The Canadian Horticulturist. 389 



the applications need not be very heavy, but they should be applied every year. 

 Two or three hundred pounds of high-grade muriate of potash, and an equal 

 weight of some high-grade phosphate (as Florida or South Carolina rock or 

 fossil bone) may be considered to be good dressings. Stable manures are 

 excellent, but they are so seldom to be had in sufficient quantity that they 

 are practically beyond reach.- -Cornell Bulletin. 



IMPROVED PROCESS IN CIDER MAKING.* 



IDER apples should be placed in piles 12 or 18 inches deep 

 under cover in well-aired sheds, to avoid heating and to 

 protect them from frost and rain, all of which rob apples 

 of flavor and sugar. Even a few decayed apples will cause 

 the cider to be flat and of bad flavor. The French are 

 careful not to mix properly matured fruit with either green 

 or overripe fruit. To make fancy cider the fruit must 

 contain sugar, albuminoids, tannin, mineral matter and a 

 certain degree of acidity. Sugar is necessary to cause fermentation, and its 

 transformation into alcohol gives to the cider its strength and body, and its 

 preservative property. One may overcome its absence by adding, say 2>% 

 pounds of sugar to the barrel of crude juice. Tannin is pre eminently the 

 clarifying and antiseptic property of cider, and serves to modify the alcohol in 

 cider, and without it the cider would soon become thick and ropy. In apples 

 of good quality there should be from three to four grains of tannin per thou- 

 sand, but certain sweet apples do not contain more than two grains. Albumin- 

 ous bodies eive body and softness to the cider, and help to preserve it by 

 preventing fermentation of cider into acetic acid or vinegar. A moderate 

 quantity of malic or tartaric acid is indispensable to proper fermentation, during 

 which these acids act upon the alcohol as it is produced and form an ether, 

 which gives to the cider a characteristic taste and smell known as "bouquet." 

 Very sour apples contain too much acid and are mixed with sweet fruits to 

 improve the taste of the cider and render it more digestable ; hence, the mixing 

 of several varieties of apples. 



We judge French cider mills are not usually as good as our American 

 machines, which make a complete mash of the fruit by grinding it up to fine 

 pulp. After mashing the apples, the usual practice in France is to place the 

 pulp in uncovered vats or tubs and leave 12 or 14 hours before pressing, stirring 

 meanwhile from time to time with a wooden shovel, in order to bring the mass 



•Compiled from a report of the recent French Pomological Congress, made to the 

 Department of State by Consul Chancellor. Cider is superseding wine iu France, and 

 the utmost care is used in making it. Last year G7S,tXH3,UOO gallons of cider were made 

 in France, an increase of one-third over 1895 and nearly double the average of the past 

 ten years. 



