OF FRUIT TREES. 149 



make the cask tight by driving an oaken spile into 

 the hole. Inferiour cider, for the harvest field, ia 

 kept by adding a gallon of cider brandy to a barrel. 

 The method I have directed above, produces a fine 

 sweet cider, retaining the taste of the apple. More 

 frequent racking weakens the body and preserve* 

 the sweetness ; fewer rackings, and laying long on 

 the lees, renders it harsher and more heady. If 

 cider be well fermented in due time, you may freeze 

 it down to any strength ; taking care to draw it off 

 before a thaw comes on. If cider be imperfectly 

 fermented, the spring produces the fermentation 

 anew, and it will destroy itself, unless preserved by 

 distilled spirits, or by brimstone, which last is too 

 oifeHsive to be used." 



The following is extracted from Willich's Do- 

 mestick Encyclopedia. 



" The apples should remain on the trees till 

 they are thoroughly ripe, when they ought to be 

 gathered with the hand, in dry weather, that they 

 may be protected both from bruises and from mois- 

 ture. They are are then to be sorted, according 

 to 'their various degrees of maturity, and laid in 

 separate heaps, in order to sweat ; in consequence 

 of which they greatly improve. This practice, 

 however, appears to be useful only for such fruit 

 as is not perfectly ripe, though some recommend it 

 as being proper for all apples. The duration of 

 the time of sweating may be determined by the 

 flavour of the fruit, as different kinds require va- 

 rious lengths of time; namely, from eight or ten 

 days to six weeks. The harsher and more crude 

 the apples are, the longer it is necessary that they 

 should remain in a sweating state, and not only be 

 well dried, but the rotten parts carefully pared, 

 before they are exposed. 



" The utility of the sweating practice is acknow- 

 ledged in all the cider countries, though various 



