VOL. XLVII NO. 2013. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 25, 1888, 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. U 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
£arm Copies. 
Apple Juice. 
CIDER! VINEGAR! 
The Whole Story. 
VINEGAR MAKING. 
FROM CHAS. A. GREEN. 
Vinegar making has become more profit¬ 
able in New York State from the fact that a 
recent law requires that all vinegar shall be 
made from fruit. There are inspectors whose 
duty it is to see that no other vinegar is 
offered for sale. Previously the bulk of the 
vinegar consumed was made from whisky 
against which the makers of fruit vinegar 
could not compete. The effort has been to 
make cider vinegar quickly, as the barrels 
were, expensive, and the loss incurred by 
storage for two or three years was burden¬ 
some. To this end shelves were made with 
grooves, -ay one inch deep, through which 
the cider flowed backwards and forwards and 
then down to the next shelf and so on until in 
this way the cider was exposed to the atmos¬ 
phere and warmth for an hour or more before 
passing into another barrel or tank. This 
greatly hastened the making of vinegar. 
Another plan is to fill a barrel with oak shav¬ 
ings, run sharp vinegar through them, then 
run the cider through the shavings slowly. 
But it has been found that all methods of 
hastening the making of vinegar are inclined 
to affect the quality; that vinegar hastily 
made is sharp and stingy, but that it lacks 
body and richness of fruit-tone, and yet the 
process can be somewhat hastened without 
resulting in any injury. Some cellars are so 
cool that cider will not make vinegar in them 
for years. Cider should always be removed 
from the cellar as soon in the spring as the 
weather becomes warm. The hoops should be 
painted and the barrels placed on rails a few 
inches from the earth, in such a position that 
the hot sun will strike them all day long. If 
placed on a knoll, a trough can be run from 
one barrel at a time to an empty barrel, draw¬ 
ing off the cider slowly. This causes the 
evaporation of eight to ten gallons per day, 
and hastens vinegar-making. If on level 
ground the full barrel of cider can be raised 
on a box so as to permit its contents to be 
drawn off. 
When thus exposed the barrels should not 
be full; the bung should be loft out, and a 
screen should be placed over the bung-hole 
to keep out insects. Some people thrust in a 
bottle, but this keeps out air which is needed. 
One barrel that had only a few gallons of 
cider in it was found to contain strong vinegar 
three months later, with plenty of “mother,” 
it having been stored in a cool cellar during 
winter. 
If you have old vinegar barrels or casks 
containing “ mother,” and sofne good vinegar 
these need not be removed. Simply put in 
the cider daily or weekly and draw it off as 
fast as made, and*pla'ce in fresh barrels. This 
is the manner in which the best vinegar is 
made, and with the least trouble. By this 
plan the vinegar is being made continually 
with vigor. Remember that vinegar is 
always growing stronger or weaker, and that 
if an old barrel of vinegar has no new mate¬ 
rial supplied it may perish from idleness, 
its strength and virtue becoming worthless. 
An old vinegar barrel containing plenty of 
“mother,” the vinegar having just been 
drawn off, is worth twice as much as a new 
barrel containing no “ mother.” Any kind of 
fruit juice or sweetened water placed in contact 
with the “mother” in the old barrel will 
make vinegar rapidly. The skimming from 
preserves and the maple sugar kettle, honey 
and water; any sweet thing will make vinegar. 
It often happens that grapes are frozen 
before they are picked. The juice of these 
will make splendid vinegar if it is treated in 
the same way as cider; so will the washings of 
grape pomace after the wine has been made 
from it. In fact I know of no mode of dis¬ 
posing of waste products about the orchard 
and vineyard better than by making vinegar 
of them. 
The color of vinegar adds much to its salable 
value. Were I disposed to be selfish I would 
remain silent on this point. It is a secret in 
the vinegar trade that I am about to divulge, 
and I feel at liberty to do so being under 
obligations to no one. The pressed out juice 
of black raspberries cooked either fresh or 
dried, makes a coloring material of remarkable 
strength. A spoonful of it will stain a barrel 
of water. This is the coloring material for 
vinegar. Try a small amount and increase it 
until you get just the tint desired—not too 
dark. Elder-berry juice might answer the 
purpose, but I have not tried it. I am glad 
the Rural is getting up this specfhl, for cider 
and vinegar making is a neglected subject. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
CIDER AND VINEGAR NOTES. 
The following questions were sent to a num 
ber of cider and vinegar manufacturers 
Their answers follow. 
QUESTIONS. 
1. What varieties of apples are best for 
making cider? Should they be fully ripe , or 
does it make any dijf erence if they are un¬ 
ripe ? 
2. Are apples ever sorted before pressing 
so as to grade the juice from sound, ripe 
apples and from inferior fruit ? Would it 
be possible to get as much for good fruit 
made into cider or vinegar as it would 
bring in barrels? 
3. Please tell us how apples are handled 
and pressed, and how the juice is treated; 
how long kept before bottling ; how ferment¬ 
ed and purified, etc., etc.? 
4. What is done with the pomace, and are 
the seeds of any value? 
5. In vinegar making what process is used, 
and how long is the juice worked ? 
6. What is the most attractive ivay of pre¬ 
paring cider or vinegar for market? Is the 
business profitable at jjresent and is the pros¬ 
pect good ? 
ANSWERS. 
FROM "L. R.. BRYANT. 
As a rule, the best keeping cider is made 
from those apples that have the heaviest juice 
i. e. those having the most saccharine matter 
in them: but a good apple for ordinary do¬ 
mestic purposes will make gcod cider. The 
juice of early apples is thin and watery, and 
will not make good cider at any time. Apples 
should be mature but not mellow to work to 
the best advantage. 
To make really good cider, apples should 
always be sorted, though it is not customary 
in most mills. Rot, leaves and dirt are not 
the ingredients that make good cider. Under 
some circumstances, it is possible that it might 
pay to work up choice marketable apples into 
cider, but it would depend entirely on the 
relative prices. It would not pay unless one 
had a reputation for choice goods and could 
command fancy prices. Methods vary with 
different manufacturers, and no two follow 
exactly the same course. The first essential 
is a good grinder and press. The little com¬ 
bined hand mills and presses are worthless for 
making good cider. The pomace is generally 
pressed out immediately after grinding 
and the juice should be put into 
casks or tauks, allowed to settle two 
or three days and then “racked off” i. e. t 
drawn off so as not to disturb whatever sedi¬ 
ment there is in the bottom of the barrel 
Thoroughly clean the barrel before using it 
again. Keep the cider in as cool and uniform 
a temperature as possible; after active fer. 
mentation is over, rack again and bung up the 
barrels tightly as soon as safe. Cider cannot 
be bottled safely until thoroughly fermented, 
and it should be perfectly clear. Much ex¬ 
perience is necessary to produce anything like 
certain results in refining and clarifying. 
Pomace is sometimes burned to advantage in 
mills using steam power, when no other con¬ 
venient way of disposing of it is at hand. 
Seeds can be saved, to a profit, only when 
water is plenty and convenient to wash them 
out. Many of the modern grinders grate the 
apples so fine as to cut and spoil a large pro¬ 
portion of the seeds. Undoubtedly ihe best 
way to utilize pomace, where much stock is 
kept, is to put it in a silo. All farm stock 
will eat it, and it is considered especially good 
for milch cows. 
To make vinegar, exposure to heat and air 
is essential. The old-fashioned way, and the 
only one practical in a small way, is to put 
the cider in barrels three-quarters full, leave 
out the bung and keep in a warm place—the 
warmer the better—up to 80 or 85 degrees. 
Money is to be made in the cider and vine¬ 
gar business as in everything else, but it will 
depend on location and adaptation to that 
particular business. It is a business that re¬ 
quires experience to manage successfully, and 
no amount of information from others will fit 
a man to go ahead and be sure of making a 
success. Lacking experience, work for a 
while in a good mill and thoroughly investi¬ 
gate the different machinery and processes 
used; or else commence in a small way and 
work up. There is no “big bonanza” in the 
business. 
Princeton, Ill. 
FROM F. C. JOHNSON. 
The Red Romanite is the only variety that 
should be worked up separately; all other 
varieties should be mixed. A mixture of 
good, sound winter apples produces good re¬ 
sults. They should be ripe, and if they have 
been piled in a bin for a few days in cool 
weather, all the better. If they have been 
thus treated the cider will be richer, but there 
will not be so much of it. Any one using 
good apples and making fine cider can usually 
build up a trade at satisfactory prices. In 
hog-cholera sections of the country, pomace 
has a tendency to prevent the disease. I don’t 
know any reason for this; but that such is the 
case I judge by observation. Various pro¬ 
cesses are used in making vinegar. The best 
results are obtained by putting cider away in 
good liquor barrels, leaving the bung out and. 
keeping them under cover in the summer, and 
the result will be hastened by keeping them 
in a building with a little fire in it during the 
v v, 
A CHEAP VINEGAR GENERATOR. Fig. 298. 
