JNEW ENGLAND FARMRB 



I Publ.she.l by JoH.N B.Rvsszi^j;o.^Nonl^Moskot Street, (oppo.Ue Pan.c.l_Hall )._Thoma. ij:r.;;^ „^y, Kditor. " 



VOL. V. 



BOSTON, FlIIDAY. MARCH 9, 1827. 



No. 33. 



ORIGINAL PAPERS 



FOR THE MEW BHQt-itiD FARMER. 



ON THE MANL'PACTURK OF CIDER. 

 The qii.ility of cider depends on several conliii 

 ncics, amonj which I will CDunicrate, 

 The species of fruit employed ; 

 Soil and aspect of the orchard ; 

 Condition of the fruit wlieii g-round ; 

 Tlie process of irniuling, &c. ; 

 Management ot the vinous termentation : and, 

 The precautions which are token to prever.t 

 B acetous fermentation. 



r intend to ofter remarks upon each of these di- 

 nons. And, 



1. The Fruit. Apples diiTer not only in their 

 .vor, cilour. and time of lipening, but in the pro- 

 irtions if their constituent parts. The most ma- 

 rial of these constituent parts are acid, sugar, 

 tringency, vegetable extract and water. The 

 operties of pfood dessert and cider apples are sel- 

 )ni found united, thougfh they are not inrompati- 

 with each other. Table apples are esteemed 

 account of their bland and aromatic flavor, crisp 

 id juicy pulp, and for the property of keeping 

 ig, or ripening late. The characteristics ofn 

 lod cider apple are, a red skin ; yellow and often 

 lOgh and fibrous pulp, astringency, dryness, and 

 leness at the cider making season. "When the 

 id and pulp are green, the cider will alvvayr ^•'- 

 «n, weak and colourless ; and when these are 

 leply tinged with yellow, it wiU, however manu- 

 ictnred, or in whatever soil it may have grown, 

 Imost always possess colour, with either strength 

 richness.*' — (Knight). The apple, like the 

 ''rape, must att.iin a state of perfection, or perfect 

 laturity, before its juices develope all their e.xcel- 

 jnce : and as many of our best eating apples do 

 ot acquire this maturity until winter or spring, 

 his affords a satisfactory reason why winter fruit 

 3 seldom or never good cider fniit. In a dry ap- 

 'le, the essential elements of cider are generally 

 noro concentrated, or are accompanied with a less 

 iroportion of water, than in a juicy one ; of course 

 he liquor of the former, is stronger than that of 

 lie latter. Of our best cider apples, ten or twelve 

 )iisliels of fruit are required for a barrel of juice ; 

 .vhilo of the ordinary juicy kinds, eight bushels 

 generally suffice. 



The only artificial criterion employed to ascer- 

 ain the quality of an apple for cider, is the specif- 

 ic gravity of its must or unfermentcd juice ; — or 

 its weight compared with that of water. This, 

 says Knight, indicates, with very considerable ac 

 curacy, the strength of the future cider. Its 

 weight and consequent value, is supposed to be in- 

 creased in the ratio of the increase of the saccha- 

 rine matter. In making wine of domestic fruit, say 

 of the currant or gooseberry for euaniple, we use 

 sugar till the unferii.pntea li [uor attains a certain 

 specific gravity ; or until the saccliariiie matter of 

 till fruit, i'nd that artificially supplied, beais a cer- 

 tain prop, ion to the water. This ensures to the 

 liquor, stiTj th, or body, as the sugar id convert- 

 ed into spin, by the fermentive proce<:.=!. 



Very little his been done to aiqimc a correct 

 kr.owledge of the relative value of our native ap- 



ples for cider. Coxe has described and figured 

 one hundred varieties of tliis fruit, of which about 

 thirty are recommended for cider. Of these thirty 



on a wet soil. Mint, or other aromatic herbs, is 

 much stronger in the specific virtues of tlic plant, 

 when grown on a dry soil, and greater in volume, 



..iiids I selected the following for my nursery, as j when grown on a wet one. The maple yields the 

 not only being best for cider, but as generally sucetesl sap, thougli less in quantity, on a dry 



soil. Apples may grow large on a moist alluvi- 

 on ; but the fruit will neither be so abundant, nor 

 so ricli, as on a dry soil. 'J'he thriftiest trees pro 

 duce the most v,ood buds ; those less thrifty the 



combining the desirable qualities of table fruit 

 also : viz. the Hagloe and Virginia crabs, Harri- 

 son, Campfield,Styre, yellow Newton and Newark 

 pippins, Priestley, Graniwinklo,VVinosap,Carthouso 



and Cooper s russet.ng We have undoubtedly, most fruit buds. The best aspect for an orchard 



among our indipnous fruit, many kinds of e.vcel- is one somewhat elevated or undulating, protected 



lent cider apples hitherto unnoticed ; and it is from prevailing cold winds-and facing the south, 



very desirable that their properties should be test- south-east or east. Ciders brought to the Albany 



ed, and the result of the investigation made pub- market, from the hilly towns of Columbia and 



'^J „ _ . . Saratoga, on the transition formation, possess the 



In Great Britain more attention has been given most spirit, best flavor, and resist longest the ace 



to this subject. The specific gravity of the juice tons fermentation, 

 of <dd eider varieties has not only been ascertain- .3. Condition of the fruit. Fruit should be used 



ed by scientific men, and their relative value fi.\ 

 ed, but new varieties have been obtained by arti- 

 ficial crossing, surpassing, in richness of juice, any 

 before cultivated. Loudon has given a table of 3» 

 cider apples, in his Encyclopedia of Agriculture. 

 Of these, the following are only known to be in 

 our nurseries, viz ; *Redstrcak, Wiiie,Styre, Hag- 

 loe crab, *Maiden's Blush, *Count Pendu, *Down- 

 ton and Grange pippins, P'oxley, Siberian Harvey, 

 yellow Siberian and *Minsheirs crab. Those with 

 an asterisk are also excellent dessert apples. The 

 seven last named, five of which are new varieties 

 hy Knight, I have obtained from Europe, and pro- 

 pagated in nursery. None of the old English ci- 

 der varieties e.xceed, in the specific gravity of 

 their juice, 1,079, water being 1,000. Si.\- of 

 Knight's new varieties are over 1,079, and one is 

 1,091. Knight is of opinion, that with proper va- 

 rieties of fruit, the defects of almost every soil and 

 asjiect might be corrected, and that fine ciders 

 might be made in any part of England. In France 

 and Italy, small berried grapes of a harsh flavour, 

 are prefeired for wine-making, (Loudon) and it 

 will be found that the cider apples recommended 

 by Loudon and Coxe are under a medium size, 

 and several of them austere and harsh. 



2. Soil and aspect. The apple, like the grape, 

 is known to take much of its character from the 

 soil on which it grows. The best cider orchards 

 in England, are on a stratum of red marie which 

 stretches across the island. The soil of Hereford- 

 shire highly reputed for its ciders, is an argilla- 

 ceous, or clay marie. And Knight says, the 

 strongest and most highly flavoured cider which 

 has been obtained from the apple, was prednced 

 from fruit growing on a shallow loam, on lime- 

 stone basis. All the writers upon the subject seem 

 to agree, that calcareous earth should form a com- 

 ponent part of the soil of a cider orchard It ap- 

 pears to have the eSect of mitigating thr harsh- 

 ness of rough and austere fruits, and of neu;r,.liz- 

 iflg the juices of those which are too acid. Co>:e 

 says.the soil which grows good wlieiit and clover.ie 

 best for a cider orchard. My own o!<.^>'rvatioii 

 would induce me also to prefer a dry and somo 

 what loose soil, in which the roots, destine' lo fur- 

 nish food for the tree and fruit may piictrale 

 freely, and range extensively, in search o; nutri 

 mpnt. The jui< es of plants and fri'its are a'ii'sy.s 

 mure ooocenlrated when growing on a dry than 



when it has atti'ined its perfect state of maturity, 

 and before it begins to decay, because it then 

 yields the greatest proportion of saccharine mat- 

 ter. The most certain indication of ripeness, says 

 Crocker is the fragrance of the smell and the 

 spontaneous dropping from the trees. Each kind 

 of the apple should be manufactured separately, 

 or those kinds only mixed which ripen at one time 

 and which experience shall show, are not prejudi- 

 cial to each other. Who would ever think of mak- 

 ing a superior wine from an indiscriminate mix- 

 ture of a dozen kinds of grapes ? And yet we 

 .seem to es^.'Ct good cider from an indiscriminate 

 mixture of a dozen kinds of apples. It may be 

 urged, that the evil is irremediable, because our 

 orchards, containing these dozen varieties, have 

 been furnished to our hands ; and that neither the 

 quantity nor quality of any one kind of fruit ren- 

 ders it an object to manufacture it separately. Is 

 it not time, then, to set about correcting the evil, 

 by selecting only the best kinds for new planta- 

 tions. A faimer should make cider to sell and it 

 is material to him whether he obtains two or ten 

 dollars the barrel. Our manufactories, our towns 

 and cities, and the demand for exportation, will al- 

 ways ensure a market and price for good ciders. 

 Mr Wynkoop, of Lancaster, Pa. has 400 trees, of 

 the Virginia crab, on less than five acres of 

 ground ; and when his orchard was twenty-two 

 years old, he stated to the President of the Penn- 

 sylvania Agricultural Society, that it produced 

 him every other year forty hogsheads of cider, of 

 112 galls, each ; which he sold at Philadelphia at 

 9s. 6d. the gallon, or about $1,500 in the gross. — 

 And yet this apple is not a first rate cider apple. 

 It is deficient in sugar, but abounds in astringen- 

 cy, rather a keeping than an enriching quality. — 

 What farmer can apply his land to better profit ? 

 Wines differ as much in their quality and price as 

 ciders. Fruit,soil and skill make the difi"erenCG in 

 both ; and upon the proper selection and expense 

 of those d( pf-nd the quality of the liquor, and the 

 'onsequent profits of the cultivator. Upon this 

 branch of the subject I will oi ly add, that the ap- 

 ples should ripen \i\oa the tree, be gathered when 

 dry, 11 a dearly manner, spread in an airy, cover- 

 ed sitiition iPpracticuDle, for a time, to induce an 

 evaporation of iqneo is matter, which will increase 

 I he '.i-ength and flavour of the liquor, an'^ te sep- 

 arated from rotton fruit atid every kind of filth be- 

 fore they are ground. . 



