214 
ROUGH NOTES BY THE WAY.-NO. 9. 
urpose of flavoring raw-grain spirits to imitate 
randy. The following is a method of “ making 
up” brandy for retail:— 
“ To ten puncheons of brandy, (1.081 gallons.) add flavored 
raisin spirit, 118 gallons ; tincture of grains of Paradise, 
four gallons ; cherry-laurel water, 2 gallons ; spirit of 
almond cakes, 2 gallons. Add, also, 10 handfuls of oak 
sawdust, and give it ‘ complexion’ with burnt sugar.” 
Holland spirit, gin , or geneva , which is distilled 
from unmalted rye by a peculiar method, and flavor¬ 
ed with juniper berries, and sometimes by the addi¬ 
tion of a little pure Strasburg turpentine, and a 
handful or two of hops, is usually adulterated with 
water, ^ugar is also added, and a mixture com¬ 
posed of alum, carbonate of potash, almond oil, 
sulphuric acid, and spirit of wine. This compound 
not only fines the gin, but communicates to it the 
property of “ beading.” A creaminess and smooth¬ 
ness to the palate is given to gin by age, or the 
addition of a little sugar, and a small quantity of 
caustic potash is sometimes added to it, so as to 
impart to it a biting taste. 
British gin is usually made of clean, grain spirit, 
flavored, as modifying ingredients, with oil of tur¬ 
pentine, bitter almonds, creosote, common salt, and 
sometimes with sliced lemons, oil of juniper, and 
other aromatic substances. The turpentine con¬ 
veys a plain gin flavor; creosote imparts a certain 
degree of smokiness; lemon and other aromatics, 
a rich, creamy fullness, which a generality of gin 
drinkers admire. 
Rum , an ardent spirit obtained by distillation from 
the fermented skimmings of sugar boilers, (syrup 
skum,) the drippings of the sugar pots and casks, 
(molasses,) the washings of the boilers, and occa¬ 
sionally the juice of the sugar cane, is subject to 
but few adulterations other than water, and the ad¬ 
mixture of inferior kinds. Sometimes, however, 
sliced pine apples are added to rums of ordinary 
qualities, with the view of imparting to them the 
flavor of Jamaica “ pine-apple rum.” 
Dilute alcohol, obtained from the fermented 
wort of malt or grains, is generally known under 
the name of w/vskey. That extracted from malt is 
the most esteemed. The inferior qualities of this 
spirit are prepared from barley, oats, rye, or Indian 
corn, a small portion of w’hich is malted ; or from 
potatoes mashed with barley malt, the resulting 
wash being carelessly fermented and distilled, and 
purposely suffered to burn, in order to impart the 
peculiar empyreumatic or smoky flavor, which ac¬ 
cidentally attends the manufacture of the famous 
“ mountain dew” of Ireland, and is so much rel¬ 
ished by amateur whiskey drinkers. 
The malt whiskey, sold as such, of the principal 
Scotch and Irish distilleries, is fully equal in qual¬ 
ity, to London gin, from which it merely differs in 
flavor. The peculiar flavor of Scotch whiskey, 
may be nicely imitated by adding a few drops of 
pure creosote to two or three gallons of good Eng¬ 
lish gin : and the imitation will be still more per¬ 
fect, if the liquor be kept for some months before 
drinking it. 
We will conclude this series, by another extract 
from the narration of the same old broken-down 
grogseller mentioned in our last. 
“ What have you got to say agin blue ruin, old 
fellow'?” demanded a knacker, who was regaling 
himself with a glass of gin and water. 
“Blue ruin—gin !” cried the old man. “ Ah ! J 
can tell you something about that, too. Oil of 
vitriol is the chief ingredient. It has the pungency 
and smell of gin. When you take the cork out 
of a bottle of pure gin, it won’t" make your eyes 
water; but the oil of vitriol will. Ha! ha! There’s 
a test for you. Try it. Oil of turpentine, sul¬ 
phuric ether, and oil of almonds are used to con¬ 
ceal the vitriol in the ‘ made up’ gin. What is 
called ‘ fine cordial gin’ is the most adulterated of 
all. It is concocted expressly for dram drinkers, 
Ha! ha!” 
“ Rum, I should think, is the best of all the spir¬ 
its,” said a buffer. 
“Because you like it best, perhaps,” exclaimed 
the old man. ‘‘Ha! ha! You don’t know that 
the ‘ fine Jamaica rum’ is nothing else but the vile, 
low-priced Leward-Island rum, which is in itself a 
stomach-burning fire water of the deadliest quality, 
and which is mixed by the publican with cherry- 
laurel water and ‘ devil ?’ ” 
“ Devil? What’s that?” asked the knacker. 
“Aye, what is it indeed ? It is but Chili pods 
infused in oil of vitriol. That’s all.” 
“ Now for the ‘best Cognac brandy,’” continued 
the old man. “ Do you think half the brandy soldi 
under that name ever saw France?—ever crossed’ 
the sea? Notit! Aqua ammonia, saffron, mace, 
extract of almond cake, cherry-laurel water, terra 
Japonica, and spirits of nitre make up the brandy, 
when the domestic distilled spirit has been well 
deluged with water. That’s your brandy ! Ha ! 
ha! And now, I dare say, you wonder why I 
drink beer or spirits at all. It is this : Because I 
am old and miserable; because I’m poor and 
wretched; because I must kill care somehow or 
another; and therefore I take daily doses of these 
slow poisons.” 
ROUG-H NOTES BY THE WAT.— No. 9. 
I learned from a gentleman and his lady, in 
New Jersey, where I stopped to spend a short time 
last summer, the following interesting fact. “While 
doing business in the city of New York, in 1836,” 
said he, “ my wife said to me, one day, instead of 
travelling in the summer, why not buy a farm and 
let rne cultivate it, and you come out when your 
business will permit ?” He took her at her word, 
bought a farm of 140 acres and moved upon it. It 
being entirely exhausted, not yielding hay sufficient 
to keep a horse and cow, he commenced making 
manure by hauling muck and other material into 
the barnyard, sowed oats, buckwheat, and clover, 
in separate fields, and plowed them under. He then 
spread lime upon some fields, and potash upon oth¬ 
ers, until his crop of grass was sufficient to keep a 
good stock of cows and a team sufficient for the pur¬ 
poses of the farm. This enabled him to enrich, 
his land, still keeping up the mucking system, of 
collecting every other material calculated to aug¬ 
ment the quantity and absorb the liquid of the sta¬ 
ble and barnyard, poudrette, bonedust, and guano, 
not being in use at that time. He did not boast 
of having raised so large crops as some of your 
subscribers, but that they were respectably so, ia 
