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.