H9 



CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 



to the bottom of the cask, where they are left for the wine 

 to feed upon, 1 leave it to any man to judge what kind of 

 food this muft be, and what manner of good it can com- 

 municate to the wine. But what fliall we fay, fo rigid 

 and arbitrary is cuftom, that v:c even look upon it next to 

 rebellion, to deviate or depart from the cuftoms of our fa- 

 thers. The cyder that has been made in America for 

 above one hundred years paft, has till very lately, been 

 conftantly fpoiled by this fame miftake. Every man that 

 makes cyder very well knows, how foon the pumice cor- 

 rupts and grows four by being expofed to the air, and yet 

 no man in all that time ever prevented the pumice, after 

 fermentation, from fettling down through the whole body 

 of cyder, but there left it to remain for his cyder to feed 

 upon all winter, and indeed all the next fummer too, if it 

 lalled fo long; with this additional advantage, that in the 

 fpring upon a fre(h fermentation, the fame body of pumice 

 rifes again to the top of the cask and there contrads a ftill 

 greater acidity or rancid nature, and by finking down again 

 through the body of liquor, communicates a ftill higher 

 degree of thefe rare qualities to it, and then the owner 

 complains of the hardnefs of his cyder, and fodoes every 

 body elfe that drinks of it; and yet thi$ has fo long re- 

 mained without a remedy, becauf? our fathers did fo. 



From what experiments 1 have made, I am clearly of 



opinion that the fseces or kes which are left in wine or 

 cyder is the true caufe of their frequent fermentation ;^ na- 

 ture appears to be loaded with, and fick of them, and like 

 a man with a foill ftomach, often flrains hard for a dif- 

 charge, and the negledi ng to eafe and clear nature of this per- 

 nicious, this deftrudive load, is the chief caufe of all the 

 ill efFcds it produces. In this, the juice of the grape re- 

 fembles the blood, the vital juice of man, if by a foul fto- 

 mach any quantity of crude, indigefted or vitiated matter 

 be thrown into the blood, it is prcfently fct into a 

 ferment, which rifcs and increafes till either the matter be 

 fully difcharged, or the vital union be diflolved; if the 



man 





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