MAK1N» AN» I1tfPR0VIN» CIDER. 119 



rate cider the knotty and wormy ones should be rejected. The 

 apples thus selected should be spread on a floor raised from the 

 ground, with a cover over it, and the sides enclosed. Here 

 ihey are to lie for the purpose of sweating, by which their 

 more watry parts are thrown off. Inthis situation they should 

 lie four or five days, when the weather is warm and dry, but 

 longer when wet and cold. They should then be ground, and 

 if the juice is left in the pomace from 12 to 24 hours, according 

 to the heat of the weather, the cider will be the richer, softer 

 and higher colored. It would be better, it has been said, that 

 the fruit should be all of one kind, as the fermentation Vvill be 

 more regular. Mr. Deane directs that the juice of the fruit, as 

 it comes from the press, should be placed in open headed casks 

 or vats, there to remain until it undergoes the first fermenta- 

 tion. Such vessels are not, however, provided at our common 

 cider-mills, but the juice is put into common casks. The ves- 

 sels which receive the juice should be perfectly sweet and 

 clean, or the juice v.-ill be reduced in its quality, if not spoiled. 

 For cleansing casks', let them be washed perfectly clean after 

 they are emptied of the old cider, and be bunged up tight. 

 Before they are used again take at the rate of a pint or more of 

 unslacked lime for a barrel, put it in, and pour in three or four 

 gallons of hot water, or more, for a larger cask. Shake it well, 

 and while the lime is slacking, give it some vent, lest it burst 

 the cask. Let it stand till cooled, and then rinse it with cool 

 water. If it still has any sour smell, repeat the operation till 

 it smells perfectly sweet. The lime destroys all the acidity 

 which may be in the cask. 



The first and last running of the cheese is not so good as the 

 rest, and should be put in the cask by itself. There should be 

 a strainer of coarse eloth, when it can be had, instead of straw, 

 that is generally used, on the bottom of the funnel, to keep out 

 the pomace. The next process is the fermentation. There 

 are three fermentations, the vinous, the acid, and the putrid. 

 When the fii-et ceases, tha second begins ; and when that ceases, 

 the third begins. The first is only necessary for cider ; and 

 care should be taken to stop riH further fermentation as soon as 

 this is over. This is known by the liquor ceasing to throw up 

 little bubbles to the top ; then too, all the pomace is raised up, 

 and if suflered to remain there, will again sink to the bottom, 

 and render the liquor turbid. At this time the barrel is usually 

 bunged up, when cider is intended for common use. But for 

 the best cider, the liquor should then be drawn off, not too close- 

 ly, and put into other clean casks, or botued and closed tio-ht 

 ana set awa^r in a cool cellar. ° 



