MEANS OF PREPARING WHOLESOME DRINKS. 277 



it may grow dark-colored, it may be kept unchanged for sev- 

 eral years. 



When drink is to be prepared from these dried fruits, put 

 about 60 pounds of them into a cask which will contain 66 

 gallons, fill the cask with water and allow it to remain four 

 or five days, after which draw off the fermented liquor for 

 use. 



The liquor thus procured is very agreeable to the taste ; 

 when put into bottles, it ferments so as to throw out the 

 corks, as frothing Champagne wine does. Though whole- 

 some and agreeable, it may become still more conducive 

 to health by mixing with the apples and pears ^^^ of the 

 dried berries of the service-tree, and ^^.j of juniper berries ; 

 from these the liquor acquires a slightly bitter taste, and 

 the flavor of the juniper berries, which is very refreshing, 

 and it is besides rendered tonic and anti-putrescent. The 

 use of this drink is one of the surest means that can be 

 taken by the husbandman for preserving himself from those 

 diseases to which he is liable in autumn, and for the attacks 

 of which he is preparing the way during the greatest heats 

 of summer. 



After the spirituous portions of the liquor have been 

 drawn off, very agreeable piquette may be made from the 

 pulp which remains in the cask ; for this purpose it is only 

 necessary to crush the fruit, which is already soft, and to add 

 to it as much luke-warm water, to which a small quantity of 

 yeast has been added, as will fill the cask : fermentation 

 commences in a short time, and is terminated in three or 

 four days. To flavor this liquor and render it slightly tonic, 

 there may be added to it before fermentation, a handful of 

 vervain, three or four pounds of elder berries and of juniper 

 berries. 



Cherries, and particularly the small bitter cherries, when 

 ground and afterwards fermented in a cask in the same 

 manner as the must of grapes, and then pressed to sep- 

 arate the juice from the^ pulp, furnish a liquor contain- 

 ing much spirit. The wine made from cherries, when dis- 

 tilled, affords an excellent liquor, which although not ex- 

 actly the same as the good kirschwasser of the Black Forest, 

 is yet a valuable drink, and is sold in commerce under the 

 same name.* 



* I know an intelligent landholder, who, without any interruption 

 to his other agricultural occupations, makes every year two or three 

 24 



