ld _Uncle
George's birth-day_.

_Cider._

Mr. Platt had a curious mode of making strong cider in America. In the
month of January or February, he placed a number of hogsheads of cider
upon stands out of doors. The frost turned to ice the upper part of the
contents of the hogshead, and a tap drew off from the bottom the part
which was not frozen. This was the spirituous part, and was as strong as
the very strongest of beer that can be made. The frost had no power over
this part; but the lighter part which was at the top it froze into ice.
This, when thawed, was weak cider. This method of getting strong cider
would not do in a country like this, where the frosts are never
sufficiently severe.

_Keeping Apples._

When there is frost, all that you have to do, is to keep the apples in a
state of total darkness until some days after a complete thaw has come. In
America they are frequently frozen as hard as stones; if they thaw in the
_light_, they rot; but if they thaw in darkness, they not only do not
rot, but lose very little of their original flavour. This may be new to
the English reader; but he may depend upon it that the statement is
correct.

_To Keep Chestnuts._

To preserve chestnuts, so as to have them to sow in the spring, or to eat
through the winter, you must make them perfectly dry after they come out
of their green husk; then put them into a box or a barrel mixed with, and
covered over by, fine and dry sand, three gallons of sand to one gallon of
chestnuts. If there be maggots in any of the chestnuts, they will come out
of the chestnuts and work up through the sand to get to the air; and thus
you have your chestnuts sweet and sound and fresh.

_Plums._

The _Magnum Bonums_ are fit for nothing but tarts and sweetmeats.
_Magnum_ is right enough; but as to _bonum_, the word has seldom
been so completely misapplied.

_British Wines._

That which we call currant wine, is neither more nor less than
red-looking, weak rum, the strength coming from the sugar; and gooseberry
wine is a thing of the same character, and, if the fruit were of no other
use than this, one might wish them to be extirpated. People deceive
themselves. The thing is called _wine_, but it is _rum_; that is
to say, an extract from sugar.

_Birds._

The wild pigeons in America live, for about a month, entirely upon the
buds of the sugar-maple, and are killed by hundreds of thousands, by
persons who erect bough-houses, and remain in a