, or pure dextrose sugar containing, respectively, not less than ninety-five per centum of actual sugar, calculated on a dry basis, or water, or any or all of them, to the pure grape juice before fermentation, or to the fermented product of such grape juice, or to both, prior to the fortification herein provided for, either for the purpose of perfecting sweet wines according to commercial standards or for mechanical purposes, shall not be excluded by the definition of pure sweet wine aforesaid: Provided, however, That the cane or beet sugar, or pure dextrose sugar added for sweetening purposes shall not be in excess of eleven per centum of the weight of the wine to be fortified: And provided further, That the addition of water herein authorized shall be under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may from time to time prescribe: Provided, however, That records kept in accordance with such regulations as to the percentage of saccharine, acid, alcoholic, and added water content of the wine offered for fortification shall be open to inspection by any official of the Department of Agriculture thereto duly authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture; but in no case shall such wines to which water has been added be eligible for fortification under the provisions of this Act, where the same, after fermentation and before fortification, have an alcoholic strength of less than five per centum of their volume.