CONVERTING CULL FRUIT INTO CIDER AND VINEGAR. 123 



a conclusion. And taking it on an average it costs to manufacture cider 

 about V^ a cent a gallon, that is the actual cost. And it is taking into 

 account the intei'est on your investment and the cost of fuel and labor 

 on your machine. I will say that is on a basis of from 500 to 5,000 .gal- 

 lons a day. I have never made a test as to any particular variety, for at 

 home we dump all the apples into a pen, promiscuously, without any re- 

 gard to separating the varieties, and we never have grown any variety 

 and made a test of it. But, taking them as they come, the average bushel 

 of apples will produce about 3% gallons of cider, or about 7 gallons to 

 the hundred weight. Now you see it will net you about 20 cents a bushel 

 for your apples, and of course those of us that are in the apple business 

 know we have a great many apples of that kind, and it is simply a saving 

 of a waste, which is always commendable in any enterprise. 



The conversion of cider into vinegar is another question, and in my 

 opinion it is much more preferable an undertaking of the manufacture 

 of cider to put it on tho market as suelv Especially I think it is true if 

 you are going to operate on a small scale, and not go into the business 

 too extensively. 



In what is known as the quick process of the manufacture of vinegar 

 you can take the sweet juice today, and in thirty days or less convert it 

 into cider or vinegar. Now that does not seem true, but it is. Under 

 what is known as the quick process, all that is done is the separation of 

 the cider into its smallest parts, or into droiis, so that every drop of the 

 cider comes in contact with the air at once. Under the old process we 

 made our cider in the fall, and we put it in a whisky barrel and rolled 

 the barrel out under the apple tree at home, and put a bung into it, and 

 so forth, and let the barrel lie there for two or three years' time, and it 

 came out all right. 



It went through the same process that we put it through in the quick 

 process. In order to convert cider into vinegar it has to have access to 

 the air. The alcohol in the cider consumes the oxygen from the air, and 

 converts it into acetic acid, and that is what gives the strength to the 

 vinegar. Under what is known as the quick process that cider is broken 

 up, and each drop comes in contact with the air at once, and that is why 

 it is known as the quick process, and that is why we can make good vine- 

 gar in a short time. 



The generator we use is a tank 31/2 feet in diameter, and about 7 feet 

 high. It has two bottoms, the lower bottom being tight, and the other 

 bottom, ten inches above, is perforated with a great many little holes. 

 We simply dump into this second bottom shavings which are made for 

 this second business and which help to ripen the cider. Three days from 

 the time we start with the sour cider we have vinegar. 



The shrinkage during the converting process of cider varies accord- 

 ing to the method of handling. The variation will run all the way from 

 10 to 30 per cent. Of course SO per cent is a heavy shrinkage. After the 

 cider has passed through its fermentation stage and has become entirely 

 quiet, there should be a top put over the tank and made air-tight to pre- 



