CIDER. 163 



mix with new cider. Ginger, cinnamon, spices, raisins, 

 &LC. have their advocates, who assure us that they are 

 very good ingredients in cider. But we believe gen- 

 uine cider-drinkers prefer the clear apple juice. Some 

 advise to make use of bullock's blood, calf's feet jelly, 

 isinglass, &,c.* which may be well if the cider needs 

 doctoring, but we believe it best to make vinegar of ci- 

 der which requires to be medicated with such mate- 

 rials, to render it palatable and wholesome. 



18th. The complete Farmers'JDictionary, says, 

 that "the best shaped vessels for keeping cider in, are 

 those in which the barrel boards are straight, the ves- 

 sel broader at one end than the other, and standing 

 on the lesser end with the bung hole in the top. The 

 advantages of this form is, that in drawing off the ci- 

 der, though but slowly, the skin or cream, contracted 

 by its fermentation, descends and covers the liquor 

 by means of the tapering of the vessel, and thereby 

 preserves the spirit of the cider, which would other- 

 wise evaporate and waste." A sensible writer, whose 

 essay was republished from the "Farmer's Weekly Mes- 

 senger" in bur vol. i, p. 155, has made it apparent that 

 white oak iron bound hogsheads, made of heart stuff, 

 well painted, and of a size to hold about three barrels 

 and a half, and smeared over with some kind of refuse 

 oil, with a little Spanish brown and lamp black, once 

 in three years, will prove more convenient and eco- 

 nomical than such barrels as are commonly used. Be- 

 sides, cider ferments more kindly, and keeps better in 

 large than in small vessels. Beer vessels are said to 



* Mr. Cooper fines with isinglass or calf's feet jelly, but in case 

 the liquor should not fine in ten days, he directs to rack it again, 

 and repeat the fining- as before, but says it is best to rack, wheth- 

 er fine or not, in ten or twelve days, lest the sediment should rise 

 \vhichoftenhappens. The foregoing- operation should be per- 

 formed previously to tin apples being in bloom in the spring ; it 

 succeeds best in winter, during steady cold weather. 



