20 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



from the cider press. Whether they would do as well for vinegar as 

 sound fruit, or whether the most delicate taste could discover this 

 taint in the vinegar, I do not know and am not anxious to find out. We 

 do not depend on chemists to tell us whether oleo. is made of clean 

 suet or cholera hogs, or whether beef was afflicted with lump jaw, but 

 we want our butter and beef to be entirely clear of all such suspicions. 

 If we only aim to preserve the substance, so as to justify the name of 

 apple or cider, we may as well expect to have to compete with all the 

 shams and frauds extant, and to receive our pay in the same proportion 

 as low grade butter does. 



As apples were unusually sound last year, as well as unusually 

 plentiful, I took the chances of making a quantity of cider, very large 

 for a new beginner, although I had scarcely any trade in view for it, 

 and vinegar making was very unpromising, as already indicated. I had 

 not patience to wait for the slow and uncertain method of making vine- 

 gar in open barrels, and therefore procured some new patent genera- 

 tors, and am very much gratified to find it turning out what is generally 

 called double strength, 60 grain, 6 per cent acetic acid, whereas I have 

 seldom got over 40 grain, the customary standard, from such vinegar 

 stock as is commonly used. An article of such strength and purity, I 

 am well assured, will always command a remuerative price and gene- 

 rous approval, wholly regardless of the cheapest possible imitations. If 

 the public could be once accustomed to the use of such vinegar, and 

 apprised of the imposition practiced in others, with the evil effects on 

 health that might possibly be traced to them, it would make such a 

 demand for it that cider apples would seldom be worth less than 25 

 cents a bushel, and others graded so much better that they too would 

 bring a corresponding price. 



In the interest of humanity and decent morals, we certainly need 

 a vinegar law in all the States, as they have in New York and a few 

 others, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of any vinegar made of 

 poisonous preparations, as well as falsely coloring and branding any* 

 thing not the product of apples, as cider, etc. This is not the proper 

 time for the society to take any steps toward it, and it is not a matter 

 of importance to me, as my vinegar is quite competent to take care of 

 itself, but before another General Assembly convenes, we are not jus- 

 tified in omitting some effective action. There was a bill introduced 

 last winter and referred to the committee on agriculture, but strange 

 to say, they proposed to report unfavorably and it was withdrawn. I 

 have the names of that committee and can read them, if any of you 

 should wish to remember them. 



