410 
Soda has a great affinity for acetic acid and the resulting ace- 
tate of soda thus formed is readily soluble in hot water used for 
rinsing. 
SULPHURING 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 ex- 
perience 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 dependant on the oxygen in 
the air for life. : 
Suack 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 pene- 
trate, and grow im 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. 
After a while the staves of casks shrink as also do the heads, 
but on account of their larger superficial area the staves shrink 
more and driving the hoops does not suffice to make the casks tight. 
It is then necessary to insert between the staves at each head flat 
reedy leaves to fill up the open interstices. When this shrinking 
