270 



Vinegar Making. 



Vol. XI. 



from the acre $1200 worth of vegetables a 

 year. If we understood agriculture, popu- 

 lation could be greatly increased and sus- 

 tained better than now. Mr. Bergen of 

 Gowanus, has sold the raspberries raised on 

 an acre of his farm, for fifteen hundred dol- 

 lars in a year. In New Jersey, ten thou- 

 sand cabbages are raised on an acre; which, 

 at four cents a piece, a reasonable price, 

 amounts to four hundred dollars; and they 

 often sell for more at Ironius Smith's place 

 in Astoria; on two and a half acres there 

 are raised vegetables abundant for thirteen 

 in family. From his two cows 5527 quarts 

 of milk a year, worth four cents a quart, are 

 obtained. From twenty-two hens, he had in 

 a year 2870 eggs. He has five hogs, and em- 

 ploys but one man in all this work. At this 

 rate of cultivation, if it existed in Ireland, 

 there would be no starving there. I see that 

 Kane in his Irish Statistics, a work esteemed 

 by the rulers of England, states the county 

 of Armagh, which is almost one-seventh 

 lakes, to be so well cultivated, that the peo- 

 ple are not only well fed and clothed, but 

 export large amounts, and that if all Ireland 

 was as well cultivated as Armagh, it could 

 support two and a half times as many people 

 as it now does, and that under high cultiva 

 tion of which it is capable, it could support 

 thirty-five millions of people. 



Mr. Lodge— That is undoubtedly true of 

 high culture. I have seen such culture in 

 England, and such cultivation too turns out 

 good and able men, capable of taking charge 

 of the finest estates of the nobility. 



Mr. Hyde — How many different crops can 

 be had in a year"? 



Mr. Lodge — Four; radishes, peas, bush 

 beans, and cucumbers. — Farmer and Me- 

 chanic. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Vinegar. 



I WAS interested in reading an article in 

 the last No. of the Cabinet on vinegar mak- 

 insr, by Prof. L. D. Gale. We are there 

 told, that in the western States, where 

 good article is rarely found, it is often made 

 of diluted whiskey, mixed with sour beer 

 and other fermenting liquors. In Texas, by 

 sour or green grapes and the washings of 

 whiskey barrels. In England the vinegar 

 is made either from the distillation of wood, 

 or from the fermentation of malted liquors — 

 that English vinegar generally contains sul 

 phuric acid — that this is allowed by govern 

 ment to the amount of two to Jive per cent. 

 The Professor further states, " that as this 

 prevents the formation of mother, which is 

 a vegetable substance, he presumes this ob- 



ject must constitute the basis of the per- 

 mission." In this county and other parts of 

 the State where apples generally abound, 

 the vinegar is chiefly made from cider, and 

 that an article of the very best quality for 

 table use, can be obtained from this liquor 

 without the addition of a particle of sulphu- 

 ric, tartaric, or any other acid, or drug, the 

 writer of this can from experience attest. 

 This vinegar, it is true, may not possess the 

 requisite strength for use in white lead 

 works; indeed I have never known it so 

 strong as in the least to eat up or destroy 

 the pickles it was intended to preserve — to 

 eat holes in the table cloth, or to exhibit 

 other similar tests of great strength, which 

 it is said some of the vinegar in the market 

 will do. But although this cider vinegar 

 may be comparatively weak, and incapable 

 of souring a good disposition, still to make 

 it in the natural way, is a work of time — 

 as the Editor justly observes, "it is not made 

 in one day, nor in a hundred." But when 

 once a farmer has a cask of good vinegar, 

 he may make it in one day — that is, he may 

 draw out of this cask every day if he will, 

 a small portion of vinegar, and return the 

 same quantity in cider, without any percept- 

 ible deterioration. And it is better as a 

 general rule, not to add more cider than 

 you have of vinegar in the cask you are 

 about to replenish, and in a few months it 

 will acquire its natural strength. As re- 

 gards the substance generally termed " mo- 

 ther," the better the vinegar the smaller 

 will be the proportion of mother in the cask. 

 And although in the natural process another 

 is always formed before the cider is con- 

 verted into good vinegar, yet it will be found 

 more freely to abound in a weak description 

 of cider than in that which is stronger. It 

 would seem that cider undergoes several 

 changes before it is converted into good 

 vinegar, and during one of these changes 

 it is very apt to find its way out of the cask. 

 Indeed this is often the case from the giving 

 way of the hoops, which are generally too 

 light, and are soon destroyed by the rust — 

 paint afl^brding but little protection. Vine- 

 gar, it may be remarked, will generally rack 

 off clear and transparent, even from casks 

 that may contain a portion of mother, and if 

 it be a genuine article, it can scarcely be 

 doubted but that it will remain so, even if it 

 should find its way across the Atlantic. Be 

 that as it may, I should be very unwilling to 

 get rid of it by the addition of Jive or even 

 ttvo per cent of sulphuric acid. In the 

 "Farmers' Encyclopedia," if I mistake not, 

 — the work not being at hand to refer to — 

 it is stated, one part in every 1000 of the 

 free sulphuric acid is in England allowed to 



