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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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HOW TO MAKE VINEGAR. 



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Wk have several requests for information in mal<in<T 

 vinegar. We copy the following from the volume 

 of the Genesee Farmer for 1840 : 



" Many people find it difficult to make good vine- 

 gar. When we moved to Wheatland, we found two 

 barrels partly full of old cider standing in the sun, in 

 tljc iiope, on the part of the owner, tliat the cider 

 would become acetic acid. A few grapes, and we 

 believe some yeast, had been put into the barrels, but 

 still the transformation would not take place. Ry the 

 following process good vinegar was made in two or 

 three days, and with closer attention might have 

 been made in 36 hours : 



One barrel was set up on end, the hoops started 

 and the upper head taken out. The cider had been 

 taken out below the middle of the barrel, so that the 

 bung could be open to admit the air. Several small 

 sticks were set on end in the barrel, on the upper ex- 

 tremeties of which pieces of shingle rested just above 

 the surface of the cider. On these strips of shingle 

 was placed a quantity of clean pine shavings, which 

 happened to be at hand. With these the barrel wa^ 

 loosely filled. A pailful or two of the cider was 

 drawn by tapping the barrel near the lower heal, an 1 

 warmed to blood heat, and made to trickle down over 

 the whole surface of the shavings into the cider below. 

 After this, sufficient heat was generated by the active 

 chemical action, or acetous fermentation that follow- 

 ed, to keep the shavings at 98 °, or thereabouts. So 

 soon as the cider began to turn sour, a part of it was 

 made to trickle dow a piece of old carpet like an un- 

 twisted rope, into the bung-hole of the other barrel 

 of cider. This barrel was tapped, and the cider 

 drawn and poured over the shavings, and also con- 

 verted into good vinegar. 



The rationale of making alcohol into acetic acid is 

 this : 



The alcohol found in cider, wine, beer, fermented 

 milk, whiskey. Sic, is made of elements contained in 

 Bugar and starch, which are elaborated by living 

 plants in their fruit, like apples and grapes; and in 

 seeds, as in corn, rye and barley. Starch and sugar 

 are composed of elements precisely alike in charac- 

 ter and quantity, viz : 12 parts of carbon, 10 of oxy- 

 gen, and 10 of hydrogen. Before alcohol is formed 

 of these elements, they combine with 2 atoms more 

 of oxygen and hydorgen, and make grape sugar. — 

 The formula of which is, 12 carbon, 12 oxygen, and 

 12 hydrogen. The formula of alcohol is 4 carbon, G 

 hydrogen, and 2 oxygen. To make two atoms of al- 

 cohol will require 8 carbon, 12 hydrogen, and 4 oxy- 

 gen. As one atom of grape sugar has 12 carbon, 12 

 hydrogen, and 12 oxygen, it is obvious that 8 parts of 

 oxygen and 4 of carbon will be left from an atom of 

 grape sugar after 2 atoms of alcohol have been form- 

 ed. Now in making an atom of carbonic acid, oxy- 

 gen combines with carbon in the ratio of 2 parts of 

 oxygen to 1 of carbon, or 8 of O. to 4 of C. Hence 

 we see ir/tj/ it is that in all vinous fermentation, 

 whether in the domestic brewing of small beer, rais- 

 ing bread, or in making ale or whiskey in large estab- 

 lishments, fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, is generated. 



To understand the transformation of alcohol in 

 cider, beer, whiskey, or brandy, into vin?gar, the 

 unlearned reader will note the following facts: The 

 composition of alcohol is 4 carbon, 6 hydrogen, and 

 2 oxygen. That of pure vinegar — aniiydrous acetic 

 acid — is 4 carbon, 6 hydrogen, and 3 oxygen. Wa- 



ter is composed of an atom of oxygen united with an 

 atom of hydrogen, althouijh the atom of oxygen is 8 

 times heavier than that of hydrogen. If 4 atoms of 

 oxygen (wliich exists in tiio atmosphere) combine 

 with 1 of alcohol, the composition of the latter will 

 stand 4 C, 6 H., and 6 0.* Tliree atoms of the ox- 

 ygen thus derived from the air unite wilii 3 atoms of 

 the hydrogen in alcohol to form 3 atoms of water, 

 which leaves 4 carbon, 3 hydrogen, and 3 oxygen, or 

 an atom of pure vinegar, diluted in 3 atoms of water. 

 We omit to state the process of forming what 

 chemists term aldehyd, intermediate between alcohol 

 and acetic acid, as unimportant to the practical far- 

 mer. Practically, it is seen that to convert alcohol 

 into vinegar, we have only to o.vidize the alcoliol. — 

 This is done by exposing alcohol to the chemical ac- 

 tion of the atmosphere, by spreading it over an im- 

 mense surface of thin coiled up shavings for a short 

 time. Warmth favors the chemical change. B'lt 

 when cider is confined from the air in a light 

 barrel, except with an open bung hole, and perhaps 

 the neck of an inverted bottle in that, it may take 

 three or four months to change it into vinegar. Every 

 body knows that a high heat is generated when alco- 

 hol is burnt in a spirit lamp. This is owing to the 

 formation of water by the chemical union of oxygen 

 in the air with the 6 parts of hydrogen in 1 of alco- 

 hol. For the same reason heat is evolved in the sha- 

 vings in a cider barrel when the alcohol in cider is 

 transformed into acetic acid." 



*C. stands f >r carbon. H. for hydrogen, and O. for oxygen. 

 EXPERIENCE IN THG USE OF PLASTER. 



Mkssrs. Editors: — I send you my short experience 

 in the use of plaster and clover. I purchased my 

 farm in .Tune, 1847, it being what is called hard run. 

 Being engaged in other business, I let it out to the 

 neighbors, to be cropped. The ground that I had 

 sowed with wheat was broken up in June, and cross 

 plowed before sowing, and put in well. The next 

 spring, (1848,) I sowed clover, four quarts to the 

 acre. When the clover came up, I sowed plaster, 

 30 lbs. to the acre. The wheat was gathered and 

 threshed, and the yield was only 6^ bushels por acre, 

 weighing 58 lbs. to the bushel. The clover grew 

 up after harvest, and went to seed. I could have 

 gathered, I think, at least two bushels of seed to the 

 acre ; but not having time to attend to it, I let it all 

 rot on the ground. The next spring, 1849, I sowed 

 it with plaster again, 30 lbs. to the acre. The clover 

 grew up knee high. I plowed it down in June, cross 

 plowed it on the first day of September, and sowed 

 on the twelfth. Last harvest (1850) the yield was 

 33 J bu.shcls of wheat per acre, weighing 62 lbs. to 

 the bushel. Before plowing, I pastured the clover 

 enough to pay for the clover seed and plaster, and 

 the sowing of the same : so it leaves me a gain, in 

 favor of clover and plaster, of 27 bu-.hels to the acre. 

 This may not be called an experiment. It is true 

 1850 wa.s a better year for wheat than 1848, where 

 the land was in good condition ; but where it was 

 poor, the wheat dried up befurc it filled. A neigli- 

 bor, not forty miles from Iiere, had a piece of land in 

 about as gool condition as m no was in 1817. It 

 yielded (taking his own words for it) 30 bushids on 

 5 J acres — not quite six bushels to the acre, and a 

 poor article at that. After this, no one need say 

 that he is too por)r to buy clover seed and plaster. 

 C. W.—Bri,njicld, O., 1851. 



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