CJBER. 



its way into the open air. It has been a practice to 

 pour a tumbler of oil into the bung hole of' every ci- 

 der cask. This entirely excludes the oxygene of the 

 atmosphere from access to the liquor to turn it sour, 

 and in part confines the carbonic acid which gives it 

 life and makes it brisk and sparkling. Another prac- 

 tice is, to confine by main force, the carbonic acid to 

 the fermenting cider. Dr. Darwin, says he was told 

 by a gentleman who makes a considerable quantity of 

 cider on his estate, that he procured vessels of strong- 

 er construction than usual, and directed the apple 

 juice, as soon as it was settled, to be bunged up close, 

 and that though he had a vessel or two burst by the 

 expansion of the fermenting liquor, yet this rarely oc- 

 curred, and that his cider never failed to be of the 

 most excellent qualitiy, and was sold at the highest 

 price. New cider may likewise be stopped in vessels 

 of no more than common strength, and buried pretty 

 deeply in the ground, or immersed in spring water, in 

 which situation we are told that it may be kept for 

 years, and be very fine when taken up. 



12th. It is likewise said, that a handful of powder- 

 ed clay, or a quarter of a pound of salt petre, or the 

 same quantity of alum, put into a barrel of cider when 

 fresh from the press, or before the fermentation has 

 begun, will so check and regulate that process, that 

 the barrel may be stopped tight immediately, and then 

 will retain all its fixed air. 



13th. It is often the case that those who under- 

 take to be very philosophical in the process of manu- 

 facturing cider, make a troublesome and expensive job 

 of it, and after all, spoil their liquor. They cause it 

 to undergo so many fermentations, while exposed to 

 the open air, that it loses all its carbonic acid gas, or 

 fixed air, and perhaps, a part of its alcohol or vinous 

 spirit. If the whole fermentation, which is necessary 

 to change the raw apple juice into sound and rich ci- 







