GINGER ALE is made by fermenting sweetened water, to which extract of ginger has been added, to such a degree as to generate carbonic acid gas and become effervescent. It is a healthful and agreeable beverage, containing some alcohol and being slightly stimulant. GOOD CIDER contains 3 to 5 per cent. of alcohol. It is made from the fermented juice of apples. Many grown people acquired their fondness for cider on the “Old Farm” in childhood. It is sold by grocers in bulk, and is also bottled extensively and sold as “Champagne cider,” and quite often as champagne. DISTILLED LIQUORS. The disagreeable taste of freshly distilled ardent spirits is due to the presence of fusil oil and other empyreumatic substances, which time alone can transform into harmless ethers which smell and taste agreeably, and produce an exhilaration over and above that of the alcohol which holds them in solution. Spirits can be distilled from any vegetable matter which will yield alcohol, yet many substances yield only a rasping, nauseous or flavorless liquor, which age does not improve. To some of these products, artificial flavors and color are given and the imitation articles are thus placed on the market. But true whiskey, brandy, etc., have a specific and original flavor of their own, and contain vegetable oils and acids. Alcohol in Liquors. The following table shows the proportion of alcohol (by volume) in the various liquors. Volume of Alcohol, per cent. Cognac Brandy 55 to 70 Arrack, made from 60 to 61 Rice Whiskey, American 60 “ Scotch 50 to 51 ” Irish 50 Rum 49-7 Gin 47-8 BRANDY.—This is made from wine; that from white grapes is preferred and it requires about seven bottles of wine to make one of brandy. Even the best Cognac is burning and rough until kept for two or three years, and it improves with increased age, until, when thirty or forty years old, it develops a flavor somewhat similar to that of vanilla. WHISKEY is a spirit distilled either from fermented malt, rye, barley, oats, wheat or corn. The very best and sweetest grain is only used for making good whiskey. American whiskey is more easily obtained pure than perhaps any spirituous liquor and is therefore more reliable in this country. The name whiskey is a corruption of the Erse and Irish word _Usquebaugh_, “Water of Life,” the French _Eau de Vie_. RUM is made from distilled molasses and skimmings from the boiling sugar. GIN is distilled from unmalted grain, the product being rectified and flavored with juniper berries.