280 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



This is sometimes mixed with water, ground again, and! 

 the liquid pressed out as before. The inferior beverage 

 thus prepared is called water-cider, and is drunk early 

 in the year. In the Devonshire cider-press, reed or un- 

 thrashed straw, instead of hair-cloth, is spread in layers 

 to receive the fruit. The juice which oozes from the 

 hair-cloths or reeds runs off in a channel in the frame 

 of the press, into a flat tub called a trin. From this 

 tub it is poured with buckets or racking cans into casks 

 placed where there is a free current of air. In three or 

 four days fermentation usually begins ; the thicker parts 

 of the liquor will then subside to the bottom of the cask, 

 and the lighter become bright and clear. All the bright 

 portion is now drawn off into another cask, and the 

 sediment strained through linen bags, the liquor thus 

 obtained being put with the rest. The difficulties con- 

 nected with cider-making at this stage of the proceed- 

 ings have been thus described : " It is during the fer- 

 mentation that the management of cider is least under- 

 stood and there is the greatest hazard of injmy. It is 

 necessary to know what fruit will, by itself, make good 

 cider, which kinds should be ground together, and what 

 proportions should be mixed. But it is in the preser- 

 vation of strength and flavour, after the cider is ground, 

 that the principal difficulty consists ; slight fermentation 

 will leave the liquor thick and unpalatable ; rapid fer- 

 mentation will impair both its strength and durability ; 

 excessive fermentation will make it sour, harsh, and thin. 

 Other things being equal, that cider will probably prove 

 the best in which the vinous fermentation has proceeded 

 slowly, and has not been confounded with the acetous." 

 The makers of fine sweet cider give the most un- 

 wearied attention to the liquor during fermentation. 

 They apply their ears to the casks several times every 

 day and night, to discover whether the singing noise 

 has begun. They can distinguish accurately between 

 this " singing," which is the sign of active fermentation, 

 and another less audible noise called "fretting," which 



