120 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ride home outside of your cask, and the case is pretty much the 

 same with cider vinegar. To be certain that you have the 

 prime article, you must manufacture your own cider, or buy it 

 of a dealer in whose honesty you can confide. 



The law now allows the manufacture and sale of cider in 

 Massachusetts, and we hope to see great improvements in the 

 production of this article, which, if made and used properly, can 

 become a source of health to the community and wealth to the 

 farmers. Much of the cider formerly made in New England has 

 been spoiled in the making. The apples have not been mature, 

 or else half-rotten, and the juice expressed through musty straw 

 has been put into still more musty casks. When apples are fit 

 to eat, then and then only are they fit to be made into cider. 

 As the apple ripens the starch is converted into sugar, and it 

 is only wdien sugar abounds in the apple that good cider can 

 be made. Of course when the putrefactive process has com- 

 menced in the fruit, it is only fit for the dunghill. Probably 

 more cider has been spoiled from being put into old casks than 

 from any other cause. These casks cannot be cleaned by a 

 simple washing out with cold water. If they have formerly 

 contained cider, a little of which was left, as is apt to be the 

 case, to pass through the acetous fermentation into the putrefac- 

 tive state, some seeds of putrefaction will remain in spite of all 

 cleaning by water, which wdll speedily corrupt the new cider. 

 Some fresh slacked lime or strong solution of potash we have 

 found efficient in refreshing these old casks, but we feel more 

 sure of good cider when we put it into barrels in which alcohol 

 or whiskey has been kept. 



"We have taken much })ains in New England, where grapes, 

 it has been supposed, would not flourish, to make wine from 

 currants, blackberries, pie-plant, etc., but we are satisfied that 

 the true w^ine of New England is made from apples, and if the 

 same care were taken in the manufacture of cider that is be- 

 stowed upon wine, the former would compare favorably with 

 the latter. There are already some manufacturers of cider in 

 the eastern part of this State who are reaping great profits from 

 the production of a superior article, and we commend this sub- 

 ject to the careful consideration of the Berkshire farmers. It 

 is a reputation for superiority which commands a market for 

 any commodity. Dr. Fisher, of Fitchburg, has this autumn 



