MAKIXG CIDER VIXEGAR. 



with a temperature of 80° F., good vin 

 egar is made in three or four days, and 

 when barrelled or put in suitable close 

 vessels, it will keep improving in strength 

 for years. [This method is shown in 

 the annexed illustration. Fig. 1042.] 



For a larger quantity of vinegar an- 

 other method, but on the same princi- 

 ple with a larger exposure to the air, 

 may be used. This consists of a series 

 of vats placed one below the other 

 (Fig. 1043), so that the liquid may run 

 from one to the other into a receptacle 

 at the bottom. The intention is to 

 have the greatest possible exposure of 

 the liquid to the air. This is secured 

 by filling the va<s with beech shavings, 

 or birch twigs, through which the liquid 

 trickles slowly. Air is circulated through 

 the vats by means of holes bored near 

 the bottom, just above the level of the 

 pipe through which the young vinegar 

 (lows into the next vat. .At the top of 

 each vat there is a board pierced with 

 holes above the shavings, and the liquid 

 flows in thin streams down through 

 these holes. Between these holes there 

 are a number of glass tubes fitted, and 

 the air admitted through the holes be- 

 low escapes through these tubes, thus 

 affording a constant supply of oxygen. 

 Nothing can be done without pure air, 

 for it supplies the oxygen needed for the 

 change of the sugar into vinegar. The 

 more air passes through the trickling 



vinegar tiie more ra[)idly and better the 

 vinegar is made. In a very small way 

 good vinegar may l)e made in a stone jar. 

 kept in a warm closet by partly filling it 

 with cider and putting in it a piece of 

 brown paper dipped in common yeast. 

 This starts the fermentation at once, 

 and the grov.th of the vinegar plant is 

 quite rapid. If some of this plant can 

 be procured from an old vinegar jar, the 

 yeast will not be re(|uired. Then as soon 

 as the vinegar is made, the jar is replen- 

 ished by as much cider as the vinegar 

 taken out, and a sort of perpetual source 

 of vinegar is secured as long as the stock 

 remains to supply the jar. As vinegar 

 is almost always adulterated, and the 

 material used for this purpose is sulphu- 

 ric acid, a virulent poison, every family 

 should be supplied with a homemade 

 article, and when cider cannot be pro- 

 cured common molasses or sugar will 

 make a very good substitute. One part 

 of molasses to ten of soft or rain water, 

 with half as much yeast as molasses, 

 makes an excellent stock for vinegar 

 It may be treated in the way above de- 

 scribed Maple sap boiled down to one- 

 half, or with one part of molasses to 

 twenty of the sap, makes a pleasant 

 vinegar. Much of the vinegar of com- 

 merce is made from whiskey, and is at 

 first as clear as water, but is colored and 

 flavored to imitate cider vinegar. 



Yellowstone Park is destined to become a great touring ground for cyclists. 

 A system of fine roads has just been completed about the wonderland and the best 

 way to admire its beauties and marvels is from the saddle of a bicycle. At one 

 place the road is hewn from the solid rock along the walls of a canyon at a cost 

 of $16,000 a mile. At another point it is blasted from solid glass, the obsidian 

 cliffs, the only glass mountains in the world. 



15 



