CIDER. 161 



fermentation, and does not pass to the acetous fermen- 

 tation, which would convert it into vinegar. And if 

 the fermentation proceeds slowly, the fixed air has 

 time to combine, and become incorporated with the 

 liquor, Instead of escaping into the atmosphere. By 

 mixing a proper quantity of alcohol (spirit of any 

 kind) with cider fresh from the press, you may stop 

 the acetous, and of course prevent the putrid fermen- 

 tation. But the spirit so mixed, hastens the vinous 

 fermentation, which, as before observed, is the only 

 fermentation which can be suffered in making good 

 cider. The alcohol will check the turbulence of the 

 fermenting liquor, by combining with the carbonic ac- 

 id gas, which causes the fretting and fuming as well 

 as gives the life of the liquor. Thus Nicholson's Four- 

 croy says, "alcohol dissolves the carbonic acid gas, which 

 it condenses and liquifies more than in the proportion of a 

 volume equal to its own." 



15th. We learn that the religious society mention- 

 ed above, make use of cider-spirit, distilled from the 

 lees of cider, to regulate the fermentation of their 

 new cider and fit it for the table. They do not, how- 

 ever, make use of their cider-spirit till they have rack- 

 ed off their cider about the first of January. They 

 then add from one to three gallons of the spirit, to 

 one barrel of cider, and "bung it down air tight, and 

 let it stand till it becomes of mature age." This ap~ 

 pen,rs to have been the principal improvement, which 

 has rendered the cider manufactured by the society 

 so famous, and caused it to command an extraordinary 

 price in market. A friend of ours, however, has a 

 mode of using the cider-spirit in refining his cider, 

 still less troublesome, and we believe at least equally 

 efficacious. This gentleman mixes from one to two 

 gallons of cider brandy with his cider, when fresh 

 from the press, and immediately closes the barrel per- 

 fectly air tight. In about a month's time, in the or- 



