292 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



no longer full enough to throw off the froth it must be filled 

 up from the bottles. 



" The fermentation having ceased, the barrel is put into 

 the cellar, taking due precaution that it is full. After two 

 or three years it may be put into bottles, which must be 

 well corked, and allowed to stand one month to see if they 

 do not burst. They may then be ranged in bins like other 

 wines. The taste of this wine resembles that of Malaga ; 

 it is a great cordial, dissipates flatulence, and promotes 

 perspiration. It must, however, be drank with modera- 

 tion, as it is of a very intoxicating quality, and the intoxi- 

 cation caused by it lasts a very long time. The natives of 

 Poland and Lithuania, whose principal beverage is mead, 

 communicate a very agreeable odor to it by putting into 

 the barrels a certain quantity of dried elder flowers, and so 

 medicinal qualities may be given to mead by mixing with 

 it the juice of different plants." 



The wines of Malaga, Muscat, and some other sweet 

 wines, are imitated in Paris by means of mead ; but it is not 

 difficult to discover this imposition, by taking a small de- 

 canter of glass and pouring into it the adulterated wine. 

 If you stop the entrance of this bottle with your thumb, 

 turn it upside down, dip it under water, and draw away 

 your thumb, if the wine is spurious, the water will become 

 cloudy, and the honey will be precipitated into it, while 

 what remains in the bottle will be insipid water of an un- 

 pleasant taste. 



Very good vinegar may also be made from honey, by dis- 

 solving half a pound in a pint of water, and exposing it to 

 the heat of the sun, covering the bung-hole with a piece of 

 coarse linen, in order to prevent insects from entering. In 

 about six weeks this mixture will be excellent vinegar. 



We have been thus minute in the descriptions of the com- 

 mon uses of honey, because every apiarian in the country 

 should know how to use his products to the best advantage. 



