FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 59 



To refine cider, and give it a fine amber-color, the fol- 

 lowing method is much approved of. Take the whites of 

 six eggs, wiih a handful of fine beach sand, washed clean ; 

 stir them well together; then boil a quart of molasses down 

 to a candy, and cool it by pouring in cider, and put this, 

 together with the eggs and sand, into a barrel of cider, and 

 mix the whole well together. When thus managed, it will 

 keep for many years. Molasses alone will also refine cider, 

 and give it a higher color; but, to prevent the molasses 

 making it prick, let an equal quantity of brandy be add- 

 ed to it. Skim-milk, with some lime slacked in it, and 

 mixed with it, or with the white of eggs with the shells 

 broken in, is also good for clarifying all liquors, when 

 well mixed with them. A piece of fresh bloody meat, put 

 into the cask, will also refine the liquor and serve for it to 

 feed on. 



To prevent the fermentation of cider, let the cask be first 

 strongly fumigated with burnt sulphur; then put in some 

 of the cider, burn more sulphur in the cask, stop it tight, 

 and shake the whole up together; fill the cask, bung it 

 tight, and put it away in a cool cellar. 



To bring on a fermentation, take three pints of yeast for 

 a hogshead, add as much jalup as will lie on a sixpence, 

 mix them with some of the cider, beat the mass up till 

 it is frothy, then pour it into the cask, and stir it up well. 

 Keep the vessel full, and the bung open, for the froth and 

 foul stuff to work out. In about fifteen days, the froth will 

 be clean and white ; then, to stop the fermentation, rack the 

 cider off into a clean vessel, add two gallons of brandy, or 

 well- rectified whiskey, to it, and bung it up. Let the cask 

 be full, and keep the venthole open for a day or two. By 

 this process, cider that is poor, and ill-tasted, may be won* 

 derfully improved. Let it be refined by some of the meth- 

 ods before described. 



To cure oily cider, take one ounce of salt of tartar, and 

 two and a half of sweet spirit of nitre, in a gallon of milk, 

 for a hogshead. To cure ropy cider, take six pounds of 

 powdered allum, and stir it into a hogshead; then rack it 

 off and clarify it. 



To color cider, take a quarter of a pound of sugar, burnt 

 black, and dissolved in half a pint of hot water, for a hogs- 

 head ; add a quarter of an ounce of allum, to set the 

 color. 



Cider-brandy mixed with an equal quantity of honey, or 

 clarified sugar, is much recommended by some for improv- 

 ing common cider; so that, when refined, it may be made 

 as strong, and as pleasant, as the most of wines. 



Cider has been made in Greatbritain, of such superior 

 quality as to command a price of sixty guineas a hogshead. 



