On making and fining Cyder. 273 



used : how then, can it be expected that the juice of the 

 apple, without aid, should stand through our summer's 

 heat? Brandy mixes its taste with the w^ine, in a course 

 of years, so as not to be perceived on the palate ; but 

 cyder exposes even the smallest mixture of the best 

 brandy, or any known spirits, more readily than any 

 other liquor. The concentration of cyder by frost, in 

 our coldest weather, if it has been previously duly fer- 

 mented, affords a delicate bottled liquor, that will stand 

 for years, and improve by time j but the concentration 

 of the must, by long boiling, renders yeast absolutely 

 necessary- to ferment it to a degree, suitable for drink 

 at our tables; and I have never met with any, that my 

 stomach did not complain of, after even a moderate 

 draught of it: whether owing to its being boiled in 

 copper vessels, or some other cause, I cannot venture 

 to say. 



On Peach Trees. 



Doctor Muhlenberg requests me to give you the 

 manner in which my peach trees are treated, and espe- 

 cially as it relates to the worm so destructive to that 

 tree. This I the more readily comply with as he is a 

 witness of my complete success, and his judgment to be 

 relied on. This mode is, indeed attended with some 

 labour and requires some attention ; but let it be re- 

 membered, that the price of good fruit was fixed by the 

 deity himself when he created man and placed him in 

 the garden of Eden. Even then, and in that virgin soil, 

 the condition was that he ^^ dress the garden and keep 

 itj^^ and one may venture to say, that since then the price 

 has never been abated. 



z z 



