- - 



cll.Klt. 



( ii'Ki:. 



tofi*ss,and lot it remain in (ward until the (raw be removed aii.l tlirir 

 rooU decayed, when it will again require * ooune of arable maniwimint" 

 i.voL ii.. pi 302). 



In February or March, or, where the (oil is light, in October or 

 *r, holes should be dug about six feet in diameter, each being 

 adapted in depth to the root of the tree tliat it in to receive. The 

 best earth, with tin- turf., if tin- Hint is gran land, should lie thi.iwn 

 into the bottom of the hole, and the root* ..f tlio tree separated with 

 the hand in horUontoJ layers, with the rirhest mcmlil between Uiem ; 

 all the euth may then be thrown in and firmly trodden d..wn. If the 

 stocks are strong, the bait and cheapest method of protection from the 

 injuries of oattle U a frame of willow stave*, about aix feet long, cleft 

 as those used for the bars of hurdle* ; these should be hammered about 

 aix inches into the ground . n >\ i n< 1 the tree, and as near it as can be done 

 .Mill. .ut injuring the rooU, iwrhaps three inches from it ; the staves 

 -Ii.. \ilil then be nailed together with two liandn uf narrow iron hooping, 

 one a foot and a half from the bottom, another at a like distance from 

 the top, at the same time binding them round the tree as tightly -us 

 can be done without injury to the bark. Where the stocks are not 

 strong, the beat fence is " one large poet, slit with a saw and placed flat- 

 way, with the faces to the plant, and about two feet apart, with rails 

 on each side, nailed upon the edges of the posts." (Marshall.) In the 

 Hereford dUtrict these fences are much used; they are cheap and 

 effectual, and from their narrowness offer little impediment to plough- 

 tag and other purposes of agriculture, which are here carried on as 

 much in the orchards as in any other lands. 



Very little attention is paid to enriching the soil round the trees 

 v.ln'M once they have been planted. In Devonshire it is common to 

 .nee the weeds which are cropped in the orchards heaped near the stem, 

 there to decay and nourish the. roots ; and in Herefordshire the more 

 careful planters cause the earth to be dug once a year round trees that 

 have been recently planted ; neither U there so much care taken with 

 the trees themselves when they have once grown strong, as the benefits 

 which have been derived from a better system of management would 

 warrant. In by far the largest proportion of orchards, with tin- 

 exception of gathering the fruit, nothing is done to the trees from the 

 beginning of the year to the end. To remove superfluous wood by 

 judicious pruning (an art of which many that practise it are most 

 mischievously ignorant), to remove part of an excessive crop of fruit, 

 to cleanse from moss and mistletoe, which latter in fronts forms 

 excellent food for sheep, are practices too frequently neglected. 



The fruit of the different varieties of apple ripen at different times 

 of the year, earlier or later, according to the season. Among the 

 earliest are the Codling and American Must, which begin to fall from 

 the trees at the end of September ; and while the majority attain their 

 maturity about the end of November or the middle of the follow ing 

 month, there are some from which the apples will not f.-ill until six or 

 eight weeks later. The customary method of picking the fruit i by 

 wtriking the trees with poles, provincially called " poultiug," and then 

 gathering the fallen apples : but though this practice is almost uni- 

 versal, it is frequently mischievous, from the young bearing wood 

 being broken by the violence that is used. It is better economy to 

 pay a small extra price for collecting the fruit which falls at several 

 times, than to injure the trees by knocking down all the fruit, the 

 unripe as the ripe, to save a few shillings. The apples will fall by 

 degrees, and at intervals a boy may be sent into the trees to shake the 

 branches ; in all practicable oases the use of the pole should be avoided. 

 When the apples have been gathered, each sort by itaelf is collected 

 into heaps, about ten inches deep, where they remain for a month, or 

 more, until they become mellow ; they are then ready for the mill. 



Cider is manufactured with very rude machinery, by the foil, .\\int,- 

 process : The apples an thrown into a circular stone trough, usually 

 about 18 feet in diameter, called the cliate, round which the runner, a 

 heavy circular stone, is turned by one or sometimes two horses. When 

 the fruit has bean ground until the rind and the core are so completely 

 reduced that a handful of " must," when squeezed, will all pass without 

 lumps between the fingers, and the maker sees from the white spots 

 that are in it that the pips have been broken, a square horse-hair 

 cloth is spread under a screw-press ; and some of the must is poured 

 with pails upon the hair, the edges and corners of which are folded 

 inwards so as to prevent its escape. Ten or twelve of these hairs are 

 piled and filled one upon the other, and then surmounted with a frame 

 of thick boards.* Upon this the screw is slowly worked down by a 

 lever ; and with the pressure, a thick brown juice exudes from the 

 hairs, leaving within them only a dry residue, which, in years when 

 apples are scarce, is sometimes mixed with water, ground again, and 

 the liquid pressed out as before. ThU latter product is called " water 

 cider," a thin unpalatable liquor, which is given to the labourers early 

 in the year. 



The cider a received by a channel In the frame of the press upon 

 which the hairs stand, emptying into a flat tub called a " triii. 

 the trin it U poured with buckets or " racking cans" into casks, placed 

 either out of doors or in sheds where thore u a free current of air. In 



This I* ih proem in the Hereford district, la DeTouhlre s lerer prow U 

 tued, nd " reed," unthruhed trw, U placed In term In the place of bmirn. 

 The method wd In the xth of Frsnce for expmeln* oil from olirct I. 

 Identically the raire. 



about three or four d , -r lavs according to the heat of the 



weather, the liquor mm.. r parU will 



subside as a sediment at the ) ..-'. an.l the lighter become 



bright clear fider. Thin bbould then be " racked " or drawn off into 

 another cask, and the sediment be put to strain through linen bags, 

 mi- 1 what oozes from them should be restored. 



during the fermentation that the management of cider is least 

 understood, and there is the greatest hazard of injury. It is necessary 

 also to know what fruit will by itself made good cider, which kinds 

 -h."ild be ground together, and what proportions should be mixed. 

 But it U in preservation .! the strength ami flavour after tin- uider i* 

 ground that the prim-ipal ditliculty consist* : iJii/lit fermentation will 

 leave the liquor thick and un|>alatable ; rapid fermentation will inip.ui 

 bi.th its utreugth and durability; tjnttirt fermentation will make it 

 sour, harsh, and thin. Other thing* being equal, that cider will pro- 

 bably prove the best in whieh the vinous fermentation has proceeded 

 slowly, and has not been confounded with the acetous. The remedies 

 used in cases of cider not clearing are either yeast or the addition . i 

 cider in a state of fermentation, isinglass, eggs, or a quart of fresh 

 blood stirred up with the liqui.r, in which last case it is to be racked 

 on the following day ; these do not always prove effectual. But the 

 common evils are excess or rapidity of fermentation; and if a better 

 quality than farm-house or lamily drink " is sought, cider require* so 

 much care to prevent its being spoiled, that the best and most careful 

 makers frequently have it looked at during each night for some weeks 

 after it is made ; and if the bubbling, hissing noise, the sign of fer- 

 mentation, becomes frequent or too loud, the liquor is imnudiately 

 racked off into another cask : this check often requires to be repeated 

 several times ; but although at each racking some portion of the strength 

 will be lost, the body, flavour, and sweetness will chiefly be retained. 

 It is not the habit of the farmer to add sugar, treacle, brandy, or any 

 colouring matter to the liquor; it is only adulterated in the hand* of 

 cider dealers and publicans, who will not lose a hogshead, and if one 

 has turned sour, or has been otherwise damaged, it must be " doct..r,-.l.' 

 in order to render it marketable. 



At the beginning of January the cider is moved into cellars, where 

 by large growers it is frequently stored in casks of great capacity, con- 

 taining 1000, 1600, or even 2000 gallons; these are cheaper in pro- 

 portion than smaller vessels, and are thought to preserve the eider 

 better. In March the liquor is bunged down ; it is then fit for sale, 

 and may be used soon afterwards, though it will greatly impr. 

 keeping. If bottled cider is required, it should be bottled and 

 in tlie September or October after it is made; some ]>eraons prefer an 

 earlier time, the end of April or the beginning of May ; a greater degree 

 of effervescence is thus attained, but a considerable loss accrues from 

 the number of bottles that will 1.. 



In 1830 the tax upon eider of !<). a barrel was token ..<!'< M-full... Ii. 

 ' Die. Com.'), and in the same year an Act was passed allowing any 

 person to sell cider upon the payment of '21. 2. annually for n 1 

 from the Excise, This Act was amended in 1834, and a lieei 

 the sale of cider is now granted by the Excise to an application 

 by six ratepayers of the applicant's parish, the payment being SI. :in. if 

 the liquor is to be drunk on the premises, \l. \i. if it is not. 

 alterations have necessarily added greatly to the consumption : but the 

 increase of orchards, and productive seasons, have fully supplied the 

 demand. At present, the price in the hands of the grower may be 

 thus estimated: Of the best cider, from It. to It. 6d. per gallon; 

 good, from 8d. to 1. per gallon ; family cider, used by farmers and in 

 public-houses, from 4d. to lOrf. per gallon ; ' drink ' for labourers, from 

 JJt/. to 6</. per gallon. These prices amply remunerate the t 

 who, in many instances, might increase his profits by a diminnt 

 the cost of production. It cannot certainly be supposed that mall 

 growers can go to the expense of procuring much machinery ; never- 

 theless, the extreme clumsiness of the present wasteful system would 

 fully warrant larger owners in erecting suitable buildings and apparatus. 

 It is true that some improvements have been mode, that larger mill < 

 are used, that in the press an easily worked iron screw has been sub- 

 stituted for an awkward wooden one; but far more remains !-.> ! 

 effected. If the mill was placed upon a first floor, whieh e. .ul.l 

 be done in a building erected against a bank, or having an inelme.l 

 plane, so that horses might enter at that height, all lifting of t.l. 

 from the trin might be saved, as a pipe might be carried from the 

 press into casks in the cellar underneath. Again, if the casks in the 

 cellars were placed upon stages, manual labour in racking might be 

 dispensed with, and waste from spilling saved, since a p:; in>m a 

 hogshead upon a high stage would empty the liquor into a cask .>n . 

 lower. No use, again, is made of the syphon, a cheap instrument 

 within the reach of any farmer's puree, which would no doubt ! 

 serviceable and economical. 



The quantity consumed by workmen is very large : two or three 

 quarto a day is the usual allowance given in Herefordshire by masters) 

 and in harvest-time many labourers drink in a day ten ..r twelve quart* 

 of a liquor that in a stranger's mouth would be mistaken for vinegar ; 

 they do not like sweet cider. Notwithstanding so great a .|ii.intity i 

 consumed, there do not apjiear to bo any diseases peculiar to or v< iy 

 general in cider countriiw ; idiotey and rheumatism have been stated to 

 be very prevalent in mieh di.-tiiet; but even if this IK- true, 

 drinking ha ill no way been proved to be the cause. 



