78 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



NEW EiVGI^AND FARMER. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1824. 



iFarmrr's (Ealcntrar. 



Apples and Cider. — Apples, intended forcider, 

 should remain on the tree till fully ripe. They 

 should be perfectly sound, clean, and dry, and 

 all those which are knotty, rotten, or wormy, 

 should be rejected when your object is to make 

 the best of cider. Those apples which drop 

 early, or are made into cider early in the seas- 

 on, produce a liquor which in general is fit for 

 nothing but to be turned into vinegar, or sent 

 to the distillery. Cider meant for storing, or 

 keeping on hand for any considerable time, 

 should not be made till the latter end of Octo- 

 ber, or the beginning of November. The cool- 

 er the weather, — provided you do not freeze 

 your fingers, nor your pomace, — the better. 

 '' All cider apples should ripen as late as the 1st 

 of November, and not Liter, to prevent the ex- 

 pense of housing. If it bo necessary to house 

 Ihem, it will be of great importance that they 

 possess the property of keeping without rot- 

 ting."* The quality of apples for cider mny be 

 something more than guessed at by the appear- 

 ance of the fruit. The higher the colour, the 

 better the fruit. 



*' Let every tree, in every garden, own 

 The red streak as supreme.^'' 



" The pippin burnished o'er with gold," — Is 

 next in succession, and, as a general rule, those 

 apples whose rinds and pulps are tinged with 

 green are inferior to those which are red or 

 yellow. Besides, according to Sir Humphry 

 Davy, "the value of fruits for the manufacturo 

 of fermented liquors, maj' be judged of from the 

 specific gravity of Iheir expressed juices. The 

 best cider and perr}' are made from those apples 

 and pears that afford the densest juices ; and a 

 comparison between dift'erent fruits mny be made 

 with tolerable accuracy by plunging them to- 

 gether into a saturated solution of salt, or a 

 strong solution of sugar; those that sink deepest 

 vill afford the richest juice." 



Most of the professors of the art of making 

 cider toll us, that the apples which are meant 

 for that purpose should be all of one sort. Mr. 

 Coxe, however, says, '-the practice of mixing 

 different varieties may often be found eligible, 

 for it will be more easy to find the requisite 

 quantity of richness and tlavour in two kinds of 

 fruit than in one. It ia a tact generally under- 

 stood, that ciders from mi.\ed fruits are found to 

 succeed with greater certainty llian those made 

 from one kind. Although this pr;ictice would 

 deprive the dealer of certainly in the quality of 

 Lis li()uor, and ought not tbercl'vire to be recom- 

 mended for general adoption, yet it is worthy o! 



* (.Vxn on Fniil Trr-ps. 



the attention of an admirer of fine liquor, when 

 providing for his own consumption." It is ol'ten 

 almost, if not altogether impracticable for farm- 

 ers to make any considerable quantity of cider 

 without mixing apples of diiTerent sorts. But 

 they may generally without much trouble so 

 assort them that all which are ground k. pressed 

 together, in the same cheese (as it is called) 

 may be of about the same degree of ripeness. 

 It is gross and ruinous nee;ligence to mix and 

 carry to the press some apples which are green, 

 some fully ripe, and ethers partly rotten. 



The Complete Farmer's Dictionary gives us 

 the English practice of cider-making in Here- 

 fordshire (a county celebrated for the excellence 

 of its cider) as follows; 



" As the apples are gathered, I have them all 

 assorted according to the several decrees of 

 ripeness, making in general three sorts, which 

 a little experience teaches me to separate pro- 

 perly, the difference beinar apparent at first sisht. 

 As fast as they arc gathered, they are carried 

 under a shed to ripen. I suffer my apples to 

 lie a longer or shorter time in beans, according 

 to their nature ; such as are hard and solid lying 

 longer than those that are soft and pulpy. 1 

 divide mv apples into three sorts ; but 1 have 

 six qualities of cider, each diiVering in taste, flav- 

 our, and quality. 



" As fast as mv fruit is gro\ind, (I need not say 

 I use the ripest first) the pulp is put into vats 

 near the press before if is put into the chee<e; 

 at the bottom of the vat i' a tap, throns'Ii which 

 a considerable quantity of vinous juice will run 

 without pressing. 



" This is the best cider, and I barrel it by it- 

 self. 1 then press the rest and barrel it separ- 

 ately. Thus I have si\ qualities from my three 

 assortments of apples." 



When apples arc fully ripe they soon begin 

 to lose somewhat of their strenj:th an. I flavour. 

 But in general it is best to let them lie in shal- 

 low heaps, if possible under cover, a few d:\Ys 

 after they arc galliercd. If they are not spread 

 thin and exposed to the air they become in 

 some degree tainted, smell unpleasantly, and 

 communicate an unpleasant taste to the cider. 

 They should be ground at the time when they 

 are in the greatest perfection for eating. " The 

 flavour, says Mr. Coxe, is supposed to increase 

 so long as the fruit continues to acquire a deep- 

 er shade of yellow, without decaying." Wil- 

 lich's Domestic Enc^'clopedia says that " the 

 practice of sweating appears to be useful onlv 

 for such fruit as is not perfectly ripe, though 

 some rerommend it as proper for all apples." — 

 The fruit certainly loses much of its vinou- 

 spirit when it becomes what is called mcalij, 

 and of course in some degree insipid, though 

 some prefer it for eating when in that condition. 

 When arrived at tliat state its decay or decom- 

 position has begun and every hour's delay in 

 sending it to press is accompanied with loss. — 

 If you have no convenient place (or sweating 

 your apples under cover, and they arc in a situ- 



ation to be benefited by that process, you may 

 pile them up in heaps in the most open and airy 

 part of your orchard. They should be per- 

 fectly dry and clean when ground for pressing, 

 or your cider will sufier hy your negligence. 



Joseph Cooper, Esq of New Jersey, gives 

 the following directions for making cider, 

 which, though they contain a repetition of some 

 of the preceding ideas, we will give entire for 

 the sake of connexion. 



" Cider is an article, ofdomestic manufacture, 

 which is, in my opinion, worse managed than 

 any in our country : perhaps the better way 

 to correct the errors is to point out soma 

 principal ones, and then to recommend better 

 plans. 



" Apples are commonly collected vvhen wet, 

 and thrown into a heap, exposed to the sun anil 

 rain, until a sourness pervades the whole mass, 

 then ground, and for want of a trough or other 

 vessel sufficient to hold a che*se at a time, the 

 pomace is put on the press as fast as ground ; — 

 and a large cheese is made, which requires so 

 much time to finish and press off, that a fer- 

 mentation comes on in the cheese before all tho 

 juice is out ; and certain it is, that a small quan- 

 tity of the juice pressed out after fermentation 

 comes on, will spoil the product of a whole 

 cheese, if mixed therewith. When either of 

 the above errours will spoil cider we need not 

 wonder at the effect of combination of the 

 whole, as fVequenlly happens. A"* I have very 

 often exported cider to the West Indie*, and to 

 Europe, and al*o sold it to others for the same 

 l>nr;iose, without ever hearing of any spoiling; 

 and as it is my wish to make the productions of 

 our country as useful as possible, 1 will give an 

 account of my method of making this valuable 

 liquor. 



" I gatlier the apple5. when dry, put them on 

 a floor, under cover, and have a trough large 

 enough to hold a cheese at once, and when the 

 weather is warm I grind them late in the eve- 

 ning spreading t!ie potnace over the trough to 

 air it, as the cider will thereby be enriched, 

 and a fine amber colour in it be produced: and 

 hrre it may remarked that the longer a cheese 

 lies after being ground, before pressing, the 

 l)etter for the cider provided it escapes ferment- 

 ation until the pressing is completed. 'I'he fol- 

 lowing experiment will render this evident : — 

 Cruise a tart apple on one side, and let it lav un- 

 til brown; then taste the jnice of each part, and 

 it will be I'ound that the juice of the bruised 

 part is sweet and rich : so if sweet and tart ap- 

 ples are ground together, and put immediate- 

 ly' on the press, the liquor they produce will 

 have the taste of both kinds of fruit ; but if 

 permitted to lie until the pomace becomes 

 brown the cider will be greatly improved." 

 [7'o be continued.] 



AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 



The Cattle Sliow and Fair of the Hartford, (Conn.) 

 A»rienltural .'^"ociety will talce place iiitliatcity, ou the 

 Gth of October inst. 



The annual Cattle .%ow and Fair will be holden in 

 Pawtuset, R. I. on the 5th and 6th inst. 



The Berl<?hire Cattle Show and Fair will be oljscrv- 

 cd at Piltsfield, on Wednesday and Thursday the 6th 

 and 7th days of Octobor inst. 



