APPLE-HARVEST. 277 



this evil as soon as it begins to make its appearance. 

 The usual method of clearing the trees, is by pulling 

 off the mistletoe with hooks in frosty weather, when 

 the plant becomes brittle and easily severed from the 

 tree. 



A labourer will sometimes clear fifty or sixty trees in 

 a day ; a fact which proves the extent of the pest to be 

 much greater than persons not living iu the cider dis- 

 tricts have any idea of. 



When the difficulties of the season have been en- 

 countered or surmounted, and the crop of the cider 

 orchards is ready for gathering, the almost universal 

 custom is to strike the trees with poles (this is called 

 poulting), and then to gather up the fallen crop. It is 

 much to be wished that this practice were not so general, 

 for much of the young bearing-wood is often broken by 

 the violence used. Some cultivators adopt the better 

 method of sending men or boys into the trees to shake 

 the branches. In this case only such apples as are ripe 

 fall to the ground, and the operation must be therefore 

 performed at two or three different times ; this is 

 doubtless the reason why the more expeditious method 

 of knocking down the fruit has become so frequent. 



The mixing of all kinds of apples in different stages 

 of ripeness is avoided by the best cider-makers, as tend- 

 ing to produce unequal and repeated stages of fermen- 

 tation, exhausting the strength and injuring the quality 

 of the liquor. Therefore the fruit is kept separate 

 until it is milled and expressed, when it is fermented 

 together according to the judgment of the manager. 



The fruit should not only be collected separately, 

 but kept till perfectly mellow. For this purpose it is 

 usually placed in heaps about a foot in thickness, and 

 fully exposed to the sun, air, or rain, without covering, 

 except in very severe weather. Rotten apples should 

 be removed from the mass. When the experience of the 

 cider-maker determines that the fruit is sufficiently 

 mellow, it is ground separately. In this way, if desired, 



