be cut in such
way as to make a _cheval-de-frise_, sharp stubs being entangled with
branches, so that a quick charge through them would be out of the
question. Two or three days' work, at most, will build the still-house
and equip it ready for business, without so much as a shingle being
brought from outside.

After the blockaders have established their still, the next thing is to
make arrangements with some miller who will jeopardize himself by
grinding the sprouted corn; for be it known that corn which has been
forced to sprout is a prime essential in the making of moonshine
whiskey, and that the unlicensed grinding of such corn is an offense
against the law of the United States no less than its distillation. Now,
to any one living in a well-settled country, where there is, perhaps,
only one mill to every hundred farms, and it is visited daily by men
from all over the township, the finding of an accessory in the person of
a miller would seem a most hopeless project. But when you travel in our
southern mountains, one of the first things that will strike you is that
about every fourth or fifth farmer has a tiny tub-mill of his own. Tiny
is indeed the word, for there are few of these mills that can grind
more than a bushel or two of corn in a day; some have a capacity of only
half a bushel in ten hours of steady grinding. Red grains of corn being
harder than white ones, it is a humorous saying in the mountains that "a
red grain in the gryste [grist] will stop the mill." The appurtenances
of such a mill, even to the very buhr-stones themselves, are fashioned
on the spot. How primitive such a meal-grinder may be is shown by the
fact that a neighbor of mine recently offered a new mill, complete, for
sale at six dollars. A few nails, and a country-made iron rynd and
spindle, were the only things in it that he had not made himself, from
the raw materials.

In making spirits from corn, the first step is to convert the starch of
the grain into sugar. Regular distillers do this in a few hours by using
malt, but at the little blockade still a slower process is used, for
malt is hard to get. The unground corn is placed in a vessel that has a
small hole in the bottom, warm water is poured over the corn and a hot
cloth is placed over the top. As water percolates out through the hole,
the vessel is replenished with more of the warm fluid. This is continued
for two or three days and nights until the corn has put forth sprouts a
cou