FARMERS' REGISTER 



749 



It is probable that a similarity exists in the best 

 process for making both liquors, and that useful 

 hints may be'collected irom the details, as to wine, 

 towards formiiiir a process for making cider. 

 Froin this source I liave extracted a practice, 

 though undoubledly imperfect, yet tolerably suf- 

 ficing for liimily purposes. It is this : 



When the fermentation of the must is half 

 over, so that it is considerably sweeter than it 

 ought to remain, it is drawn off' (throwing away 

 the sediment at the bottom of the cask) and boil- 

 ed moderately about one hour in a copper, during 

 which the imjiurilies rising to the top are taken 

 off' by a skimmer wiih holes in it, to let the cider 

 through. Twelve effgs for each thirty-three gal- 

 lons, yolks and whites, are beat up, pouring 

 gently to them some of the boiling cider, until the 

 mixture amounts to about a gallon. Tiiis mixture 

 is gradually poured into the boiling cider and well 

 mixed with it by stirring. It then boils gently 

 five minutes longer, when it is relumed hot into 

 the cask. In eight or ten days it is drawn off', 

 leaving the sediment to be thrown away, and put 

 into a clean cask, with six quarts of rum or bran- 

 dy to thirty-three galloiis. The cask is made 

 completely full and stopped close. For this pur- 

 pose a sufficient provision of cider must be made. 

 The cider is bottled in the spring. 



The chief object in making cider, must be the 

 management of the fermentation, so as to avail 

 ourselves of the spirituous, and avoid the acetous. 

 In the fall it is accomplished by t:;e above process. 

 But cider is subject to a second fermentation in 

 the spring, like wine, which often demolishes bot- 

 tles or ends in acidity. To manage this so as to 

 make it keep good in casks is an object higlily 

 desirable, but which I have not attempted to ac- 

 complish. Perhaps it is attainable by racking it 

 off' in the spring and makiuiX a second addition ol' 

 spirit. The simple process above stated will 

 carry it well through the winter, and furnish good 

 bottled cider; but it promises nothing more. By 

 cutting oif the corks even with the bottle, and 

 dipping its mouth in boiling pitch, it is as com- 

 pletely closed, as the best waxed bottled claret or 

 Burgundy. 



DRAINING. 



Prejudices have assailed, and will continue to 

 assail, every species of improvement, and theory, 

 instead of experience, will often sow opinion. It 

 is frequently believed that draining, clearing and 

 reducing to cultivation marshes, bogs and swamps 

 will add to the insalubrity of the air, because 

 vegetables feed upon certain qualities of it, unfit 

 for animal respiration ; and tlius render it purer lor 

 that purpose. But why should we load the at- 

 mosphere with poison, because vegetables will 

 absorb a portion of ill Countries kept damp by 

 endless forests, though abounding in the utmost 

 degree with these absorbents of atmospherical 

 miasma, are peculiarly unwliolcsome ; and first 

 settlers unexceptionably become victims to the 

 [act. It proves that the air may be contaminated 

 beyond the purifying power of an entire vegetable 

 wilderness, and that a reliance for its salubrity 

 upon the eaters of poison, would be equivalent to 

 a reliance upon the eaters of carrion for its purifi- 

 VoL. Vin.-95 



cation, if shambles were as extensive as bogs. 

 After having made t!ie air as pure as possible by 

 every means in our power, the vegetable chemis- 

 try by absorption, is a means provided by Provi- 

 dence, for its last filter; but to infer from this na- 

 tural operation, that our efforts to render it purer 

 by draining are pernicious, would be an equivalent 

 infijrenceto the idea, that the cultivation of the 

 earth is pernicious because it is capable of spon- 

 taneous productions. 



Campania, and some other flat and marshy dis- 

 tricts of Italy, are recorded in history as liaving 

 been made so healthy and delightllil in the flour- 

 ishing period of the Reman empire, by draining, 

 as to ha%'e been selected by the opulent for country 

 retirement, and splendid palaces. The drains 

 neglected by the bat barons conquerors of Italy, 

 have never been re-established by its modern inha- 

 bitants ; and the swamps and marshes have re- 

 stored to these districts an uninhabitable atmo- 

 sphere, by having their waters, their trees, and 

 their verdure restored to them. 



As new countries are cleared and ploufflied 

 they become more healthy. The draining effects 

 of these two operations exceed those of any other, 

 and by drying the earth very extensively, furnish 

 the strongest evidence for ascertaining the effects 

 of draining welterlands. II the healthiness of a 

 country is increased by these modes of draining, it 

 will not be diminished by auxiliary modes. 



The connexion between draining or drying the 

 earlh, and human subsistence, furnishes a kind of 

 argument, neither logical nor demonstrative, and 

 3'et of conclusive force to my mind. Can it be 

 believed that the author of creation, has commit- 

 ted the egregious blunder, of exposing man to the 

 alternative of eating bad /bod, or of breathing bad 

 air? If not, draining, v.'hether by the sun, the 

 plough or the spade, being indispensable to avoid 

 the first, cannot wreck him on the second evil. 



From I he great improvement made in the health 

 of the eastern parts of the union, if we may trust 

 in recent his'ory, by opening the lands to the sun, 

 and with the plough, I long since concluded, 

 that this improvernent would be vastly extended 

 by resorting to every other species of draining. 

 And having removed some years past to a farm, 

 reported to be extremely liable to bilious fevers, I 

 threw several small streams into deep ditches, 

 dried a wet road leading to the house, by open or 

 covered drains, and cleared and drained some 

 acres of springy swamp, closely covered with 

 swamp wood, lying four or five hundred yards 

 south of the house. The multitude of springs in 

 this swamp, made deep, central, and double lateral 

 ditches, entering into it every six yards, necessary 

 throughout the ground. The labor was great, but 

 the wet thicket is now a clean dry meadow. Per- 

 haps an attachment to a theory may have caused 

 me to imagine, that the improvement in the 

 healthiness of my family and the draining im- 

 provements have kept pace with each other ; but 

 I am under no delusion in asserting, that the 

 healthiness of no part of the world, according to 

 the tables of mortality which I have seen, has 

 equalled it, 



Avery large proportion of the country on the 

 eastern waters consists of level land, swamps, 

 boas and marshes. The first is chiefly cleared 

 and exhausted; the two last are chiefly is a na- 

 tural etate ; and all generate poison for want of 



