428 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



mentation more quickl3% and become vinegar sooner than that which is 

 made later. 



Having good fruit, the next thing is to have it ground and pressed. At 

 the larger mills where this is done, they have mills that will gi-ind much 

 more than the old mills with wooden rollers for crushing the fruit, which 

 we often watched when a boy, and they have huge presses where hydraulic 

 power or steam is used to squeeze out the juice from the pomace, which is 

 put in and wrapped with cloth, so that it comes out in thin sheets instead 

 of the large cheeses we knew then. 



Whatever the process, however, it should be cleanly, as in preparing 

 any other article of food. It used to be thought that in fermentation the 

 cider worked off all impurities, and that any sort of filth might be allowed 

 to go in before or during the grinding, but today we know that to get a 

 pure article it must be pure from the start, and kept so, or the bacteria 

 that are in it will multiply according to their kind, unchecked and unde- 

 stroyed by fermentation. 



A clean cask is needed to put it in. If an old cask is used that had 

 cider or vinegar in it before, it should first be well soaked out, then 

 rinsed out with water in which a handful of soda has been put, to sweeten 

 it, then smoked inside by burning a rag that has been dipped in melted 

 brimstone. Put this in the bung when the barrel stands on end, and 

 when about half burned, reverse the barrel, that both ends may be well 

 smoked. Put the bung in to retain the smoke or the sulphuric acid gas, 

 which will form in the barrel, and do not remove the bung until ready to 

 fill with cider, which will be all the cleaner and sweeter because of the 

 sulphuring process. If new casks are used which have had liquor in them, 

 they may be washed and rinsed as clean as the owner pleases, but the 

 smoking is not needed, as most manufacturers burn the inside of their 

 casks to a charcoal before they are filled, to prevent them absorbing 

 too much of the liquor. 



Strain the cider into the cask through straw, under which put one 

 or more thicknesses of thick but not too closely woven bagging. The 

 straw will catch the coarsest particles of pomace if any are pressed out, 

 and the cloth the rest. When the barrel is taken home, remove the bung 

 and allow it to work as much as it will, occasionally filling the barrel in 

 the morning, as it works most during the day when it is warm, and may 

 have settled in the night so that it would not overflow unless refilled. 

 For this purpose a gallon or so should be kept beside that in the barrel. 

 When fermentation is over, cover the bunghole with a bit of wire mosquito 

 netting to keep out flies and other insects, and to admit air if vinegar is 

 wanted. If it is to be used as cider, stop it tightly and keep it so excepting 

 a spile to admit air when drawing. 



We have seen many receipts for keeping cider from changing to 

 vinegar, which varied from adding liquor to the use of salicylic acid, but 

 we never found any that improved the flavor of good cider from sound 



