266 THE FARM. 



position should be cliosen that commands a good prospect — if not a distant 

 landscape, then of the beauties of the lawn and the flower garden. Some, 

 at least, should be screened from observation by shrubbery — fragrant if pos- 

 sible — where one may read or work. It is during the warmer months that 

 the garden and lawn offer their greatest attractions, and everything that 

 tends to make them more enjoyable should be provided. 



How to Preserve Cider. — A pure, sweet cider is only obtainable from 

 clean, sound fruit, and the fruit should, therefore, be carefully examined 

 and wiped before grinding. 



In the press use hair cloth or giinny in place of straw. As the cider runs 

 from the press let it pass through a hair sieve into a large open vessel, that 

 vdW hold as niiich juice as can be expressed in one day. In one day, or 

 somerimes less, the pomace will rise to the top, and in a short time grow 

 very thick. When little white bubbles break through it draw off the hquid 

 through a very small spigot placed about three inches from the bottom, so 

 that the loea may be left behind. The cider must be drawn off into very 

 clean, sweet casks, preferably fresh liquor casks, and closely watched. Tlie 

 moment the white bubbles before mentioned are perceived rising at the 

 bunghole, rack it again. It is usually necessary to repeat this three times. 

 Then fill up the cask with cider in every respect like that originally contained 

 in it, add a tumbler of warm sweet oil and bung up tight. For very fine 

 cider it is customary to add at this stage of this process about half a pound 

 of glucose (starch sugar), or a smaller portion of white sugar. The cask 

 should then be allowed to remain in a cool place until the cider has acquired 

 the desired flavor. 



In the meantime, clean barrels for its reception should be prepared, as 

 follows: Some clean strips of rags are dipped in melted sulphur, lighted and 

 biimed in the bunghole and the bung laid loosely on the end of the rag so 

 as to retain the sulphur vapor within the ban-el. Then tie up half a pound 

 of mustard seed in a coarse muslin bag and piit it in the barrel, fill the bar- 

 rel with cider, and add about a quarter of a pound of ismglass or fine gela- 

 tine dissolved in hot water. This is the old fashioned way, and will keep 

 cider in the same condition as when it went into the barrel, if kept in a cool 

 place, for a year. 



Professional cider makers are now using calcium sulphite (sulphite of 

 lime) instead of mustard and sulphur vapor. It is much more convenient 

 and effectual. To use it, it is simply requisite to add one-eighth to one- 

 quarter of an ounce of the sulphite to each gallon of cider in the cask, firat 

 mixing the powder in about a quart of the cider, and giving the latter a 

 thorough shaking or rolling. After standing bunged several days to allow 

 the sulphite to exert its full action it may bo bottled off. The sulphite of 

 lime (which should not be mistaken for the sulphate of hme) is a commer- 

 cial article, costing about forty cents a pound by the barrel. It will preserve 

 the sweetness of the cider perfectly; but unless care is taken not to add too 

 much of it, it will impart a slight sulphurous taste to the cider. The 

 bottles and corks used should be perfectly clean, and the corks wired 

 down. 



A little cinnamon, wintorgreen or sassafras, etc., is often added to sweet 

 cider m the bottle, together with a dram or so of bi-carbonato of soda at the 

 moment of driving the stopper. This helps to neutrahze free acids, and 

 renders the liquid eJfervesccnt when unstopped; but if used to excesa, it 

 way prejudicially affect the taste. 



