58 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



process will be very slow. Expose as much of the surface as 

 you can to the air. Use large casks and don't fill them more 

 than half full. With a proper development you ought to pro- 

 duce about a six per cent acetic acid in the vinegar. After 

 two months the vinegar should be siphoned from the top. Be 

 very careful that you get no scum on the surface. This may 

 be put up in various retainers such as bottles, casks, or any- 

 thing of that sort that will appeal to the public. 



The second method is called the Orleans method. The re- 

 tainers and the manufacture are practically the same as in the 

 household method, but as soon as a portion of the finished 

 vinegar is drawn ofif, more sweet cider is added to the cask, 

 care being taken not to break the scum that covers the surface. 



The third method is what we call the German method. This 

 equipment consists of large cylinders, fifteen to twenty feet 

 high. These are filled with clean beech shavings, because they 

 give no odor or flavor to the vinegar. The first thing to do 

 after these cylinders are filled with shavings is to run good 

 cider vinegar over them, and this leaves acetic acid bacteria. 

 Add sweet cider by means of a sprinkler, so that it trickles 

 down through the shavings and comes out at the other end, a 

 finished product. There shoulfl be plenty of air, and it should 

 be kept in a warm place so that the conditions will be favorable 

 for working to vinegar. This process is more rapid than any 

 of the others. 



■ I want to speak about sweet cider as a beverage. Clean, 

 sweet cider as a beverage, before it begins to ferment, is 

 becoming more and more popular. The one problem 

 is to keep it sweet long enough to transport it to 

 distant localities. The Department of Agriculture in 

 Washington discovered that by simply running sweet cider 

 through an ordinary cream separator that they could remove 

 all the pomace and dirt, and it aids in the keeping quality. This 

 product could be kept for a long while. It can be pasteurized, 

 that is, treated exactly the same way as pasteurized milk. It 

 is heated at 150° F. for an hour. There was a disadvantage in 

 doing it this way for the fine flavor of the apple cider was gone, 

 and it was not a very satisfactory product. They thought 

 there was a greater field for sweet cider. Then the chemistry 

 department undertook the work, hunting for some method 



