402 



NEW ENGLAOT) rAR:\IER. 



Sept. 



the manure made from the hay is required to 

 cultivate the hay itself, we must become shep- 

 herds and herdsmen, and live like the Bedou- 

 ins on the produce of our flocks and herds. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CIDEB AND VINEGAR. 



Shall the manufacture of cider and vinegar 

 be made a specialty ? 



Farmers are so slow in adopting the means 

 for saving labor which the inventive genius of 

 the day is urging upon them, especially in ap- 

 plying water and steam power to their work, 

 that it is pleasant to note any instance of pro - 

 gress. 



During the past season an establishment for 

 making cider and vinegar, with steam for a 

 motive power, has been erected and put into 

 operation in Salem, N. H. It consists of a 

 long, large building, situated upon the gentle 

 slope of a hiU, witti the length or side facing 

 the south. The building is heavy timbered, 

 as indeed it must be, to support the long rows 

 of hogsheads extending from end to end, one 

 above the other, even as high as the plates. 

 The whole length of the south part of the 

 building is partitioned off, and made warmer 

 than the rest, and is supplied with steam pipes. 

 In this room, in which a high temperatuie is 

 constantly maintained, the piocess of making 

 vinegar will be hastened. Indeed so essential 

 is heat for this work, that it is intended that 

 the temperature of no part of the building 

 shall fall btlow the f rcf zing point. 



A portion of the first or ground floor is for 

 receiving and storing apples. The mill, which 

 is a common grater, is placed at the down hill 

 end of the buildmg, with the hopper nearly on 

 a level with the floor. The pomace runs di- 

 rectly into the presses in the basement below ; 

 the steam engine is near by and does the 

 pressing as well as the grating of the apples. 

 Wagons can leadily be backed into the base- 

 ment, directly up to the presses, so that both 

 loading and unloading is easily accomplished. 

 Cider is made for customers at a certain rate 

 per bu-hel, or the apples are purchased of 

 them. If the (juantity brought is sufficient for 

 a pre.-s, it is made by itself; if only a few 

 bushels are brought they are put with other 

 lots. The farmer has only to leave his ap- 

 ple-i at one dcor, and in a short time his cider 

 will be ready for him at the lower door, or he 

 can at once exchange small lots for cider and 

 depart without delay. 



The works were not finished at the time of 

 my vi.'-it late last fill, and 1 understand an 

 enlargement is contemplated during another 

 season. 'J'he employment of steam presup- 

 poses that the busine.-s mu^t be on a somewhat 

 extcndtd scale. Though, to the unin'iated, a 

 work of this kind may seem perfectly plain 

 and easy, yet it. really leqnires rime and con- 

 siderable capital, with a large share of patience 



and experience, to get everything in complete 

 working order. The proprietor is a son of 

 Mr. Perham, the well-known vinegar-maker 

 of Chelmsford, Mass., and he has manifested 

 an enterprise which shows that he has the ut- 

 most confidence in his success. From adjoin- 

 irf^ towns he had bought large quantities of 

 fruit, and several thousands of bushels had 

 been worked up last season. — the first of 

 his operation here. He had also commenced 

 making and putting up pickles. These he pur- 

 chases in the neighborhood, and the younger 

 members of the farmers' families can gather 

 many a dollar from the cultivation of this 

 crop. The works are only a few rods from 

 the depot, and the city markets can easily be 

 reached. Whatever of profit this enterprise 

 may return to the proprietor, it certainly con- 

 fers a benefit upon the farmers of that locality, 

 for it at once creates a ready home market for 

 the refuse apples, and introduces the cultiva- 

 tion of a new crop. 



This. I believe, is the first attempt to intro- 

 duce the steam engine in making cider in this 

 vicinity, though there are several mills where 

 water power is used. They are conducted on the 

 same plan as the grist mills, — the proprietors 

 do all the work and charge a certain rate or 

 toll on a bushel. The advantages of these 

 mills lire apparent in fruitful seasons, and 

 farmers will go a long way past the small, old- 

 fashioned mills worked by man and horse- 

 power, to have their work done in a workman- 

 like and prompt manner. 



Mr. P.'s establishment differs from others, 

 inasmuch as it furnishes a ready home market 

 for that which would otherwise require consid- 

 erable time and labor to convert it into cash. 

 Similar establishments are needed in all ap- 

 ple-growing distiicts. A large portion of the 

 unmerchantable apples are now lost. The 

 process of making cider by the old mills is 

 laborious and tediously slow. Where the 

 quantity of app'es is small, the labor of gath- 

 ering them, working up in these mills, and 

 then di posing of the product often exceeds 

 the return, in fruitful years, when the quan- 

 tity is large, it is often kept so long in waiting 

 for ''a turn" at the mill that it is injured or 

 lost. Were these mills of sufficient capacity, 

 not all farmers are e.spert cider-makers, and 

 only a lew have the conveniences for making 

 vinegar at a profit. Now it there was a home 

 market near by for the apples, where five, 

 fifty, or one hundred bushels could be sold at 

 once, there would be an inducem ^n to gather 

 up and save much that is how wasted. Here 

 is an opportunity for the manufacturer to step 

 in and help both producer and consimier, — a 

 proper sphere for the middle man, — for farm- 

 ers have the apples and want to sell them, and 

 the r'ider and vinegar is wanted in the maikets. 

 ! When cider vinegar is made in the country, and 

 ! not in the city, the lovers of that article can have 

 j the greater assurance that what they buy un- 

 I der that name is tiuly the product of the apple 



