The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-28
GIN.
Beginning to be Made in This Coun-

Beginning to be Made in This Coun-
 The United States has in abundance every essential requisite for the manu- facture of gin, and the only one deti- ciency in the line of making such man ufacture profitable and popular-a dearth of gin drinkers. Americans, un- like Englishmen and Hollanders (two nationalities from which largely, and, in New York city, originally, the Amer ican population descended), do not like gin. They have no taste for it. They do not favor it as a stimulant They are skeptcal as to it's medicinal ad- vantages They prefer usually, some other alcoholic beverage-if they are drinkers.
 Until a few years ago, indeed, the manufacture of gin had been confined to Holland and England, but of late years it's manufacture has been more extensively introduced here. While some American distillers claim to pro- duce a purer, finer and better grade of gin than any imported, they have as yet failed to produce, even by means of the Holland process" so-called, an ar ticle equal to it.
 But that they have made some head way is clear from the custom house fig ures. which show how of late years there has been, in the ihuortations of Holland gin. decided decrease. The importations, indeed, continue to grow less year by year. The reason assign
 o,,5 for, tie gin, the dierence in price occasioned by the duty and the growing inclina- tion to substitute cheaper for a dear CT article.
 The controversy which has been go- ing on almost for centuries on the rum question" is a question of the use or abstention from the use of the bever- age rum" The ''gin question" is of quite another sort Is gin drink or medicine? Has it true medicinal prop critics, or is this urged only as an ex- cuse for drinkers?
 The upholders of gin aver that the medicinal properties of gin can hardly he overestimated. The oil of juniper is one of the most powerful of all diu- retics. and for this reason gin Is fre- ouently prescribed by physicians in cases where other alcoholic stimulants would be most injurious. The juniper tree is twenty feet high. It grows in Italy and Switzerland, and in the latter country gin had it's origin. It was first named in Geneva, and from Geneva it derived the abbreviation "gin" In Hol- land. however, and in England the man ufacture of gin has been carried further and with the product of these two coun- tries American gin is now successfully competing.
 The process of gin manufacture is simple. A mash is prepared or matted harley and rye meal, in the proportion of one-third barley and two-thirds meal
 with four parts of water at atemper- a+nre of 16O degrees. After infusion oold water IS added and when the heat is reduced to 80 degrees, or one-hait, the whole is run into the fermenting ,-e+ +o which one-h half gallon of yeast is added.
 Fermentation speedily ensues, and in two days is complete, although neahly one-third of the saccharine matter in the liuuor is undecomposed. The spe- cial feature of gin fermentation is the small proportion of yeast employed The mash is distilled and afterward re- distilled with the addition of juniper berries and salt; sometimes hops are added.
 The final product is run off into large underground cisterns lined with porce- lain tiles where it can be kept indef- niteIy. It is drawn off, as required, into casks which have been previously treat ed to retain the colorless water appear ance of gin and it's peculiar smoky flavor. One reason proba ply, why gin has not been popular in this country IS