178 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



fire, and skimmed clean. After it has been taken 

 off and cooled, strain it through a fine cloth, and 

 put it into a cask that is perfectly clean. Set it in a 

 cool part of the cellar, and let it remain five or six 

 weeks, when one quart of best French brandy, and 

 one pound of raisins must be added to eight gal- 

 lons. 



" It ought to be made a year, at least, before it 

 is used. It is needless to state that the quality of 

 the liquor will be improved by age." 



" This American process has, of late years, been 

 imitated in the cider counties, and particularly 

 in the west of England, where several hundred 

 hogsheads of cider wine are annually prepared; and 

 being supposed to contain no particles of copper, 

 from the vessels in which it is boiled, the country 

 people consider it as perfectly wholesome, and ac- 

 cordingly drink it without apprehension. In order 

 to ascertain the truth, various experiments were 

 instituted by the late Dr. Fothergill ; from the re- 

 sult of which he proved that cider wine does con- 

 tain a minute portion of copper, which, though not 

 very considerable, is sufficient to caution the pub- 

 lick against a liquor that comes in so very ques- 

 tionable a shape. Independently, however, of the 

 danger arising from any metallick impregnation, we 

 doubt whether the process of .preparing boiled 

 wines be useful, or reconcileable to economy. The 

 evaporation of the apple juice by long boiling, not 

 only occasions an unnecessary consumption of fuel, 

 but also volatilizes the most essential particles, 

 without which the liquor cannot undergo a com- 

 plete fermentation, so that there can be no perfect 

 wine. Hence this liquor is, like all other boiled 

 wines, crude, heavy and flat ; it generally causes 

 indigestion, flatulency and diarrhoea. Those ama- 

 teurs, however, who are determined to prepare it, 

 ought at least to banish all brass and copper ves- 



