ALCOHOL. 165 
these various liquors being merely the result of a little 
difference in the mode of fermentation and distillation. 
Before taking leave of the subject, I would state that 
the sample of Mr. Peters’ syrup, referred to before, on 
being offered in the market as rum, was appraised at 90 
cents to $1 a gallon, Porto Rico rum being worth $1 10. 
In the shape of brandy, $1 to $1 50 was offered, while in 
the shape of 95°, alcohol, 65 cents was the price. 
Now, the farmer, so soon as he knows what it costs 
him to make a gallon of syrup, can tell at once what these 
prices indicate in the shape of profit, by adding eight 
cents per gallon, which is an over estimate of the cost of 
conversion into spirit. Supposing him to obtain only 
200 gallons, whereas he ought to get 400 gallons syrup 
per acre, and it costs him fifteen cents per gallon to make 
it, his brandy would stand him in twenty-three cents, 
and be a purer and more wholesome article than most of 
the trash palmed off upon us as French cognac. 
Say, 200 gallons syrup, per acre, 15¢, $3000 
Cost to ferment and distil, 8 «., ; 16 00 
$46 00 
Returns—200 gallons proof brandy, at $1, 200 00 
Profit per acre, . $154 00 
Besides fodder and seed, worth, say, : 50 00 
Net profit, . ; . $204 00 
On reading over the foregoing, I see that I have omitted 
mention of the means by which, in the absence of yeast, 
fermentation may be induced in the wash, or preserved 
