4-13 
t here are some persons who set a high value on earthen 
bottles, as they pretend that cider keeps better in them; but 
glass ones are preferable to them, as they contain no princi¬ 
ple that is dissolvable by the liquor, and that when it is neces¬ 
sary to wasli them, their transparency indicates if the inside 
is clean. 
New cider differs in flavour; each has its characteristic, and 
some want what others have too much of. Bv mixing them 
with judgment, they may be so combined as mutually to cor¬ 
rect each other. 
It is very easy to conceive, that the difference of seasons, 
soil, exposure, and age of the trees, can increase or diminish 
the fineness of cider. 
Frost concentrates it. By having it exposed to it in open 
vessels, its watery part gets frozen, and by repeatedly taking 
off this crust, it improves its good qualities, and infinitely en¬ 
hances its price. 
That which I had an opportunity of managing in this man¬ 
ner some years ago, though it was bottled off the very next 
spring, never flew. It had retained its sweetness, and ac¬ 
quired some spit it, the frost having taken hold of its gas. I 
have known some other instances, which were equally remark¬ 
able. It is cider of this sort which it is fit to send to warm 
climates. 
The common people, who are almost always imposed upon 
by appearances, think that old cider can be rendered fine by 
having recourse to sugar, honey, or raisins. The result is 
exactly the contrary, as the quantity of gas these ingredients 
contain, excites it to work, and makes it turn sour. They 
should not be employed, but when it is intended to use it im¬ 
mediately. 
But the case is otherwise during the first period of prepar¬ 
ing it, as these ingredients will then tend to render it more 
generous. Macquer relates, that having extracted the juice 
of green grapes, which nobody would have tasted on account 
of the sourness, and then made it work with a sufficient quan¬ 
tity of brown sugar, to remove the roughness, he procured 
wine from it which wanted nothing but fragrance. 
I think that I am entitled, after the experiments I have 
made with this ingredient, on a few' casks of cider, to recom¬ 
mend the use of it, being persuaded, that it is not only in 
some cases able to correct indifferent fruit in rainy seasons, 
but also to contribute at ali times to produce a beverage su¬ 
perior to the other. The saccharine principle, raises almost 
ad libitum the spirituous part of fermenting liquors. That 
which, in this case, is produced from the mixture with brown 
sugar, or with clear molasses, and dry to the taste, bears no 
resemblance to a syrup. I have seldom ground a more in¬ 
different fruit than that of 1804, and I have almost never 
made such good cider. I used betw'een three or four pounds 
of browm sugar a hogshead, but I think that five or six would 
not have been too much. Circumstances at the time pre¬ 
vented 
I 
