I collected myself a great quantity of those berries, at Norfolk, Va. by means of negroes, to whom I paid one dollar per bushel of 40 lbs. being 2½ cts. per pound. Two years ago, it sold for 6 cents in Philadelphia, and bore the same price at Pittsburgh.
There is a great deal of cedar in Kentucky, and consequently of berries. I have seen them at Blue Licks, and they abound near the Kentucky river.
Although an incredible number of those trees is cut down daily, there is still a greater number standing, in the United States; and millions of bushels of berries are lost every year, while only skilful hands are wanted, to make them useful to mankind. The juniper berry has many medical properties: it is a delightful aromatic, and contains an oil essential, and a sweet extract, which by the fermentation yields a vinous liquor, made into a sort of wine in some countries; that is called wine for the poor: it strengthens the stomach, when debilitated by bad food or too hard labor.
The Hollanders, who have long had the art of trading upon every thing, have constantly turned even their poverty to account. They have immense fabrications of gin, and scarcely any juniper trees. They only collect the berry in those countries where it is neglected as useless, as in France and Tyrol, which produce a great deal of it. The United States need have no recourse to Europe, in order to get the juniper berries: they have in abundance at home, what the Hollanders can only procure with trouble and money. They can therefore rival them with great advantage; but they must follow the same methods employed in the Holland distilleries.
The juniper berry contains the sweet mucous extract, in a great proportion: it has therefore the principle necessary to the spirituous fermentation; and, indeed, it ferments spontaneously. When fresh, and heaped up, it acquires a degree of heat, but not enough to burn, as I have ascertained: it is therefore safely transported in hogsheads. From that facility of fermenting, it must be considered as a good ferment, and as increasing the quantity of spirit, when joined to a fermentable liquor.
A distiller may at pleasure convert his whiskey into gin. He needs only to perfume the wort which he puts in fermentation, by adding a certain quantity of the berries, slightly broken: the fermentation is then common to both; their sweet mucosity enriches that of the wort, and increases the spirit, while at the same time the soapy extract, which is the proximate principle of vegetation, yields the essential oil, which perfumes the liquor.[c]
The fermentation being common to both substances, unites them intimately; and when, by the distillation, the spirit is separated from the water, there remains an homogenous liquor, resulting from a single creation, and having that unity of taste, and all the properties of Holland gin, because obtained by the same means.
One single and same distillation can therefore yield to the distiller either gin or whiskey, as it requires no more labor, and its conversion into gin costs only the price of the berries, which repays him amply, either by the spirit it yields, or by its essential oil, which, floating on the surface, may be easily collected. This oil bears a great price, and the Hollanders sell much of it.
We have seen, in the 10th chapter of this work, that my hogsheads for the fermentation, contain about 120 gallons of wort, being the production of the saccharine extract of 12 bushels of grain. The intelligent distiller will himself determine the quantity of berries necessary for each hogshead to have a good aromatic perfume. He may begin with 10 lbs. per hogshead; and will, upon trial, judge whether or not this quantity is sufficient, or must be increased. At any rate, economy should not be consulted in the use of the berries, since their price does not increase that of the whiskey. This low price must naturally become the principle of an immense fabrication of gin; and henceforth it will be an important article of exportation for the United States, as well as a considerable and wholesome object of home consumption.