409 
3rd.—Another method, which also answers well and is applic- 
able to tubs and open vats, consists in carefully washing, scrubbing, 
and whitewashing inside with a limewash made of two pounds of 
quicklime to every 100 gallons capacity of the vessel, just sufficient 
water being added to reduce it to the consistency of thin paint, 
viz., about two gallons. The limewash is left to stand and dry for 
a few days, and is then washed off. A small quantity of sulphuric 
acid added to the water will help in dissolving the lime inside the 
casks where the brush cannot reach. 
4th——The following method, too, I have often advised, and 
whenever it has been practised no taint has spoilt the wine throuyh 
bad caskage, viz.: The empty cask, if a large one, has its door re- 
moved, a man gets in, and a couple of bucketfuls of water are 
thrown into it; with a straw broom the inside is scoured all round 
and the dirty water swept out into a tub placed below the manhole 
to colleet it. 
If there are indications that the cask is sour or mouldy, a 
gallon or two of a solution of sulphuric acid one part, in water 
twelve to fifteen parts, is carefully poured into the eask—the acid 
being poured into the water, and not the water on to the acid, which 
would cause splashings—and with the long-handled broom the cel- 
larman, using every precaution not to get splashed by the acid, 
rinses every part of the inside of the cask. I would caution any 
raw hand at that kind of work against using the acid at all, and 
applying instead some simpler, if not as efficacious, method of dis- 
infecting the casks. This is followed by a couple of bucketsful of 
hot water in which a few handfuls of washing soda (one pound 
per gallon of water) are thrown, for a 500-gallon cask, or a little 
more for a 1,000-gallon vessel. With the aid of a hard brush—some 
very serviceable hard brushes for scrubbing casks, made of steel 
wires and coarse fibres, will be found useful—both heads, as well as 
the interior of the casks all round, are thoroughly scrubbed. By 
the time the scrubbing is done the water looks very dirty and of a 
washy coffee colour, especially if the cask has previously contained 
red wine. This dark wash is, in its turn, swept out of the cask, 
and two fresh bucketsful of hot water and soda are thrown in, the 
operation of serubbing being repeated. This wash having been 
swept out, the cask is well rinsed with clean water, then allowed to 
drain and dry. The next day a piece of sulphur rag is burnt in it, 
the door greased, replaced and screwed well home, and the plug 
driven in. Care should be taken to save the hands from contact with 
the caustic soda or acid washes recommended. 
Other methods consist in using for a hogshead, 2lbs. caustic soda 
in one gallon water; roll and let stand on end for one hour or two, 
and roll several times again. 
