8 THE PRODUCTION OF CIDER AND PERRY. 



great remedy for agricultural prosperity that has been recently 

 claimed for it, for the Cider and Perry fruits must also be grown 

 with increased care, and in improved varieties. 



The English Orchards afford a still better resource in their 

 vintage fruits. The products in which they are unrivalled, and for 

 which, therefore, they need not fear competition, are Cider and 

 Perry of superior quality. Here is the speciality that requires the 

 immediate attention of our fruit growers ; and it is one that will 

 repay all the care they can bestow upon it. For many years past, 

 the Cider and Perry of first quality has been made by the small 

 holders of land. They have been obliged to look chiefly to their 

 Orchards for their rent and their livelihood ; and by unremitting 

 attention to their trees, have received a liberal and just reward. 

 The holders of the larger farms and larger Orchards, must follow 

 their example. It does not answer to produce a drink of inferior 

 quality, when it is possible to produce a better ; and it may 

 assuredly be said now, as truly as it ever could have been said, that 

 so long as the quality is superior, however large the quantity may 

 be, a ready market will be found for it, at highly remunerative 

 prices. 



The writers of the 17th and i8th centuries, produced many 

 excellent practical works on Orchard culture, and on the manufac- 

 ture of Cider and Perry. They were, for the most part, the result 

 of personal experience, and vary greatly in their views : indeed 

 they also show signs of local origin. The Orchardist, whose 

 land is variable, and but little of it good, thinks " soil " is the one 

 thing essential ; he whose land has been undrained, and whose 

 trees grow unkindly, with rugged moss-covered branches, lays great 

 stress on " drainage " ; he whose Orchards are on low ground, and 

 exposed to night fogs, and whose hopes have been cut down again 

 and again by late spring frosts, destroying the fertility of the bloom, 

 dwells fondly on the all importance of a " sunny, airy, upland 

 situation." He whose land is everywhere good, arid well adapted 

 for Orcharding, throws all the energy of his recommendations into 

 the absolute need of selecting "the best varieties of fruit" for 

 cultivation ; whilst, lastly, he who happily possesses all these advan- 



