322 HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS. 



difficulty a farmer meets with in their cultivation 

 results from the circumstance that it is not easy to 

 exert that watchfulness over broad acres necessary to 

 protect sweet apples from the predatory urchins with 

 which every country parish abounds, a propensity, 

 indeed, not sufficiently checked by the elders, whose 

 plea that " it is only a few apples, and that children 

 will be children," affords just that amount of en- 

 couragement which too often ends in more serious 

 acts of larceny. 



As regards cider fruit, we would here dissent from 

 the common belief that sour apples are the best for 

 cider-making. We believe that the sweeter the 

 apple, and the higher the specific gravity of the juice, 

 the better the cider. Many, then, of our culinary and 

 dessert apples would make most excellent drink ; at 

 the same time there are many sorts that will not 

 "cook," whose flesh cannot be got to become soft and 

 pulpy, but rather hard and tough by the processes 

 either of boiling or baking. Many sorts whose flavour 

 is not sufficiently agreeable to be eaten raw, and yet 

 these may yield on expression a sweet juice, resulting 

 in a strong and agreeable cider. 



Now, although there can be little doubt but that 

 the quality of cider is much influenced by the sort 

 of fruit from which it is made, we are inclined to 

 the belief that the nature of the soil has, if possible, 

 a still more decided influence upon the result. We 

 therefore now direct attention to some of the best 

 cider districts in England, which may be classed as 

 follows : — 



Devonshire, Cider of the sweetest and richest kind ; 

 Somersetshire, Cider rich and not so sweet ; 



