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wax, which is then burnt in with a plumber’s lamp, starting from 
the lower part of the vertical walls. This fills the pores of the 
wood and prevents shrinking, and at the same time gives an even 
and uniform coat. If the tin containing the molten paraffin be 
placed in a bucket of hot water, the substance will keep fluid longer. 
To preserve the staves, rub or paint with boiled linseed oil, then 
pick out the hoops, painting them with boiled linseed oil with one 
quarter gold size added to make them dry quickly. 
Brick AND CEMENT VATS. 
Of late years wooden vats have been discarded in the more 
modern fermenting sheds in favour of cement vats, which offer 
marked advantages. Their initial cost is from one-third to one-half 
that of the wooden vessels; they occupy less room in the ferment- 
ing shed and thus constitute an economy of roof surface; they 
are easier to keep sound and sweet, and are less likely to taint wine, 
while they do not shrink, rot, or burn. 
Vats, rectangular in shape, with an inside dimension of 5ft. x 
5ft- x 4ft., and the angles rounded, would have a capacity of a little 
over 600 gallons, and would in practice ferment 500 gallons of wine. 
Another convenient size is 6ft. x 6ft. x 3ft. 6in., giving a capacity 
of 787 gallons. 
Two types of Cement Tanks. 
A good deal of care is required in their construction: bricks, 
elean, coarse sand, and cement are the only material required, no 
lime being used for setting the bricks. 
No very substantial foundation is required; ‘the top soil on the 
floor of the fermenting shed is simply scooped out with the spade; 
a 9-inch brick wall is built all round the space to be covered with 
the cement vats, and if resting on clay, which expands and shrinks 
very perceptibly according as it gets wet or dry, it is advisable to 
spread a layer of clean dry sand, two or three inches thick, within 
