34 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
use in the manufacture of sugar from 
sorghum. During the year ended June 
30, 1905, 2,112,830.9 gallons of spirits were 
withdrawn for these purposes. Details in 
regard to such withdrawals can be ob- 
tained from the Commissioner of Internal 
Revenue, whose annual report for the 
year ended on the date mentioned fur- 
nishes valuable information for those pro- 
posing to engage in any way in the dis- 
tillation of alcohol. 
Attention should also be called to the 
fact that large quantities of undenatured 
alcohol are manufactured in the United 
States on which no tax is paid. The prin- 
cipal sources of this alcohol are as fol- 
lows: 
Hard Cider 
The natural conversion of sweet cider 
into hard cider by the ferments which it 
contains is a process in which large 
quantities of alcohol are produced and 
on which no tax is paid. The term alco- 
hol when used alone does not apply to 
such products, but only to alcohol pro- 
duced by distillation. As is well known, 
the sugar which is one of the principal 
constituents of fresh cider is mixed with 
yeasts which naturally attach to apples, 
so that when exposed without steriliza- 
tion fermentation takes place, the sugar 
disappears, and alcohol is formed. If we 
assume that the average apple juice con- 
tains 12 per cent of fermentable matter, 
it is seen that about six per cent of alcohol 
may be developed in a hard cider. No 
tax is put upon this cider, nor is there 
any supervision on the part of the Com- 
missioner of Internal Revenue in its 
production. 
Wine 
In the manufacture of wine the natural 
yeasts which attach to the grapes pro- 
duce in the expressed grape juice a fer- 
mentation by means of which the grape 
juice is converted into wine. This is a 
vast industry in many countries and a 
very important industry in the United 
States. The alcohol which is formed in 
this way pays no tax, nor does the manu- 
facturer of ordinary wines conduct his 
business under the supervision of the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue. What 
is true of the juices of ihe grape and the 
apple is true of other fruit juices. They 
may be all of them fermented and their 
sugar converted into alcohol without Goy- 
ernment supervision and without paying 
any tax. But when the alcohol which is 
produced by the fermentation § of truit 
juices is subjected to distillation it comes 
under the contiol of the Commissioner of 
Internal Revenue The distillation of al- 
cohol from waste products is conducted 
under special regulations authorized by 
law. 
Sweet Wine 
Brandy and other distilled spirits made 
from grapes or their refuse may be used 
for fortifying sweet wines upon the pay- 
ment of a nominal tax of 5 cents a gallon, 
as provided for by the following act of 
- Congress, which indicates the character of 
the wines that may be fortified in this 
way: 
AN ACT To amend existing laws relating 
to the fortification of pure sweet wines. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress asesmbled, That 
section forty-three of the Act entitled 
“An Act to reduce the revenue and equal- 
ize duties on imports, and for other pur- 
poses,” approved October first, eighteen 
hundred and ninety, as amended by sec- 
tion sixty-eight of the Act of August 
twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and 
ninety-four, be further amended, so as 
to read as follows: 
Sec. 48. That the wine spirits men- 
tioned in section forty-two of this Act 
is the product resulting from the distilla- 
tion of fermented grape juice, to which 
water may have been added prior to, dur- 
ing, or after fermentation, for the sole 
purpose of facilitating the fermentation 
and economical distillation thereof, and 
shall be held to include the product from 
grapes or their residues, commonly 
known aS grape brandy; and the pure 
sweet wine, which may be fortified free 
of tax, as provided in said section, is 
fermented grape juice only, and shall con- 
tain no other substance whatever intro- 
duced before, at the lime of, or after 
fermentation, except as herein expressly 
provided; and such sweet wine shall con- 
tain not less than four per centum of 
saccharine matter, which saccharine 
strength may be determined by testing 
with Balling’s saccharometer or must 
scale, such sweet wine, after the evapora- 
tion of the spirits contained therein, and 
