404 
On the Cultivation of Orchards, and 
checking fermentation ; and this effect will be increased by pour- 
ing the liquor through a vessel perforated with numerous holes, 
or affixing the rose of a watering-pot to the vent or tap, thus pro- 
ducing a more complete separation and exposure to the air, and 
consequent precipitation of the ferment. Some cidermakers cause 
the cider to run down a board into the receiving vessel, so as to 
expose it as much as possible to the action of the air.* The object 
of all this particular management of the cellar is, after obtaining 
a certain degree of fermentation necessary to produce a sufficient 
quantity of spirit, to subdue the action of the exciter, the ferment, 
and thereby to induce that slow and tranquil change which gradually 
converts the remaining sugar into spirit, but which, in a well-closed 
cask and a cool cellar, it takes years to accomplish. In the following 
April the cider is again racked, to get rid of the lees, and the casks 
are then closely bunged down, and the cider is in a fit state to stow 
away in the proper keeping place, or to send out. f When perfectly 
fine the cider is fit for bottling ; but Mr. Knight recommends 
keeping it two years before it is bottled. Cider, carefully managed, 
will retain its sweetness three or four years in the cask, and many 
years when bottled. The bottles should be laid upon their 
sides, in order that the corks may swell and prevent the escape 
of the gas. In bottle, the gas, which at first is yet slowly formed, 
soon occasions such a pressure as to put a stop to any further 
change, which can proceed only so long as the carbonic acid gas — 
one of the products of that change — is allowed to escape. In 
tolerably matured cider, the needful pressure for this effect is too 
feeble to endanger the bursting of the bottles, but is at the same 
time sufficient to give great briskness to the cider when the cork 
is drawn. 
In tracing the progress of these operations, and that of the 
cider to its perfect state, or rather to that state which is considered 
desirable, it may be observed, with regard to the cause of the 
changes which take place, the gluten or ferment, that its quantity 
is so great in the juice of imperfectly ripe apples, in proportion 
to the saccharine matter, that when pressed at that time, and 
allowed to ferment, the action would be so powerful as soon to 
exhaust all the sweetness, and produce a harsh cider. By the 
more perfect ripening of the apples, and the slow grinding and 
exposure of the pulp to the air, the power of the ferment is very 
* The coolness of the situation of the cider during its fermentation is of 
great, importance ; for at a temperature much above .50° Fahrenheit, the 
acetous change commences, and proceeds simultaneously with the vinous: 
but Ix'luw that, degree, iieilhci' bel'orc tlie cider is tunned, nor alter in the 
o])cn cask, is any acid produced. — ylnlhor. 
■(• The racking of cider in the spring sliould be performed when tlie air 
is dry and cool. 
