The wholesale adulteration of commercial vinegar makes it important that everyone who grows apples should manufacture a good quality of cider-vinegar for home use, and for the local market. We doubt if there is much money to be made by the general apple grower in manufacturing vinegar upon a large scale, but a small quantity is often salable and profitable. We have frequent inquiries concerning the best methods of making vinegar, in reply to which we publish the following instructions from L. R. Bryant, of Princeton, Illinois. Secretary of the Cider and Cider-Vinegar Makers* Association of the northwest, and which appeared in a late number of the Prairie Fanner.

The essentials for making cider-vinegar on a small scale are a grinder to grate up the apples into a fine pulp, a good press to extract the juice, barrels to put the juice in, a frost-proof room or cellar to store the product in, and, of course, a good supply of decent apples. I would not advise, under any circumstances, the use of the little hand-mills that are scattered all over the country. They grind the apples so coarse and the presses have so little power that not much over one-half the juice is obtained. The cider is not clear, but full of pomace; and altogether it is a slow, hard way to make cider with them. If the work will warrant it, buy a grater which can be run by power, and a medium sized press which can be worked by hand. This machinery can be obtained of concerns which make the building of cider machinery a specialty. If the business does not warrant getting such an outfit, have the cider made at a good custom mill. Any plan of extracting the juice from the pomace by leaching, without pressing, will probably result in failure.

Ordinary good wind-falls will make good material for vinegar, but care should be taken to reject all* immature, wilted, and rotten apples. The better the apples the better the product. When the cider is made, it should be put into good iron-boun ranked up out of door shade, and allowed to barrels should be place or poles elevated fron sufficiently to allow the be run off into other b a great convenience to to put the cider in as the press. This will egar stock of more e and give it a chance to draw off the tank • for a fresh supply of faucet placed an inch bottom of the tank. The barrels in this case should not be 611ed more than three-fourths full and may be put at once into the cellar or other place of storage ; but it is preferable, if early in the season, to rank up out of doors, as before directed, until cold weather.

On the approach of freezing weather, rack off the vinegar-stock into clean barrels (only three-fourths filled) by means of a faucet placed in the end of the barrel, or preferably with a syphon made of five-eighths rubber tubing. This should be raised an inch above the bottom of the barrel to avoid drawing off the sediment. All settlings should be put into a separate barrel. The barrels can now be ranked up in their winter quarters, the bungs taken out and remain undisturbed until the contents become good vinegar, provided they are kept in a furnace-heated cellar or other artificially healed room.

An ordinary cellar is too cool to make vinegar quickly, and if such a place is used for winter storage, the barrels can be removed to a common shed on the approach of warm weather, remembering always to rack off the contents before a barrel is moved. Never put barrels in the sun in hot weather, as they will be spoiled and the contents lost. When the vinegar is thoroughly made, a cool, dry cellar is an excellent place to store it, and the barrels may be filled and bunged up.

In many cider-mills the pomace is pressed once, then re-ground, or picked to pieces, and pressed again, and the product used for vinegar. If water is added to this repressing it should only be sprinkled. The pomace can then be used, while fresh, for feeding stock of all kinds; but care should be taken at the commencement, and it should always be given in rations, the same as grain.

I have said nothing about the theory of vinegar-making, nor have I described vinegar-generators and expensive apparatus, as it has been the purpose of this article to tell how to make good vinegar on a small scale. No one, of course, will expect to go into the vinegar business extensively without posting up thoroughly.

Until recently but little attention has been paid to the purity and quality of the vinegar used by the mass of consumers. So that it had a sharp "tang" it was all right; but now this is slowly changing in many localities, and the strength and quality of vinegar are prescribed by law in some States.

In conclusion, I will call special attention to these points: To make good cider or vinegar, use good, clean apples; exposure to heat and air is what makes vinegar; to have bright clear vinegar free from must, rack it before moving it, if it has been standing any length of time; and thoroughly clean the barrels as soon as emptied. Good vinegar cannot be made out of a large quantity of water and a little cider. Strong, late-made cider may bear the addition of a little water ; but that made early in the season will not. Hard cider is not vinegar, and no attempt should be made to dispose of any vinegar, until it is clear and thoroughly made. Cheap instruments for testing the comparative strength of vinegar can be had, and should be used by every one who expects to market vinegar.

If all this seems to be too much trouble and expense, the manufacture of vinegar had better not be attempted, but the apples sold to some one in the business regularly. Poorly made cider-vinegar not only injures the reputation of the maker, but hurts the sale of all cider-vinegar ; it cannot prove really profitable to anyone connected with it.