ORCHARDS. 217 



sliade, exposed to northern air; and when fermentation takes 

 place, I fill them up once or more (with a portion of the same 

 liquor reserved) to cause as much of the feculent matter as 

 possible to discharge from the bung ; when a clear white froth 

 comes out, I put in the bung somewhat loosely or drive it a little 

 tight and bore a hole in it, and put in a spile, thereby check- 

 ing fermentation gradually. After this has subsided, I take 

 the first opportunity of clear, cool weather, and rack it off into 

 clean casks, which I prepare thus : When I have draw n cider 

 out of a cask in w^hich it has fermented, I rinse it with cold 

 water, and put in two or three quarts of fine gravel, and three 

 or four o;allons of water; the cask is then w^ell shaken or rolled 

 to scour off the sediment always adhering to the cask, and 

 which, if not removed, will act as a ferment to the liquor 

 Avhen returned to the cask, and spoil or greatly injure the 

 liquor. 



"After scouring the cask, I again rinse them, and I find 

 advantage from burning a match of sulphur suspended in the 

 cask by a wire, after putting in two or three buckets of cider. 

 A convenient way to perform this process is to have a long, 

 tapering bung, so that between the two ends it will fit any 

 hole ; to the small end of this bung drive a w^ire with a crooked 

 end to hold the match. If the cider stands a week or more 

 after racking, previous to being put away in the cellar, I rack 

 it again, rinsing the casks, but not Avith gravel, and remove 

 them to the cellar (which should be as dry as possible). The 

 late made cider, I put in the cellar immediately after or before 

 the first racking, according as the weather may happen to be. 

 The cider intended to be kept till Summer, I rack in cool, 

 clear w^eather, in the latter part of February or beginning of 

 March ; the casks must be kept full, and bunged as tight as 

 possible." 



The writer of the above jine% his cider with isinglass jelly 

 as has already been directed, but in case the liquor should not 

 fine in ten days, he directs to rack it again, and repeat the 

 fining as before, but says it is best to rack it, whether fine or 

 not, in ten or twelve days, lest the sediment should rise, which 

 often happens. He also adds: "The foregoing operation 



