40^ 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNE !0 14 



the centre. Leaving Paris we entered upon the 

 grand prairie. To the north as far as the eye can 

 reach, we could see nothing but an oce.in of grass ; 

 to the south and west timber couhl be seen, but at 

 a great distance. Tlie nearest house upon the road 

 IS ten miles from town. Some two or three miles 

 north of the road Mr Bradshaw, an English gentle- 

 man, has an estate of .3000 acres, most of it fenced. 

 His honse is on a little eminence in the edge of a 

 small grove, and commands a view of the whole 

 country from ten to fifteen miles round. 

 [Contijiued on puse 412.) 



For the N. E. Farm.- 



CIDER AND APPLES. 



Mk Colman — I promised in my last letter to 

 say something about cider ; and I hope you will 

 not consider this choice of subject, at this particu- 

 lar time, as having any special bearing on "hard 

 cider," for my object is, to make good cider for 

 both political parties. 



The couuiion wines of France are not much 

 stronger or better than our common cider, and not 

 so good as the best. If those wines- were treated 

 no better than our cider is, in the making and keep- 

 ing, they would be no better than hard cider, and 

 not fit to be drank in "log cabins." 



Mr Editor, it is hard to get rid of old habils ; and 

 the very word cider is now bewildering my thoughts 

 with politics, although I detest professed politicians. 

 Permit me, therefore, a short digression, nnd I will 

 then drive these thoughts from my muid, and go 

 back to my real cider barrtd. When I saw a log- 

 hut in New York, with fire and drink within, there 

 flashed into my mind a Latin verse, from what 

 author I do not now remember, but so applicable, 

 as a motto for the log cabin, that I would have of- 

 fered it to the hutites, if I had known them. The 

 verse was made on the occasion of some nuptial 

 festivities, and very ancient. This shows that the 

 new ensignia is very classical, let those who ridi- 

 cule it say what they may ab'out itr — 



" Inde casas poslquam, ac pellcs, igneme/iie el potus 

 pararunt." 



When huts,) and skins and fire and drhik lliey had 

 prepared. 



In France, the grapes from whicli the wine is 

 made, are carried immediately from the vineyard to 

 the press, and are not allowed to remain for weeks 

 in heaps, and go through the several degrees offer- 

 mentation to the putrid, like our apple heaps; al- 

 though in some place.s, where a sweet wine is 

 wanted, the grapes are spread to the sun in dry 

 places, to permit them to evaporate a portion of 

 their more aqueous parts before they are pressed. 

 This is a cheap mode of concentration without 

 boiling, as we boil cider sometimes. 



As soon as the liquor is expressed, it is |)ul to 

 ferment ; and as soon as that is completed, it is 

 put into light, clean, sulphured ca.sks, which are 

 kept constantly full, bunged hand-tight and air- 

 tight, with clean linen bung cloths: haudtight, for 

 the convenience of filling up every day, to keep 

 the liquor from the air and prevent the acetous fer- 

 mentation. 



After a certain time, (differing with ditferent 

 wines, climate and other circumstances, which ex- 

 perience indicate,) the wine is drawn off" the lees, 

 and still kept in casks always full. This exclu- 

 lion from the air is the great secret; and the fill- 

 ing up should never he with bad liquor: it would 

 ••e better to do it with water than with cider on 

 the turn. 



The exclusion of the air and the drawing from 

 the lee-i, are sufficiently important to merit particu- 

 lar consideration. And to show that the ancient 

 epicurians understood this matter well, we have 

 but to examine the shape and seeming whimsicali- 

 ty of the vessels in which they kept their precious 

 wines, called um/*Aori, and now found in the cel- 

 lars of Herculaneum and Pompeii. These ampho- 

 ri are made like the olive jars, with small mouths 

 and pointed at the lower end, so that they cannot 

 stand. The small opening at the top is to facili- 

 tate the corking and to expose the smallest surface 

 possible to the air during that operation. They 

 sometimes dropped in a little oil before corking, 

 but this would be less efficacious with our cider 

 barrels, which soon present a large surface of un- 

 covered liquor. But Yankee ingenuity will reme- 

 dy this evil one of these days. v.'hen they reflect on 

 the reason of the thing. Now the tapered form of 

 the lower part of the Roman amphori is to confine 

 the remaining lees to as small a compass as possi- 

 ble ; for these lees soon become tartarous, and fi- 

 nally a concrete tartar, and injure the liquor in the 

 same ratio as their two surfaces correspond. 



The manufacturers of our common junk bottles 

 are guided by the same philosophy ; although some 

 people think the indenture at the bottom is to di- 

 minish the contents which, would be against their 

 interests, as some of them have of kte discovered, 

 who make bottles without that neccssiiry indenture. 

 Perhaps they were ignorant of its true use. The 

 narrow "space between this indenture and the sides 

 of the bottle, confines the sediment of the liquor to 

 the smallest surface, and answers the purpose of 

 the Roman amphori. Yet we hear often of the ad- 

 vantage of leaving wines on their lee3; Now if 

 the lees be of very good old Madeira, and th« wine 

 put upon them be ordinary, it is not improbable 

 that it will impart some of the Madeira flavor; but 

 pure tartar or concrete lees of any wine can never 

 improve liquor. All liquor should be kept cool and 

 in dark places, and transvased as little as possible. 



Cider or any other liquor may be fined by a very 

 simple and quick process, by filtering it upward 

 through sand. For this purpose, set a caskend- 

 wise, fix to It a false bottom, a few inches from the 

 real bottom; perfiirate the false bottom with holes; 

 cover this bottom with a clean piece of cotton cloth ; 

 then on that spread a layer of fine clean sand, about 

 six inches thick ; over that spread another piece of 

 cotton, and on that spread a layer of sand as thick 

 as the depth of the cask will admit, so as to leave 

 it a few inches below the top. Before this filter is 

 so made up, a tube of wood or metal must be placed 

 in the cask, going through the false bottom and ris. 

 ing above the open end of the cask. Through this 

 lube the liquor is ])oured with a tunnel, and forces 

 its way upwards, leaving all impurities below, and 

 flows out through a pipe or a notch at the top. i he 

 sand should be compact and wet before the liquor 

 is poured in. If it should he desired to filter cider 

 on the acetous turn, or when it is becoming sour, 

 it may be improved and almost restored, by atiding 

 to the filter immediately above the first layer, an 

 extra layer of pounded charcoal and flour of sul- 

 phur — nine parts charcoal and one part sulphur. 

 Then if the liquor prove dead or vapid, it moy be 

 enlivened and made a pleasant, brisk summer drink, 

 by putting into each cask a small quantity of good 

 yeast and rye meal, shaking and bunging well the 

 casks. 



I am informed that applesare sometimes so abun- 

 dant in the Connecticut valley, that they are left to 



rot on the trees. It seems to me that this should 

 never happen. In such years of abundance, it 

 would be well to pick the best of fhein and make 

 cider that would be much better than usual, and 

 keep longer. Perhaps something may be done with 

 them in imitation of the treatment of grapes when 

 sweet wine is wanted. A portable chopping trough 

 might be carried from tree to tree, to chop the ap- 

 ples and leave them spread to evaporate for a few 

 days; thus, there would be less liquor but richer 

 in sacharine matter. I he liquor then might be 

 expressed for drink, or to he boiled down to molas- 

 ses. Or, finally, the ajipies thus clieaply dried, 

 would make good food for hogs and cattle — very 

 nutritive and fattening. 



I drink no liquor but water; and I had some 

 scruples about writing this cider story; for I be- 

 lieve that water, and not much of that, is very con- 

 ducive to a complete digestion of food ; and conse- 

 quently healtiiful. Water is, in the hands of nature, 

 the great instrument of composition and decompo- 

 sition of all animal and vegetable matter. Howev- 

 er, apple trees we shall liave, apples we shall eat, 

 and cider we shall drink: let us therefore use them 

 all to the most advantage. The trees themselves, 

 may I believe, be made to act a more important 

 part in rural economy than heretofore. They now 

 occupy large tracts of good arable land ; often the 

 best part of a farm, with the finest southern expo- 

 sition; wliereas they might be made the protecting 

 bulwarks of minor vegetation, keeping offthe north- 

 ern enemy which sometimes lays prostrate acres of 

 thrifty corn. They would also attract moisture 

 from regions which the more humble vegetables 

 cannot reach. 



In making borders of apple trees to the north- 

 ward, I would recommend, however, not to make 

 them single, but of more rows tban one, according 

 to circumstances, that the protection may be more 

 eflfoctual, and tliat they may protect each other 

 also. 



Frederick Tudor, Esq. lias succeeded in raising 

 a large number of fruit and ornamental trees, in one 

 of the most exposed situations on the coast of Amer- 

 ica — on the northeast side of Nahant, a high prom- 

 ontory projecting cut into the open sea, simply by 

 the aid of a high, open, slat fence. 



Your friend and humble servant, 



WILLIAM FOSIER. 



To Preserve Fence Posts, ifc— It is often the 

 case where lime is used for plastering and other 

 purposes, the siftings and refuse are thrown away 

 as useless. But it is better economy to put it 

 around fence and gate posts, as it will greatly pre- 

 serve them from decay. Leached ashes are very 

 good for the same purpo.se. If slacked lime or 

 leached ashes were sprinkled over the wooden pave- 

 ments in our cities when first put down, it would 

 render them much more durable than when sand 

 or gravel alone is used Genesee Far. 



Caking of the Bag or Vdder in Cows. — In newly 

 calved cows, the udder sometimes hardens or cakes 

 .IS it is called, and a ro.nedy should be applied 

 without delay. One of my cows in this condition, 

 was lately treated with soft soap, externally ap- 

 plied in the evening, and the next morning she was 

 well. I have Iieard no complaint of her since. — 

 Corr. of Genesee Far. 



Water in which potatoes have been boiled should 

 never be given t<i animals, as it is poisonous. 



