FRUITS. 167 



purposes. Good apples are rarely worth less than twenty-five 

 cents a bushel in market ; often three or four times that 

 amount. The ranging of swine among any kind of fruit trees 

 greatly conduces to their health and growth. Besides the 

 support of the swine, their consumption of windfalls secures 

 the destruction of the insects in them. Sheep, turkies, ducks 

 and chickens answer the same purpose when suffered to fre- 

 quent them in sufficient numbers. 



MAKING CIDER. Good fn it is indispensable to the making 

 of good cider. The suitable time for this is in October and 

 November, and apples to be thus appropriated should ripen in 

 these months. Such as are slightly acid are excellent for 

 this purpose. As far as practicable, the fruit should be of 

 one kind, fully ripe, yet sound and undecayed. The mill 

 must be thoroughly cleansed with hot water, and capable of 

 grinding the pomace fine. This should lie in the vat at least 

 forty-eight hours after grinding, and be turned once or twice 

 before its removal into the cheese. Pomace so exposed ab- 

 sorbs large quantities of oxygen, thus undergoing a necessary 

 change for its conversion into good cider. All fruits are 

 subject to this change to a certain extent just before ripen- 

 ing. Wh-Mi their juices are expressed or the pulp broken 

 and exposed to the air this effect is increased, and constitutes 

 the saccfiarine fermentation. In both cases, the result is to 

 increase the palatable and nutritive properties of the fruit, by 

 converting the starch, gum and other vegetable matters into 

 sugar. 



When the pomace has been sufficiently pressed, it may be 

 fed to cattle, sheep, or swine, and the liquor put into barrels 

 in a cool place and allowed to remain till the pulp or feculent 

 matter has been thrown out at the bung, and to aid its remo- 

 val the barrel should be kept full. The second fermentation 

 is the vinous, and by it a portion of alcohol is developed, 

 which is slowly continued afterwards in the enclosed cask, 

 until it reaches from 6 to 9 per cent. When fermentation 

 apparently subsides, the cider should be drawn into clean bar- 

 rels and tightly bunged. Previous to doing this, a little sul- 

 phur should be burned in the cask to arrest the fermentation. 

 The addition of charcoal, raisins, mustard seed, fresh meat, 

 &c. produces the same effect. After standing two or three 

 months, closely confined in a cool place, it may be drawn off 

 and tightly bottled for use. Its long preservation and im- 

 provement will depend on its being kept cool and well corked. 

 In addition to its possessing a small proportion of alcohol, it 



