^biter's ®aH: 



The Vinegar Plant. — Tlie tint tlirown out in tlie December No. respecting this valuable 

 plant, attracted considerable attention. It appears that what was considered a strange 

 novelty, is known and employed by many persons in various parts of the Union ; the circum- 

 stance is an evidence of the necessity we all are under of being taught, and will serve to 

 show the utility of periodicals. Complaints were rife that good vinegar was not to be bought, 

 especially after a bad apple year ; notices of this substance occasionally struck us in English 

 publications ; and we remembered it at Kew, but what was it, and where was it ? 



We applied first to the head-quarters of Science, but the oracle, much interested, however, 

 knew it not, but applied to others learned in that walk of botany ; the first reply declared 

 its faith small in the vinegar fungus. A second had no doubt it could be produced, but 

 practically knew nothing of its value. Then came several letters from various points of the 

 compass stating that the plant was in their neighborhood, but its practical use they could 

 not describe. " I tasted," says one, "part of a barrel made by the plant yesterday, and it was 

 certainly excellent ; it was made by an Englishman, and he says it is the same as is used in 

 England." Another says: "The plant can be obtained of * * * * Ann Street, New York." 

 Another correspondent says : " I knew nothing about the vinegar plant till a few months 

 past my wife procured one, and has ever since made her own vinegar with it, and the vinegar 

 is the best I have tasted for years." 



Then came a letter from Naperville, Illinois, saying : " The vinegar plant you described on 

 page 570 (Dec. No.), Horticulturist, as ' exhibited at Kew Garden Museum,' we have and use. 

 Your description of the mode of making vinegar is much the same as ours, except that 

 we do not always use the yeast. It is the least expensive mode of making good, wholesome, 

 vinegar I know of. Most of the various kinds of patent vinegar are fit only to be ' cast out 

 and trodden under foot,' being pernicious to health. 



" I would advise all who have not cider vinegar, to use the vinegar plant, or the following 

 receipt, in making their vinegar : To 16 gallons water put 16 pounds common brown sugar, 

 add 1 gallon molasses ; scald together, put into a cask, and when cooled to about blood-heat, 

 put in 1 pound bread-dough, raised by hop yeast ; place the cask in the sun or some other 

 warm place. In two or three months (according to the temperature), it will form as good 

 vinegar as that made from cider. Should you wish it, I will forward you, by exj)ress, some 

 of the plant ; but you can produce it as above. Respectfully yours, 



" Lewis Ellsworth." 



" In reply to your communication about the vinegar plant, first : It is curious and very 

 tender ; if frozen, turned over, or moved around, it -dies ; when dead, it sinks to the bottom 

 at once. Tlie value of it no family knows till they have had it. Money could not buy mine, 

 if I could get no more. ■ A family, with one plant, can always have plenty. As to economy, 

 the value of one pint of West India molasses, one gallon of water, six weeks of July weather, 

 or by a warm stove, and you have as fine vinegar as ever was placed on table. It improves 

 by standing, after the plant is taken off and the vinegar put into a keg. Tlie plant floats on 

 the top, and must not be disturbed after it is placed on the surface, and the same when 

 taken off from the mother plant. A small piece grows to cover the top of a bucket or 

 half an inch thick ; when the vinegar is perfect, it begins to sink ; it must then be removed 



