صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

fruit/

regard to the replanting of fruit trees from the nursery; for which we must refer to the book, p. 236, et seq.

As Mr. Mills is not fanguine enough to fuppofe that what he has faid against the expediency of fruit walls, will entirely banish the ufe of them; he next treats of the management of trees planted against walls.-In this article he has chiefly followed Mr. Miller; though he, notwithstanding, gives him a lafh, in paffing, at p. 248.-The following article relates to the management of fruit trees in Efpaliers :-after which fucceeds the management of [his favourites] Standard Fruit Trees.

After having thus pointed out the feveral methods of obtaining each fort of fruit from the tree; he confiders, in the last place, the means by which it's poffeffor may beft and longest preserve that reward of his expence and care. A closet surrounded with good walls, and furnished with double doors, (he thinks) promises the best fuccefs. In this clofet, different compartments, or bins, may be made of brick, which continues drier than ftone. Large jars, or cafks, will anfwer the fame end, when clotely stopped; and fo do boxes: for the fet fhould be expofed to the air as little as can be.'

He then adds the following anecdote; of which, it seems, he made a memorandum when the fact was related to him: viz. • Chance convinced an excellent and attentive housewife of the fuccefs of fuch care as is here recommended for the prefervation of fruit. Her refidence was then in Switzerland, where the houfes are generally built of ftones, with thick walls, in which there frequently are cupboards, which fhut with doors exactly fitted to them. In one of thefe, this lady put a plate of fruit; but, by chance, this cupboard was not opened till fome months after, when, to her great furprize, the fruit was plump and found, and had loft very little of its original flavour.'

He concludes with directing the fruit to be packed up close in veffels, or bins, with a layer of dry ftraw betwixt each layer of fruit; and then to be kept perfectly dry, as above-mentioned, till wanted for ufe.

Sect. III. which treats of the Orchard, feems more proper than fome others, for a fyftem of Husbandry; but as it contains little new, being chiefly copied from Evelyn and Miller, we fhall not give any Extracts from it. We muft, however, remark, that we think Mr. Mills may be under a mistake, when he afferts, that almost all the Kentish Cherries are gathered from trees planted in Hedges.'--The writer of this article has travelled through the whole length of Kent, more than once; and has, occafionally continued for fome weeks together, in a part of that County, abounding both in cherries and apples: but he cannot, at prefent, recollect that he ever obferved either of them commonly growing in the Hedge-rows. The moft ufual practice, (betwixt Rochefter

Rochester and Canterbury, in particular) is to plant their fields with the above kinds of fruit trees, in ftrait lines every way, and to plow between the rows for a crop of corn. And the year following they ufually cross-plow the fame field; by which method no more ground is loft from the plough, than a small square plot, where each tree is planted; and, at the fame time, the trees themselves are greatly benefited, by thofe frequent ftirrings of the earth about their roots.

Sect. IV. contains many useful directions relating to the Diftempers of Fruit-trees; for which we refer to the Book.

Sect. V. (Of the Culture of the Vine) is chiefly adapted to the ufe of those who are inclined to try their fkill in the management of a Vineyard.-Tho' Mr. Mills feems doubtful as to the fate of Vineyards in England, yet he appears certain that they may be brought to perfection in our American colonies, where he thinks they may be rendered an object of importance to the induftrious inhabitants; for whofe ufe this Section is profeffedly intended, as well as the next, upon the Culture of Olive Trees. But as neither of these articles feems to fall within the province of a mere English Husbandman, we fhall proceed to the last Section in this volume, which treats of the Culture and Management of Hops.-The Directions here given for the management of this ufeful plant, are very diftinct and minute, but too prolix for our infertion. We fhall therefore content ourselves with giving Mr. Mills's account of the annual charge of an acre of Hopground, in most parts of England where hops are cultivated, which (he fays) is computed thus, viz.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

But then he alfo adds, that in fome places they pay 4 or 51. an acre yearly for the rent of the land; and in the next paragraph he owns, that if the husbandry part be hired, it may coft 31. 10 s. an acre.. -He likewife owns that an acre will require 3000 poles, which may coft after the rate of 20s. for an hundred, i. e. 301. for the first poling of an acre; and that a recruit of 500 Poles yearly will be neceffary to keep an acre of hop-ground in conftant repair. Here is a yearly expence of 51. or, if they coft but 15 s. an hundred (which is his lowest price) of, at leaft, 31. 15 s. per ann. to be added to the intereft of the

A a 3

mone

money funk in the fift poling,-which must have been 221. 10 s. at the lowest price of poles mentioned, viz. 15s. an hundred, So that his original computation of only 41. for the wear of the poles, is certainly too low, according to his own account. We are therefore clearly of opinion, that 20 l. is much nearer the real annual expence of an acre of hop-ground; agreeably to what we have been told by feveral experienced Kentish Planters. Mr. Mills computes the produce of an acre, at an average of years, at the rate of 30 1. a year; which, we apprehend, may be pretty near the truth: for tho' an acre may fometimes be worth from 50 to 801. or even 100 l. (as he alledges) yet, at other times, its produce has been frequently known to be worth nothing at all. We therefore think that he is quite right in cautioning the hufbandman, whofe circumftances are but middling, against embarking too far in this very expenfive, and yet precarious branch of agriculture.

In Part V. which begins Vol. V. Mr. Mills treats of the making and managing Fermented Liquors.-The Introduction to this Part is, Concerning Fermentation. And here our Author the more regrets that we have not yet any rational fet of experiments on this fubje&t, because he owns himself not fufficiently acquainted with the chemical principles on which Fermentation depends, to fupply the deficiency. He therefore proposes only to felect the moft judicious directions or remarks that have been hitherto made on this head, by others; particularly Boerhaave from whom he gives us the following process of Fermentation. The mafs of crude fermentable liquor, at first refting, and poffeffing a certain space in the [containing] veffels, gradually begins to fwell, rarify, and conceive an inteltine motion, through its whole body, acting upwards, downwards, and fideways, in ftrange circumvolutions, without ceafing, though with a different force. In the mean time, bubbles are every moment formed in every part of the mafs, and conftantly endeavour to rife up to the furface, where they burft with a hifing noife, or often break in the mid-way. Hence the whole mals froths, difcharging with an audible ebullition a certain tartifh fpirit, which proves acrimonious to the nose, surprisingly elaftic, and capable of bursting almost any veffel by its great expanfive force.'-[The following remark deferves particular regard. If a large veffel full of fermenting Muft, in the height of its action, fhould discharge this condensed spirit through a fmall orifice, and a ftrong healthy man should draw in at his noftrils the vapour fo iffuing, he would inftantly fall down dead: or if he received but little thereof, he would become apoplectic, and remain an idiot his whole life.'

The following practical obfervation may be of use to such as brew or prepare their own liquors; viz. that when the fermenta

tion is finished, and gone off, then the vessel should be immediately flopped down, and the liquor kept for fome time in its lees, a great part of which will be affumed and affimilated by the liquor, which will thereby become richer and ftronger in fpirit, than it was before. If the veffel is not ftopped down, the fpirit produced in the fermented liquor will foon exhale, and leave behind only a vapid ufelefs fluid; but if the liquor is kept quiet in a close veffel, it will gradually become more pure and fpirituous.'

Chap. I. OF WINE.

Mr. Mills obferves, that the directions given in this Chapter may, with little alteration, be adapted to the juice of other fruits in general, as well as to that of the grape in particular. This circumftance may render what is here faid of greater use to the English husbandman, than it would otherwise be.

"A due degree of maturity (he obferves) is effentially neceffary in every kind of fruit, the juice of which is intended to be made into wine; because the juice of unripe fruit is a rough acid liquor, which cannot be made to undergo a vinous fermentation, without great difficulty.'-This, we fear, will always remain an infuperable obftacle to the making wine, of the grape, here in England; where that fruit is rarely brought to a due degree of maturity, in any fufficient quantities, for that purpose. -In fome meafure, however, to remedy this great inconvenience, he directs, that

"In cold countries, where, for want of the fun's having force enough to mellow and enrich the juice of the grape, the Muft is thin and poor; [there] fugar, or dried grapes, thould be added to the Muft, to give it a body.'

At p. 43----45, and at p. 54, 55, Mr. Mills attacks fome particulars, advanced in Mr. Miller's account of making WINE, as given in his Gardener's Dictionary, in a very ungenteel, not to say illiberal, manner; confidering the great obligations he himself owes, in all his preceding volumes, to that (in general) very judicious and inftructive work. So that even fuppofing what he here objects to Mr. Miller, to have fome juft foundation, yet we must be of opinion, that he certainly ought (all things confidered) to have expreffed his cenfure in terms not fo harsh, as those he has really made use of.—Let any impartial reader confult the pages referred to above, and judge whether our opinion, in this particular, be well founded, or not.

The colour of Wine, Mr. Mills fays, is frequently artificial. He adds, Wine may be naturally of a pale dilute red; but a deep red is almoft always the effect of artificial additions, as of the red-woods, elder-berries, bilberries, &c. In France, no secret is made of these practices, the colouring matters being pu blicly thrown out after they have been ufed.-Turbid wines are

A a 4

fined

on/

fined by a mixture of whites and fhells of eggs, powdered alabafter, and ifinglafs. The ufe of the fhells and alabafter is to correct any small degree of acidity that the wine may have contracted.'

The following obfervations will probably be of fervice to fuch perfons as may attempt making wine here. After the wine, and particularly that of countries where the fun is not very powerful, has paffed its fermentation in the vat, and is drawn off into cafks, it will require fomething to feed upon. To this end, it will be right always to preferve a few bunches of the best grapes, which may be hung up in a room till there be occafion for them; when they fhould be picked off the ftalks, and two or three good handfuls of them fhould be put into each cask, according to its fize. When the wine is of an age at which it ufually is bottled, [but what that age is, we are not informed] care fhould be taken to examine whether it be fufficiently bright; because a natural brightness is the most certain indication of the liquor's having undergone a due fermentation, and confequently of its being rendered moft wholefome."

To this agrees Dr. Neumann's definition of the characters of good wine, which clofes the chapter. The goodness and wholesomeness of wines (fays that excellent chemift) are judged of, from their being bright, clear, and sparkling in the glass; of an agreeable reviving fmell and tafte; leaving, when held in the mouth for fome time, a flight fenfe of aftringency; being moderately strong and fpirituous; paffing freely by urine; exciting appetite; producing a gentle fweat in the night; keeping the belly open the next day; [he does not, furely, expect this from red Port] without being followed by any head-ach, heavi→ nefs of the limbs, or other uncafinefs. Such a wine, moderately ufed, is a very valuable cordial.'

Mr. Mills begins Chap. II. (which treats of Cyder and Perry,) with obferving, that the principles on which Cyder is made, and fhould be managed, are, in general, fo fimilar to the directions for Wine; that he thinks it needlefs to enlarge on this head.The following points, however, he recommends to be particularly obferved:

It is of great importance in making Cyder, that the fruit be thoroughly ripe. The juices of unripe apples retain their harfh four tafte in fpite of all endeavours, and never acquire that racy, mellow flavour which the fun only can beftow. It should there fore be the first care of every one concerned in making of Cyder, to let his apples hang upon the tree till they arrive to their ma furity."

When your apples are fit for gathering, (which fhould al→ ways be done by hand) it is effential to choose dry weather for

that

« السابقةمتابعة »