CHAPTER XV 



Cider Making at Home and Abroad A Voyage of Discovery The 

 National Fruit and Cider Institute. 



ONE of the most useful of the many investiga- 

 tions undertaken by the Society on behalf 

 of agriculture was that which dealt with 

 the manufacture of cider, an industry which, in 

 view of its importance, had previously been 

 strangely neglected, for of all the operations of 

 farming not one was so little understood. Much 

 of the cider made at the farm was undrinkable 

 except by those who were endowed with cast-iron 

 interiors inherited from previous generations of 

 cider drinkers, who thus became habituated to 

 extremes of acidity. So far as outsiders were 

 concerned, if they could only have viewed the 

 process of making and the varied ingredients, 

 other than apples, which had a part in com- 

 pounding the beverage, they would have foresworn 

 cider for the rest of their natural lives. Cleansing 

 the fruit was too often considered quite an un- 

 necessary trouble even after it had lain in an 

 orchard frequented by the pigs and poultry of 

 the homestead. Rottenness in fruit was not 

 regarded as a valid reason for rejecting it for 

 cider, and it was a long-established tradition that 

 good cider fruit was not fit to eat, whereas, whether 



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