The Storage and Preservation of Fruit. 199 



Vinegar is often made on the farm by storing barrels 

 nearly filled with fresh cider, with their bung open, in the 

 cellar from autumn until the following spring, when the 

 barrels are removed to an outbuilding or a shaded place in 

 the open air. The cider is stirred occasionally by a stick 

 inserted through the bunghole. The vinegar develops 

 much faster if the barrels are stored during winter in a 

 warm room. The acidity of vinegar made in this way 

 varies greatly owing to variation in the richness of the cider 

 used. Cider from early and watery apples will not make 

 strong vinegar. 



310. Rapid §:eneratioii of vinegar. Slightly fermented 

 cider may be changed to vinegar in a few hours by permit- 

 ting it to trickle into a tank filled with beech shavings, 

 through which air circulates freely. The air is admitted 

 through holes in the side of the tank, and the vinegar col- 

 lects in the bottom, whence it is syphoned off to another 

 vessel. Sometimes corn-cobs are used instead of beech 

 shavings. Any material that spreads the cider out into 

 thin sheets and that imparts no flavor to it will answer. 

 Special generators for making vinegar b)^ this method are 

 on the market, and when carefully managed, they give good 

 results. 



311. Wine is the expressed (and generally fermented) 

 juice of the grape and certain other fruits. The wiues of 

 commerce are almost exclusively made from grapes, though 

 foreign materials are sometimes added. The manufacture 

 of wine is an art quite beyond the scope of a book of this 

 sort. Grape growers sometimes convert all or a portion 

 of their crop into wine, disposing of the unfinished prod- 

 uct to professional wine makers. A few hints upon the 

 first steps of wine-making are therefore given. 



