4&0 On the Cultivation of the Vine, 
tartar, with which the inside is covered, is, scraped off, 
and they are washed with warm water or with wine. 
In general, the most usual methods of preparing the 
casks are confined to the following : 
1st, Wash the cask with cold water, then pour into it 
a quart of salt water in a state of ebullition ; stop the 
bunghole, and shake it in every direction : empty it, let 
the water drain well off; then take two quarts of fer- 
menting must, and, having boiled and skimmed it, pour 
it boiling hot into the cask ; close it and again shake it, 
after which suffer it to drain off. 
2d, W arm wine may be employed instead of the above 
preparations. 
3d, An infusion of the flowers of tlie peach-tree, &c. 
may also be used. 
When the casks have acquired any bad quality, such 
as mustiness, &c. they must be burnt : it is possible to 
conceal these defects, but there is reason to fear they 
might reappear. 
The antient Romans put gypsum, myrrh, and various 
aromatic substances into the casks into which their wines 
were removed from the vat. This is what they called 
condifura vinorum. The Greeks sometimes added a 
little bruised myrrh and argil. These substances not only 
perfumed the wine, but served also to clarify it. 
When the casks are properly prepared, they are de- 
posited on cask-stands, and thus raised some inches from 
the ground, both to prevent the action of putrid humidity, 
and for the more convenient drawing off* the wine which 
they contain. They must be arranged in parallel rows 
in the cellar, with sufficient room between for a person to 
examine whether any of them leaks. 
In the casks thus prepared the wine is deposited : when 
it is thought to have remained a sufficient time in the vat 
for this purpose, the tap of the vat, which is raised some 
