156 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



ing the pumice over the trough to air it, as the 

 cider will thereby be enriched, and a fine amber 

 colour in it be produced : and here it may be re- 

 marked, that the longer a cheese lies after being 

 ground, before pressing, the better for the cider, pro- 

 vided it escapes fermentation until the pressing is 

 completed. The following experiment will render 

 this evident : Bruise a tart apple on one side, and 

 let it lay until brown: then taste the juice of each 

 part, and it will be found that the juice of the 

 bruised part is sweet and rich: so if sweet and 

 tart apples are ground together, and put imme- 

 diately on the press, the liquor which they pro- 

 duce will have the taste of both kinds of fruit ; but 

 if permitted to lie until the pumice become brown, 

 the cider will be greatly improved. 



" 4 1 take great care to put cider in clean sweet 

 casks, and the only way to effect this is, to rinse or 

 scald them well as soon as the cider is out, and not 

 to permit them to stand with the lees, which will 

 certainly cause them to become sour, or musty, or 

 to smell. When my casks are filled, I place them 

 in the shade, exposed to the northern air; and 

 when fermentation takes place, I fill them up once 

 or more, to cause as much of the feculent matter as 

 possible to discharge from the bung; when a clear 

 white froth comes out, I put in the bung loosely, 

 or bore a hole in it and put in a spile, thereby 

 checking the fermentation gradually. After this 

 has subsided, I take the first opportunity of clear 

 cool weather, and rack it off into clean casks, 

 which I prepare thus. When I draw cider out of 

 a cask in which it has fermented, I rinse it with 

 cold water, and put in two or three quarts of fine 

 gravel, and three or four gallons of water ; the 

 cask is well shaken or rolled, to scour off the sedi- 

 ment always adhering to the cask, and which, if not 

 removed, will act as a ferment to the liquor when 

 returned to the cask, and spoil or greatly injure 

 the liquor. 



