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STJLPHTJEING CASKS. 



Sulphuring should be repeated every two months or so if the 

 cask is left empty. Should the cask be wet at the time of sulphur- 

 ing, hydrogen sulphide would be produced, which would impart to 

 the wine an abominable smell of rotten eggs. 



The object of sulphuring casks, as all those who have any 

 experience of cellar work know, is to consume all air out of them and 

 thereby check the appearance of the germs of acetic fermentation 

 and other diseases of the wine which are dependent on the oxygen in 

 the air for life. 



SLACK CASKS. 



When overhauling empty casks stored away in a hot, dry shed, 

 sometime before vintage, they are generally slack from being empty 

 for a long time ; the staves have shrunk, and the hoops have either 

 fallen off or will do so unless the casks are carefully handled. 



When casks thus get slack, the sulphur fumes they contained 

 escape and dissipate into the air, and moulds not infrequently 

 penetrate, and grow in patches inside as well as between the staves. 

 Such casks should be treated as explained when dealing with 

 mouldy casks. 



The hoops of these slack casks must be driven before the casks 

 are cleaned. This must be done cautiously, or else when the cask is 

 filled with wine the expansion of these shrunken staves and the head 

 of the cask will be such as to buckle and warp, or the strain on the 

 hoops is so considerable that they occasionally snap and much wine 

 is lost before the contents can be saved. For this purpose drive the 

 hoops lightly to prevent the cask falling to pieces, put a bucket of 

 hot water into it ; this hot water will often run out of the vessel in 

 a short time ; repeat the operation, and the leaks will soon take up. 

 It is only occasionally that the hoops have to be driven hard. 



FLAGGING. 



Flagging. Sugar matting is often used ; it is first moistened 

 to make it limp and prevent breaking, and is then split into two 

 faces before using. The flagging is done with the help of a flagging 

 iron, by means of which the end of the staves at the head are 

 pressed apart. For that purpose, the two top hoops are taken off, 

 and the third hoop may have to be loosened, just enough to save the 

 head falling through. It is a good plan to mark with a pencil or 

 with chalk the leaky spots. 



For a longitudinal flag, press out one stave and insert the split 

 flag lengthways, double it if the fissure is large, and let the lower end 

 of the flagging material come out where a hoop will cover it. 



For a circular flag, around the rim of the head piece, put in the 

 moistened flagging material stave at a time, using for so doing the 

 flagging iron and also a blunt hard wood wedge. 



