148 CULTUHE AND MANAGEMENT 



any part of the process has been injudicious, or un- 

 avoidably wrong, and the cider be not fine by the 

 20th or 25th of February, it should be forced 

 with isinglass. But let me warn you not to at- 

 tempt fining it after the 20th of March, unless your 

 cellar be uncommonly secured from air. For the 

 spring will as certainly produce a motion in your 

 cider, as blossoms on the trees; at which time glu- 

 tinous finings, retaining the air produced or separat- 

 by this new fermentation, will be either retained 

 from falling down in the cask, or borne to the sur- 

 face of the liquor. Three staples of isinglass, dis- 

 solved in cider, is sufficient for a hogshead. It 

 should be pulled into small pieces, and covered with 

 cider in an earthen vessel, adding a quart of cider 

 to it every six hours, till it is dissolved; stirring it 

 frequently. When dissolved, which it will be in 

 two or. three days, strain it through a coarse cloth; 

 add a gallon or two of cider, and pour it into the 

 cask, stirring the whole together with a stick. 

 Leave the bung out; it will generally fine in four or 

 five days. It must not remain above ten or twelve 

 days at most on the finings ; if you do not bottle it* 

 it must be racked again into other casks ; the bot- 

 tles must be dry ; three drops of water will destroy 

 a bottle of cider, after it has been well fermented, 

 more effectually than a pint will before it is fer- 

 mented. 



" In corking cider, or other weak liquors, no wa- 

 ter should touch the corks ; dip them in cider the 

 moment in which you drive them; they will drive 

 the easier for this. If cider is to be kept in casks 

 after May, early in the spring cover the bungs with 

 rosin, or -cement of some kind: to do this, open a 

 spile hole while the cement is laid on; otherwise 

 no art can cover the bung effectually : the air from 

 within will force up the cement through the small- 

 est passage, and disappoint a thousand attempts to 

 fill it up: when covered, and the cement cookd. 



