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Originally Posted by Scribe  Jugs of whiskey were also easier to conceal than a corn crib when the Confederate tax-in-kind agents came around on their crop confiscating missions. | Jugs of whiskey are also easier to transport than the equivalent bushels of corn.
I heard an old story here in NJ years ago. It seems farmers in the old days often made apple cider to transport to market rather than sending apples because it was worth more per pound transported, so a wagonload of cider brought back more than a wagonload of apples.
Then, of course, a wagonload of hard cider brought back more than a wagonload of fresh cider. Even better, you could get more money still for what was called "Jersey Lightning". You make that by letting the cider harden in the barrel (ferment) and then letting it freeze in the Winter. After the ice formed, you broke through to the liquid in the center and drained it off. With the water frozen out, this apparently allowed you to get above the 44 proof limit of fermentation without distillation. 
Tim
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"Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788. | 
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