lOd 



Casks are mostly made of oak : some districts prefer tliem of beech 

 wood, because, say they, the wine ripens better in such, and takes a 

 pleasant taste. They vary greatly in size, but more generally are 4 

 feet 3 inches long ; of cylindrical form, sHghtly bulging at the middle, 

 like an egg with the two ends squared off. The invention of them is 

 attributed to]the people of the Alps,* who varnished them with wax 

 inside, and outside with pitch or rosin. There are inconveniencies 

 amiexed to them, such as the qualities of the wood which are soluble 

 in the wine ; the shrinking or swelling of the staves according to the 

 state of the weather, and thus giving access to the external air and 

 allowing internal gases to escape from the liquor. Tbe}'^ go in differ- 

 ent places by the several names of puncheons, casks, pipes, butts, 

 barrels ; when larger, they are termed hogsheads, and when of enor- 

 mous size they are called tuns. The latter are excellent for hastening 

 the ripening of wine ; a la rge quantity of wine together, soouer takes 

 the characters of age than small portions, kept separately. 



It has been frequently recommended, in place of casks to use pot- 

 ter's vessels, glazed the like high-glazed pottery of the tmcients. Such 

 vessels, have undoubtedly, the advantage of preserving a more equal 

 temperature ; but they are all more or less porous, and, in the long- 

 run, may change the wine. We might, like the Romans, remedy this 

 porosity by coating them with wax inside and pitch outwards, or 

 else with a cement of lime ; &c. but wax will sour the wine, and lime, 

 af I have already elsewhere stated, may add to it disagreeable proper- 

 ties. But worse than this, — these vessels are awkward to be moved, 

 and very brittle, not permitting the multiplied handlings that casks 

 receive without injury. 



" Pliny. Hist. J^at. lib. XIV. cap. 21. 



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