156 Journal of Agriculture. [10 March, 1910. 



To briefly resume, the following would be necessary : — Cider mill, cider 

 press and casks of various sizes — chiefly hogsheads for the fermentation 

 of the apple juice, and after, for its conversion into vinegar. A filter 

 will also be found useful, and of course the usual cellar appliances such 

 as pump, hose, buckets, &c., will be required, as well as saccharometers, 

 thermometers, &c. 



Mr. Knight informs me that one of his assistants, Mr. T. H. Heath- 

 cote, has for some time been conducting experiments in the making of 

 vinegar from apples. He wall be pleased to give information to those 

 interested in the question. At the A.N. A. Exhibition, now being held in 

 Melbourne, are to be seen pickles made with this type of vinegar, which 

 has also been successfully used by the fruit preserving expert, for the 

 making of raspberry vinegar and other cordials. 



Home-made "Vinegar. 



B. Fallot. 



Vinegar is a condiment of daily use not always offered for sale commercially 

 in a state in which it can be consumed with impunity. This can be understood 

 when it is general to call by the name of vinegar all liquids obtained by the 

 acetification of alcoholic beverages, such as wine, beer, and cider, or the trans- 

 formation of their alcohol into acetic acid. But if this organic acid is the 

 essential basis of vinegar, it does not follow that a simple dilution of acetic acid 

 with water would be vinegar. Vinegar is a substance endowed with hygienic 

 properties dependent upon the composition of the liquid from which it was formed. 

 In addition to acetic acid, there should be organic and inorganic salts, ethers 

 which give the bouquet, glycerine, a small proportion of alcohol, in reality all 

 the elements which constitute the original liquid. It is to the general effect of 

 this combination that the properties of vinegar are due. We speak here of true 

 vinegar, of which wine vinegar is the type, and which is becoming, it must be 

 regretfully noticed, more and more rare. Actually it is through perfected systems 

 of acetification that the vinegar maker hardly uses wine, but rather diluted cheap 

 spirits. Vinegar made from these spirits diluted possesses none of the above- 

 mentioned hygienic constituents. It may even from its excessive acidity be a 

 danger to weak digestions. If even its origin were known it might be possible 

 to remedy the inconvenience of defective composition, but the trade as a rule 

 offers it for sale as wine vinegar. A little glucose is sufficient to cover the 

 excessive acidity, and the consumer purchases it with confidence at a high price, 

 and at the expense of his stomach. 



. True wine vinegar is becoming rare, but as it is necessary to be sure of having 

 it good, the only method is to make it oneself. This is quite possible anywhere. 

 On the farm, in the town and cities, every household should make its own vinegar. 

 It is so simple, and the necessary material so cheap, when even the bottoms of 

 bottles of wine may be used, which are otherwise thrown away, as will be 

 gathered from the following practical details of the operation. Before beginning 

 on the purely practical side of the question, it is as well to cursorily examine the 

 theories upon which it is based. 



We have said that the process of making vinegar consists in transforming 

 Alcohol into acetic acid. Let us examine the phenomenon which produces this 

 transformation. 



It is known that the formation of acetic acid is due to an oxydation of 

 alcohol, with a production of water, as expressed in the chemical formula — 



C2H60-f()i'=C2H-iO«+H20. 

 Pasteur discovered how this transformation actually took place, and proved 

 that acetification is a fermentation due to the jjresence of a ferriient Mycoderma, 

 or Mycrococcus aceti, without which air alone, which is indispensable, cannot act. 

 Classed among the group of aerobian ferments, i.e., requiring the oxygen of the 

 air in order to exist, this ferment lives on the surface of alcoholic liquids in the 

 forrn of a fine white veil, which is so instable that the least agitation of the 

 liquid submerges the cellules of the ferment and asphyxiates them. In time 

 this veil thickens, and ends in forming a consistent membrane, to which is givea 



