THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



259 



shavings. This wood is the best, but other 

 wood may be substituted, as black birch, ash, 

 white or black oak, white poplar, &c. The last 

 is often used, but soon becomes bad and should 

 be renewed at least once in three years, and be- 

 sides, the vinegar has a slight bitter taste. Any 

 kind of maple that splits well will do. The 

 shavings should be made in a particular way ; 

 they should be the thickness of an eighth of an 

 inch, twelve inches long, and rolled into a coil. 

 They should be an inch or an inch and a half 

 wide. 



They are best made by planing with a wide 

 and open-mouthed plane from the edge of a 

 plank cut into twelve or fourteen inch lengths. 



The next thing to be done, is to fill up the 

 stand to within eight inches of the top, and there 

 support by means of wooden pins, a hoop on 

 the inside, sufficiently thick to support on it a 

 false head filled with quarter inch holes ; say 

 two inches apart, and with two chimney holes 

 one and a half inch diameter, for the purpose of 

 ventilation. The stand is now ready for work- 

 ing, and is put in operation by procuring suffi- 

 cient good vinegar to thoroughly wet the shav- 

 ings, by pouring it on the false head. The at- 

 tainment of this point is known by the liquor 

 running out freely through the faucet below. 



Put a thermometer in one of the chimneys, 

 lay a cover over the top and leave the stand to 

 itself. The temperature of the room should be 

 from seventy to eighty degrees. 



In from forty-eight to seventy-two hours the 

 thermometer will begin to rise, and will stand 

 from eighty-five to ninety degrees. When it 

 has reached eighty-six degrees, draw out from 

 the faucet a pailful of the vinegar, and pour up 

 as before, and if there be not enough to run 

 again freely through the shavings, more vinegar 

 must be supplied. For a few of the first feed- 

 ings it may require more than a pailful. The 

 thermometer in the chimney will now sink se- 

 veral degrees, and must be left quiet until the 

 heat comes up to eighty-six degrees, which at 

 first will require several hours; now draw out 

 and pour up again, and so continue to do, at in- 

 tervals of an hour, until the liquid and shavings 

 are sufficiently soured ; which is ascertained by 

 the taste of the vinegar, but still better by ana- 

 lysis. 



When the shavings are once well acidified, 

 they will ordinarily heat up so as to require feed- 

 ing once in an hour, and may be managed in 

 the following manner: 



Pour into a reservoir for stock one measure of 

 proof whiskey, and nine measures of pure soft 

 water, and if you have any old cider, or sour 

 beer, you may add one measure of it to the 

 stock reservoir. 



Of this mixture you may pour up two and a 

 half gallons, and when it has run through, and 

 the heat has again come up to eighty-six de- 



grees in the chimneys, (say in about an hour,) 

 draw out from the faucet and pour up, and let 

 it run through a second time, when if the stand 

 be in good order, the vinegar is finished ; other- 

 wise it must be run through a third time, when 

 the heat has again come up to eighty-six de- 

 grees. Suppose the vinegar to be finished with 

 the second run, then stock will be fed when the 

 heat reaches eighty-six degrees. 



The strength of vinegar is a matter of much 

 importance to the buyer as well as to the manu- 

 facturer — it is the absolute quantity of acid con- 

 tained in a given measure or weight of it, and 

 is generally ascertained by carbonate of potash, 

 which neutralizes the acid. The vinegar to be 

 tested is poured into a glass measure, and a 

 wide-mouthed 2 ounce vial filled with dry car- 

 bonate of potash, and exactly balanced in a 

 small apothecary's scales, and small portions of 

 it added to the vinegar until litmus-paper when 

 immersed becomes violet blue, instead of red. 

 Weigh again the carbonate of potash, and de- 

 duct the quantity used, it is the representation 

 of the strength of the vinegar tasted. 



Good commercial vinegar will neutralize thir- 

 ty grains of carbonate of potash — very strong 

 vinegar, such as is used in white lead woiks, 

 will neutralize thirty-six to forty grains. The 

 former requires ten per cent, proof whiskey, and 

 the latter fifteen or twenty per cent. 



W 7 hen a person makes his own vinegar ac- 

 cording to the directions here given, he might, if 

 he chose, substitute for the stock made of whis- 

 key and water, — sour beer, cider slops, the wash- 

 ings of cider barrels, &c. &c, and instead of 

 working the stand hourly, or every two hours, 

 as when it is made a business, the vinegar 

 would be drawn out and poured up every time 

 any new material is added to it ; and in this 

 case the air holes, instead of being bored eight 

 inches from the bottom, should be at or above 

 the bulge of the lower cask, so as to allow of 

 room for the vinegar to be kept on hand. In 

 this case, the size of the holes for supplying air 

 should be one-eighth of an inch instead of one- 

 half an inch. It may be remarked that these 

 directions are sufficient for the purposes of the 

 farmer or any one who desires to make his own 

 vinegar, but they are not critical and minute 

 enough for the manufacturer. Much skill and 

 experience is requisite to compete with those 

 already in the business. For it. is a distinct and 

 large business, especially in the neighborhood 

 of New York, where not less than fifteen or 

 twenty thousand gallons are daily made in and 

 about the city, consuming some fifteen hundred 

 or two thousand gallons of proof whiskey. 



This subject leads me to notice a remark often 

 made, that descriptions and processes given in 

 books are not to be depended on in practice. — 

 The very expression carries absurdity upon its 

 face, asserting that knowledge, because put in 



