110 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



The fruit should be gathered by hand, or shaken from 

 the tree in dry weather, when it is at perfect maturity ; and 

 the ground should be covered with coarse cloths or Russia 

 mats beneath, to prevent bruising, and consequent rotten- 

 ness, before the grinding commences. Unripe fruit should 

 be laid in large masses, protected from dews and rain, to 

 sweat and hurry on its maturity, when the suitable time 

 for making approaches. The earlier fruits should be laid 

 in thin layers on stagings, to preserve them to the suitable 

 period for making, protected alike from rain and dews, and 

 where they may be benefited by currents of cool, dry air. 



Each variety should be kept separate, that those ripening 

 at the same period may be ground together. 



In grinding, the most perfect machinery should be used 

 to reduce the whole fruit, skin, and seeds, to a fine pulp. 

 This should, if possible, be performed in cool weather. 

 The late Joseph Cooper, of New Jersey, has observed, em- 

 phatically, that " the longer a cheese lies after being ground, 

 before pressing, the better for the cider, provided it escapes 

 fermentation until the pressing is completed; " and he fur- 

 ther observes, " that a sour apple, after being bruised on 

 one side, becomes rich and sweet after it has changed to a 

 brown color, while it yet retains its acid taste on the op- 

 posite side." When the pomace united to the juice is thus 

 suffered for a time to remain, it undergoes a chemical 

 change ; the saccharine principle is developed ; it will be 

 found rich and sweet; sugar is, in this case, produced 

 by the prolonged union of the bruised pulp and juice, 

 which could never have been formed in that quantity had 

 they been sooner separated. 



Mr. Jonathan Rice, of Marlborough, who made the 

 premium cider so much admired at Concord, Massachu- 

 setts, appears so sensible of the important effects of mature 

 or fully ripe fruit, that, provided this is the case, he is 

 willing even to forego the disadvantage of having a portion 

 of them quite rotten. Let me observe that this rottenness 

 must be the effect, in part, of bruises by improper modes 

 of gathering, or by improper mixtures of ripe and unripe 

 fruit. He always chooses cool weather for the operation 

 of grinding ; and, instead of suffering the pomace to re- 

 main but 24 or 48 hours, at most, before pressing, as others 

 have directed, he suffers it to remain from a week to ten 

 days, provided the weather will admit, stirring the mass 



