58 FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



bottle it, or put it in clean new casks, and set it away in a 

 cool cellar, and let it remain there for two or three years, 

 and it will then nearly equal the best wines. 

 See further, WINE. 



If it should require clarifying, let it be done with isin- 

 glass, or it may be leached through a tub of powdered 

 charcoal, which will render it very clear; but the tub 

 should be covered close to prevent any evaporation of the 

 spirit* To clarify it with isinglass, pour into each vessel 

 about a pint of the infusion, of about sixty grains of the 

 most transparent of this glue in a little white wine and rain 

 or river water, stired well together, after being strained 

 through a linen cloth. This viscous substance spreads 

 over the surface of the liquor, and carries all the dregs 

 with it to the bottom. 



Some boil cider in the Spring, for Summer-use ; but the 

 practice is a very bad one, particularly when boiled in brass 

 kettles. If any boiling be ever proper for cider, it must be 

 as it comes from the press. This is the proper method of 

 treating water-cider, or that which is extracted from the 

 pumace after the cheese has been pressed. The pumace 

 Is put into casks in the evening, with a due proportion of 

 warm water thrown on it, and in the morning it is made 

 into a cheese, and pressed off again ; the liquor is then to 

 be boiled till all the scum has risen and been skimed off, 

 and then it is to be put away in casks in a cool cellar, and 

 treated like other cider. It ferments but little, and makes 

 a pleasant drink for the next Summer, if bottled, or other- 

 wise kept well. Perhaps this would be a good method of 

 treating all cider. 



Cider may be kept for years in casks, without ferment- 

 ing, by burying them deeply under ground, or immersing 

 them in spring water; and when taken up the cider will be 

 very fine. 



A drink, called cider-royal, is made of the best runing of 

 the cheese, well clarified, with six or eight gallons of 

 French brandy, or good cider brandy, added to a barrel: 

 Let the vessel be filled full, bunged tight, and set in a cool 

 cellar, and in the course of a twelvemonth it will be a fine 

 drink. If good rectified whiskey be used, instead of bran- 

 dy, it will answer very well. 



A quart of honey, or molasses, and a quart of brandy, or 

 other spirits, added to a barrel of cider, will improve the 

 liquor very much, and will restore that which has become 

 too flat and insipid. To prevent its becoming pricked, or 

 to cure it when it is so, put a little pearl-ashes, or other 

 mild alkali, into the cask. A lump of chalk broken in 

 pieces, and thrown in, is also good. Salt of tartar, when 

 the cider is about to be used, is also recommended. 



