370 FOOD AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



liquors are exceedingly crude, as I can testify from personal experi- 

 ence. The juice, whether containing a relatively large percentage of 

 sugar or not, is drawn into barrels and left to itself, probably exposed 

 to a hot sun and to all the changes of temperature incident to the 

 autumn season; and when the season is over or the cider is in danger of 

 freezing, it is transferred to the cellar in the same barrels in which it 

 was originally run, without any attempt at cleansing it of sediment, or 

 filtering or racking, and when any attempt at improving its keeping 

 quality is made it is by adding some antiseptic instead of freeing it 

 from the matters which conduce to improper fermentations, or so con- 

 ducting the process as to produce a liquor which can properly be called 

 the "wine of apples." It seems remarkable that with these methods 

 so palatable a drink is produced, a fact which only shows what might 

 be done if a little care and scientific knowledge were applied to the 

 treatment of the juice. There is a great difference between the prac- 

 tice here and in other countries in regard to the treatment of the juice. 

 Here the greater part of the cider produced is treated as indicated 

 above, and is sold to the consumer in the fall or winter of the same year 

 it is produced, without any treatment whatever, except perhaps the ad- 

 dition of a dose of mustard seeds or sulphite <>f lime or salicylic acid, 

 to arrest or retard the fermentation. This addition serves only to stop 

 the fermentation for a while, probably through the winter, and in the 

 spring whatever has not been consun ed has to be thrown away or 

 turned into vinegar. In England and France the juice is treated ac- 

 cording to the sweetness of the apples from which it is made, very sweet 

 juice requiring a low temperature for its fermentation in order that the 

 operation shall not be too rapid. The juice is run into barrels or large 

 vats, which are kept in a barn or cellar where the temperature is more 

 or less constant, and the fermentation allowed to go on until a "chapeau" 

 or head of scum forms on top, containing many of the impurities 

 of the juice. The clear liquid is then "racked oft'" from between the 

 impurities which have risen to the top and those that have fallen to 

 the bottom. The casks into which it is received are scrupulously clean 

 and are filled nearly full and transferred to a cooler cellar, where a sec- 

 ond slow fermentation takes place. The rackiug-off process may be 

 repeated if necessary, or the juice may be filtered from the first fermen- 

 tation. Cider fermented and properly racked in this way will keep in- 

 definitely at a low temperature, especially if bottled. For bottling, it 

 generally undergoes the operation called "fining," by the addition of 

 isinglass, which removes most of the albuminous constituents \vhieh are 

 so inimical to its proper preservation. Cider made in this way will be 

 much richer in alcohol, and contain much less acetic acid than when its 

 first fermentation is allowed to take place at a high temperature and 

 in a rapid, tumultuous manner. It is a true apple wine and will keep 

 indefinitely. The cider of Devonshire has been kept twenty or thirty 

 years. 



