CURRANTS. 



to some persons is unpleasant; they are, however, 

 wholesome, and afford a juice which, when made into 

 syrup with sugar, is much esteemed in sere throats 

 and quinsies. The officinal black currant has a small 

 berry, but is highly valuable as a medicine when 

 made into wine. In lung fevers, putrid fevers and 

 ulcerous sore throats, and in putrid dysentery the 

 medicinal properties of this wine is not to be surpass- 

 ed. 



TO MAKE CURRANT WINE. 



Gather the fruit when fully ripe, rejecting all un- 

 ripe berries; let them be picked in fair weather and 

 washed, break them well in a tub or vat, (some have 

 a mill constructed for the purpose consisting of a 

 hopper fixed upon two lignum vitae rollers,) press and 

 measure the juice, having first strained it through a 

 flannel cloth. To every gallon of pure currant juice 

 add two gallons of cold water, then to every gallon of 

 this mixture, immediately put three pounds of good 

 brown sugar, stir it well till the sugar is quite dissolv- 

 ed, and then fill up the cask and put it into the cellar 

 to ferment. Be careful not to let the juice stand un- 

 mixed over night, as it should not ferment before the 

 mixture is made. Observe that the cask be sweet 

 and clean, and such as never has had either beer or 

 cider in them, and if new let them be first well sea- 

 soned. The cask must not be so full as to work over. 

 Lay the bung or a rag lightly over the hole to keep 

 out flies, &c. In three weeks or a month, or as soon 

 as the fermentation is over the bung-hole may be 

 stopped up, leaving only the vent hole open, till it 

 has fully done working, then stop it up tight, and in 

 six months it will be fit for bottling or for use. Like 

 other wine, however, it improves much by age. If 

 you intend to make thirty gallons agreeably to this 



