58 Afhorifms concerning Cider. 



fpe^ive^«/' is in the fame condition that I before direfted that the 

 Wittter-fepn fhould be. Nay, even in the making of that Cider^ 

 you are not tied to that time of the year to make your Cider:, 

 but as the condition of that particular year hath been, you may- 

 make your Cider one , two, three or four weeks later ; but it 

 will be very feldom that you (hall need to begin to make Kentifb- 

 pepin-cider before the beginning of November, even in the moft 

 Southern parts of England. 



The next thing I fhall mention, is, the ordering of your bottles 

 after they arc fil/ed ^ for in that confifts no fmall part of caufing 

 your Cider to be in a juft condition to drink.: For, if it does fer- 

 ment too much in the bottle, it will not be fo convenient to drinkjy 

 neither for the tafte, nor whoKomnefs ; and if it ferment not at 

 all, itwillwantthat little ^e* which makes it ^r4/ef«/ to moft Pa- 

 lates. In order to this, you muft obferve, firft, whether the Cider 

 were ^<?«/e<^ too early, or too late, or in the juft time : If too ear- 

 ly, and that it hath too much of the fiying Lee in it, then you muft 

 keep it as cool as you can, that it may not work too much, and if 

 fo little that you doubt it will not work at all, or too little , you 

 muft by keeping it from the inconvenience of the external air, 

 endeavour to haften and increafe the fermentation. And this I do, 

 by fetting it in find to cool, and by covering the bottles very 

 well with Jirarv, when I would haften or increafe the fermen- 

 tation. 



And if I find the Cider to have been bottled in its juft time, then I 

 ufe neither, in ordinary weather ^ but content my felf that it ftands 

 in a clofe and coole Cellar , either upon the ground , or upon 

 jhelves'j faving in the time that I apprehend jr^j/if, I cover it with 

 fir aw, which 1 take ofFas foon as the weather changeth j and confe- 

 quently about the time that the cold Ea^ winds ceafe ^ which ufu- 

 ally, with us, is in the beginning oi April -^ Ifet my bottles into fond 

 up to the necks. And by this means I have kept Pepin-cider with- 

 out change till September , and might have kept it longer, if my 

 ftore had been greater ; For by that time the /!e4^j- were totally 

 over, and confequently, the caufeo£ the turn of Cider. 



Having now declared what is (according to my opinion) to be 

 done to preferve Cider, if not in it's original fweetnefs, yet to let 

 it lofe as little as is poUible , I ftiall now fall upon my fifth jifirti- 

 on, which is, that it is probable that fbmewhat like the former 

 Method may in fome degree mend Hard-apple-cider, Perry, or a 

 drink made of the mixtures of Apples and Pears'^ and not impof- 

 fible that fcmewhat of the fame nature may do good to French- 

 wines alfo. 



Firft, for French-wines, I think what I have in the beginning 

 of this difcourfe declared, as the hint which firft put me upon the 

 conf eit, that the over-fermenting of Cider was the caufe that it 

 loft of its original fweetnefs (vtz. the making of three forts of 

 fVine, of one (ort of Grapes) is a teftimony that the firft fort of 

 tfine hath but liulcof the^r^/JLee, and confequently, /er/«e»/^ 

 but little, nor loleth but little of the original fweetnefs 5 which 



•.] . makes 



