166 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



cure good cider in other countries is to sort and se- 

 lect the fruit destined to produce it. 



" The third question relates to the mode of mak- 

 ing the cider, and the last to the treatment of it, 

 after it is made, till it is fit for the table. These 

 two points, being intimately connected, and very 

 much blended by the writers on this subject, we 

 shall consider together. 



" The Complete Farmer's Dictionary contains 

 the following directions on this part of the pro- 

 cess. 



"' The first runnings from the vat may be imme- 

 diately put into barrels, taking care to strain them 

 first. As to the juice, after it is pressed, it ought 

 to remain thirty hours in the tub or vat into which 

 it runs, till the feces or dregs have fallen to the 

 bottom, after which it may be drawn off by a cock 

 and put into the barrels. After the cider has 

 done fermenting, some persons throw two or three 

 handfuls of wheat bran into each barrel, which 

 serves to make the head or cream thicker, and 

 makes the cider keep better. New casks are, if 

 possible, to be avoided, as they give the cider a 

 disagreeable taste ; if it cannot be avoided, they 

 should be scalded with water in which a conside- 

 rable quantity of apple pulp has been boiled. If a 

 vessel is not sweet, it may be made so by putting 

 some unslacked lime into it, and letting it stand till 

 the fermentation is over. A dozen sweet apples 

 sliced into a cask of cider, have been found to be 

 advantageous.' 



" One writer says, the best cider he ever had, 

 was when he put into each hogshead three quarts 

 of good wheat first boiled and hulled. The 

 same writer says, he must give one piece of advice 

 to cider makers, that they diligently watch the al- 

 terations in it during changes of weather. There 

 is scarcely any disease in this liquor but what may 

 be cured by a timely application. If it is only a 



