04 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JVEVV ENGLAND tARMER. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1824. 



iFarmcr'iS CtalcnUar. 



Apples and Cider. — Continued from page 86. 

 It is correct, as a general rule, to permit pom- 

 ace to remain after the apples are ground, from 

 6 to 24 hours before it is submitted to the press. 

 The time in which the pomace should be thus 

 exposed depends, in part, on the temperature of 

 the vveather, partl_y on the quality ofthe apples, i 

 and partly on your own fancy. If you like the 

 looks and the quality of pale cider, you will 

 press your pomace as soon as possible after it 

 is ground. But if yon wish to give your cider 

 a cast of red, you will not be in a hurry to 

 press it. Mr Cose says " in making cider from 

 almost every fine apple, the liquor becomes 

 saccharine and improved, by the pomace re- 

 maining twenty-four hours in the vat, previous 

 to being pressed; to this the must of Hewes' 

 crab is an exception, — it always losing a part of 

 its delicacy and disposition to become fine if not 

 immediately separated from the pulp." 



If if is your wish to make cider of the first 

 quality, you will lay up your pomace without 

 using any water; — you will press gently at lirst, 

 and increase the power ofthe press by degrees. 

 It is recommended to return the first running to 

 the cheese, till the liquor must flows clear, with- 

 out any mixture of the pulp or pomace. " It 

 is a generally received opinion," according to 

 Mr Coxe, " that the middle running of a press- 

 ing makes the finest liquor; the first third will 

 Le found to contain most saccharine particles 

 and less purity, requiring more fermentation ; 

 in the last running there will be greater purity, 

 but the saccharine part will be Considerably di- 

 minished ; the middle running will be found 

 to combine strength and purity in the highest 

 degree." An English writer (quoted page 78 

 of the current rolume of the New England 

 Farmer) prefers the first running from the 

 press, or rather the liquor which runs from the 

 vat or trough without pressing, as making the 

 best cider; and the Farmer's Assistant says that 

 the first and last running should be put by it- 

 self as it is not so good as the rest. We know 

 of no way to decide when agriculturists disa- 

 gree, but by submitting their theories to the 

 test of experiment. When the cider is poured 

 into the cask it shouKI be strained through 

 straw, a coarse sieve, or cloth placed in the 

 boHom of the funnel. Some recommend (he 

 straining of the must through sand ; but others 

 say that this process is troublesome, as the sand 

 requires often to be renewed, and will retain 

 some of the good qualities of the liquor. 



Much care is necessary in fitting your casks 

 for the reception of cider. The Farmer's 

 Assistant says, " new casks, or those which 

 Iiave just been emptied of brandy, are best." — 

 The Farmer's Dictionary (an English work) 

 says, "• 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 considerable quantity of 

 apple pnip h is been boiled. If a vessel is not 

 sweet, it may be made so by putting some nn- 

 slacked lime into it, and letting it stand till the 

 jermeutation is over. A dozen sweet apples 



sliced into a cask of cider have been found ad 

 vanlageous." The Religious Society common- 

 ly called Shakers, at Canterburv, N H. in an 

 excellent communication for th«^ Massachusetls 

 Agricultural Repository, republished in our pa- 

 per, vol. i. p. 369, give the following direc- 

 tions :—" To clean casks which have been nsed 

 for cider, we take them from the cellar as soon 

 as convenient after the cider is out, (reserving 

 the lees for stilling) and rinse each clean, first 

 with a pailful of scalding water, then with cold, 

 le.iving Uie casks with the bungs down for a day 

 or two, or till dry. Then we bung them tight, 

 and return them to the cellar, or some conven- 

 ient place (not too dry) for their reception. — 

 Previous to filling these casks with cider the 

 ensuing season, we scald and rin«e them again 

 as above. Foul, musty casks ought to be com- 

 mitted to the fire." 



We shall not, in this place, enter at large in- 

 to the snbject of fermenting cider, nor state 

 how many sorts of fermentotinn it must under- 

 go before it becomes absolutely good for noth- 

 ing We have heretofore discussed this nfiatter 

 somewhat at large in volume ii. pages 73 and 

 89. We believe that the custom of racking or 

 drawing off cider, and exposing it repeatedly 

 to the air is worse than useless, and has a ten- 

 dency to destroy the liquor. Such exposure 

 causes the fixed air, which gives cider its brisk- 

 ness, to escape, and the liquor to imbibe oxygen 

 gas, or the principle of aciditij from the atmos- 

 phere. Unless your object is to turn your cider 

 to vinegar, let it have no more vent, or expo- 

 sure to the air than is absolutely necessary to 

 keep the vessels in which it is contained from 

 bursting. Dr. Darvvin says " he was told by a 

 gentleman who made a considerable quantity of 

 cider on his estate, that he procured vessels of 

 stronger con'lruclion than usual, and that he di- 

 rected the apple juice, as soon as it tt'os settled to 

 be bunged up close, and that though he had one 

 vessel or two occasionally burst by the expan- 

 sion of the fermenting liquor, yet that this rare- 

 ly occurred, and that his cider never failed to be . 

 of the most excellent qiialitij, and tfoj sold at a 

 great price.'''' The Religious Society, before I 

 mentioned, rack ofT Iheir cider about the first 

 of .January, free from the lees, into clean casks, 

 prefering those which have been recently used [ 

 for spirit. " Having drawn off one cask, we 

 turn out the lees, scald and rinse the cask ; add 

 three or four pailfulls of cider ; then burn in 

 the cask a match of brimstone, attached by a 

 hook to the end of a large wire fixed in the 

 small end of a long tapering bung, fitting any 

 hole. When the match is burnt out, take off 

 the remnant ; apply the bung again, and shake 

 the cask, in order to impregnate the cider with 

 the fume. Add more cider and burn another 

 match." They then add from one to three gal- 

 lons of cider spirits, or what is callled cider 

 brandy. But we have reason to believe that 

 the cider, (having been well strained, whon 

 iresh from the press) will be quite as well willi- 

 out the trouble and expense of racking it offal 

 all. A gentleman of our acquaintance has, lor 

 some years past, been in the habit of adding ci- 

 der spirit to his cider when fresh from the 

 press, and closing or bunging up his vessels so 

 as to make them air tight, and finds (his nielh- 

 od to succeed perfectly well without the trou- 

 ble of racking off. We have ne\er tasted 

 better cider than some which has been treated 



in that manner ; and surely that mode of treat- 

 ing i1 saves much trouble and expense. The 

 spirit combines with the carbonic acid gas, [fix- 

 ed air] of the must, checks and regulates I'er- 

 mentalion, which is apt, otherwise, to be ex- 

 cessive, and prevents the c'lder from xi:orkin<' its 

 life out, as the phrase is. 



The cheapest and best vessels for containing 

 cider are said by some to be white-oak, iron- 

 bound hogsheads, made of heart stuff, well 

 painted, and of a size to hold about three bar- 

 rels and an half. These vessels should be 

 smeared over with a little Spanish brown and 

 lamp blaik, once in about three years. Others 

 recommend vessels for keeping cider in which 

 the barrel boards are straight, but the vessels 

 broader at one end than the other; to be set on 

 the smaller end, with the bung hole at the top. 

 The advantage of this form is, that in drawing 

 off the cider, though but slowly, (he skin or 

 cream contracted by its fermentation, descends 

 and covers the liquor by means of its fermenta- 

 tion, and (bus preserves the fixed air in the ci- 

 der till the whole is drawn off. 



We are fully sensible that the greater part 

 of the preceding remarks are not new, and 

 most of Ihem may be found in various papers in 

 our preceding numbers. But, wishing to give 

 a general view of the whole subject, and save 

 our readers the trouble and time necessary for 

 recurring to (hose papers, we have made use 

 of repetitions, which we hope will be excused 

 on account of the motives which led to such 

 tautology. 



Preseuving Apples. Our Correspondent, the 

 " Author of Touches on .Jgricidiure,"' has intimat- 

 ed (see page 89th of this day's paper) that a 

 note from the Editor on the subject of preserv- 

 ing apples v^'ould be acceptable. The follow- 

 ing from the Domestic Encyclopedia may, per- 

 haps, answer the purpose contemplated. Any 

 thing further from our correspondents would be 

 received with thanks, and published with plea- 

 sure. 



" In North America, as well as in Germany, 

 apples are often preserved during the most se- 

 vere frosts, by placing them in an apartment 

 immediately uncler the roof of the house, but 

 without a fire ; a woollen cloth being thrown 

 over them before the frost commences. This 

 experiment, however, has not succeeded in 

 Britain. 



" In some parts, a coarse linen cloth is spread 

 upon the floor of an upper room, and a layer 

 of apples is placed on it ; this is covered with 

 a cloth of a similar texture, on which another 

 layer is spread, and again covered : in this man- 

 ner the pile may be increased to any height, 

 withallernate strata of. linen and fruit; after 

 which a clolh, of sufficien{ dimensions to com- 

 municate with the floor on every side, is throwo 

 over the vvliole heap. This i)ractice has beeri 

 attended with success. 



" Another method is, to put a layer of apples 

 and a layer of dried fern, alternately in a bas- 

 ket, or box (the latter is considered the best, 

 as it admits less air,) and cover them closely.— 

 The advantages of/ern, in preference lo straw, 

 is, that it does not impart a musty tasle : [but 

 the best substance is the paper cuttings of a 

 book binder." T. C] 



