Recent Improvements in Cider and Perry Making. 187 
but in the Western seldom more than 60. This cask is nearly 
filled, a little ullage space being left for fermenting purposes. 
If the cheese is not further required it is thrown on the muck- 
heap ; but if it is wished to make small cider — " ciderkin," 
" purre," or " washings " as it is called — the must is laid by and 
reground ^dth a small quantity of water, and makes drink for 
immediate consumption. 
Before entering u]pon the details and precautions to be 
observed during the process of fermentation, it would perhaps 
be as well to describe shortly what that process is. 
All saccharine juices are capable of four different kinds of 
fennentation, viz. vinous, acetic, viscous, and putrid ; the first 
and thii-d of which are certainly due to the action of microscopic 
fungi ; the second may be so, but as the arguments pro and con- 
are numerous and strong, and this paper not long enough to 
contain a dissertation upon the subject, it will be treated as a 
chemical one ; while the fourth is due to the presence of 
" bacteria," which are small microscopic organisms having 
motion, but whether animal or vegetable is unknown. 
Vinous fermentation is that particular change which all 
native saccharine juices are liable to undergo when exposed to 
the air and left to its normal temperature. If a small quantity 
of these juices be carefully filtered through filtering paper and 
rendered bright, they may be left to themselves for an indefinite 
period and no change takes place, but upon the addition of ever 
so small a quantity of the unfiltered juices a change sooner or 
later takes place. This change manifests itself in the first 
place by a thickness and turbidity in the liquid which is OAving 
to two causes : first, the evolution of carbonic acid ; and, 
secondly, the fonnation within the liquid of a finely divided 
solid, which through the evolution of the gas is partly kept in 
suspension in the liquid and partly thro^Ti up to the surface, 
which is kno^ra as yeast. 
During this process an effervescence of a more or less dis- 
turbing character takes place, sometimes taking the form of a 
violent ebullition, the temperature of the liquid itself rising 
above that of the surrounding air, and the yeast becoming more 
abundant. Sooner or later a climax is reached, effervescence 
ceases, when the yeast settles at the bottom as a slimy deposit. 
Above this the liquid is clear and bright, and upon the top of 
the liquid there floats a mass of cellular tissue, supported mainly 
by the bubbles of cai'bonic acid gas given off. On tasting the 
liquor now the flavour will be found to have changed, and 
instead of the sweet taste it formerly had there will be a decided 
vinous one. 
This change is due to the action of the yeast-plant, a micro- 
