397 
It has been pretended by some, that by filling the vessel, 
and bunging it hermetically, cider will come to perfection 
without having been worked, and preserve its saccharine qua¬ 
lity. Tiiis theory presents an almost insurmountable diffi¬ 
culty. It is sufficient, that there should be ever so little 
air remaining among the liquor, and it is almost impossible 
that it should be otherwise, or that the latter should commu¬ 
nicate ever so little wdth the atmosphere, to awaken a fermen¬ 
tation, which, by the elasticity of the fluid vapours, will not 
fail to disengage itself and burst the cask. 
Last year I filled a dozen of bottles with new cider, and 
then corked and sealed them well; and, having chosen a cool 
place, I placed them there, standing, that in case there should 
be afterwards an internal pressure, the sides of the bottles by 
being closer, might also be the better able to resist. In less 
than a fortnight all the corks had burst. It is then to be pre¬ 
sumed that a violent explosion will take place where the cider 
would be put in a mass several hundred times larger, retained 
by a force almost the inverse of its quantity, and confined in a 
vessel of porous materials, subject to absorb the moisture, and 
afterwards by drying, to admit the air. If any thing could 
prevent it, it would be pouring the cider as soon as it is 
pressed out into the cask, and then immersing it in water. 
Even, if this expedient should happen to succeed in point of 
safety, yet it could be but partially adopted, and by few pro¬ 
prietors. The only advantage which the liquor, now become 
disgusting to almost every body by its sweetish taste, would 
ultimately derive from it, would be that of being proper to 
make stronger vinegar. 
It is then better to abide by a practice, supported on the 
principles which I have just explained. 
New cider, after it has been exposed to the air for some 
days, or some weeks, as it approaches more or less to its per¬ 
fection, becomes insipid, and seems to have lost all its 
strength. However, if it has been extracted from a good 
fruit, and clarified according to the rules we have laid down, 
when it has been put in a clean cask, it will recover and im¬ 
prove itself, and get brisk and pleasant. Having disengaged 
itself of its gross particles by the stronger fermentation, it ac¬ 
quires by the gentle one, that fineness, those qualities, and that 
exquisite taste, which sometimes put it in competition with 
the most celebrated wines. This lowering in the working, 
when one comes to the latter part of the process, requires a 
particular attention. 
It is to the want of observing.this rule, that is to be attri¬ 
buted that dull and almost continual humming noise, which 
the new cider experiences in the casks. This is the cause, 
that in a very short time a delicious liquor is converted into a 
beverage worse than indifferent. 
As this part of the process depends on the eye, assisted by 
p-ood rules, it is difficult to specify the precise indications by 
which 
