42 THE MILL. - -; 



custom is as true at this time, as it was in his own days (1675). 

 " This error, or neglect, hath not onely been the occasion of much 

 thin, raw, phlegmatical, soure, and unwholesome Cider, but hath 

 cast a reflection on the good report that Cider well made, most 

 richly deserves," and he adds very sensibly, " better lose part of the 

 Cider, than spoil the whole." 



Pears are not considered to require so much care and good 

 management as Apples do before they are carried to the mill, and 

 the usual custom is when the fruit begins to fall freely, to shake off 

 the remainder of the crop, and grind the whole without delay. 

 The long keeping varieties require to be placed in heaps as Apples 

 are, and are of course much improved by being allowed to become 

 uniformly ripe. 



THE MILL. 



" Lo ! for Thee my Mill 



Now grinds choice Apples, and the British Vats 



O'erflow with generous Cider." 



Phillips " To his friend Harcourt in Italy T 



The mode of extracting the juice from Apples and Pears 

 to make fermented liquors, seems to have been of the rudest 

 kind until a comparatively recent period. The fruit was 

 grated or crushed in any rough and simple way, and since the 

 quantity made was but trifling and labour cheap, it answered 

 sufficiently well. Worlidge writing near the end of the 17th 

 century says " The operators did beat their fruit in a trough of 

 wood or stone, with beaters like unto wooden pestles, with long 

 handles, whereby three or four labourers might beat twenty or thirty 

 bushels in a day." When a large quantity of fruit was grown and 

 Cider and Perry became articles of commerce, it was necessary to 

 find out some process more economical and expeditious. The 

 happy idea occurred to some one — whose name is lost to a grateful 

 country — to make the trough of a circular shape, and roll round a 

 heavy cylinder in it. The original mill was of rude construction, 

 and both the wheels, or cylinder, and trough, were made of wood 



