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, 
