44 GRINDING. 



the celebrity of Herefordshire Cider to the perfection of the Stone 

 Mill ; and this feeling in its favour exists more or less throughout 

 the county at the present time. 



The French have paid great attention to their fruit machines. 

 They have one, the " Ecraseur," (Salmon and Bergot), which grinds 

 seventy-five bushels per hour with ease ; and this has now been 

 surpassed by the " Ecraseur Universal," which with only one pair 

 of granite cyhnders will grind two hundred bushels of fruit per 

 hour, besides being ready at other times to do the whole work of 

 pulping the roots of all kinds, which may be required on the farm. 



Various mills have been invented of late years. Mr. Davis, of 

 Linton, near Ross, has introduced an admirable machine, in which 

 the crushing power, by a clever application of the French principle, 

 is very considerably increased by causing the two stone cylinders to 

 rotate at different degrees of speed. Indeed there is some fear of 

 the machinery becoming too rapid and too perfect to obtain good 

 Cider. 



A traction steam engine in these days draws the mill and an 

 attendant press into the Orchard ; grinds up the fruit heaps at a 

 rapid rate ; and presses the pulp forthwith. The math, or cake, is 

 rejected on the spot, and the casks at once filled with the must. 

 The whole process is completed, with an economy of time and 

 labour that can scarcely be exceeded. The economy is false, when 

 the result is taken into consideration, for the best Cider is not to be 

 made in this way. If the mill were taken from time to time to the 

 Orchard as the different varieties of fruit ripened, the economy 

 would be lost. And thus it comes to pass that all the Apples are 

 ground up at once — early and late varieties — ripe and unripe — they 

 are all submitted together to the mill and the press, No time is 

 allowed for the pulp, or " pommage," as the old writers call it, to 

 commence fermentation exposed to the air, or for the juice set free 

 to extract the full flavour of the fruit from the rind, the pips, and 

 the more solid parts, and thus the liquor loses flavour, and the so- 

 called economy defeats itself 



Grinding. — The degree of fineness to which the fruit should 

 be reduced into pulp has been much discussed. The old writers 



