Discoveries and Improvements ought not to be concealed; the public
good calls loudly for them; but then, in return for the great
advantage the public receives from them, the author of any such
discovery may with the greatest justice claim an adequate reward.




PREFACE


The following Receipts and Directions are not collected from books,
nor interspersed with old women's nostrums; but they are, in very
truth, the result of my own LONG EXPERIENCE in trade, founded on
chemical principles, which are principles of never-erring nature.

Perhaps I had never thought of this Method of communicating my little
knowledge, had it not been for many gentlemen in the counties of
_Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester_, &c. for whom I have done a great
deal of business, in the cyder-way particularly; and who have often
express'd their desire of seeing my directions for the management of
cyders, &c. made public.

And no doubt such a thing was wanting; for it's hardly credible how
much liquors of almost every kind is spoiled by mismanagement. Few
people know the nature of fermentation, without which no vinous spirit
can be produced; nor any liquor be rendered fine and potible.

Fermentation separates the particles of bodies, and from liquids
throws off the gross parts from the finer, which, without it, could