316 VINEGAR, CIDER, AND FRUIT- WINES. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



PRACTICE OF THE PREPARATION OF CIDER AND FRUIT- 

 WINES. 



THE first step in the preparation of fruit-wines is the gaining 

 of the juice or must from the fruit. Stamping or grinding and 

 subsequent expressing of the paste thus formed by means of strong 

 pressure suffice in most cases for berries and other small fruits. 

 With apples, etc., this manner of reduction is not only difficult, 

 but also connected with considerable loss caused by larger and 

 smaller pieces jumping from the trough. 



The earliest appliance known was simply a trough in which 

 the apples were reduced to an imperfect pomace by rolling them 

 with a heavy cylindrical stone or by pounding them as in a 

 mortar. An improvement was the production of the English 

 cider-mill. This consisted of a pair of coarsely corrugated iron 

 cylinders from which the apples fell to a second pair close together 

 and finer in their surfaces and passed through finely mashed to 

 the pomace vessel underneath. In 1852, Mr. W. O. Hickock, of 

 Harrisburg, Pa., invented a portable cider-mill which consisted of 

 a pair of small horizontal cylinders armed with small spirally 

 arranged teeth or spikes revolving close together, one at a higher 

 velocity than the other. The apples were first broken by the 

 action of a coarsely-fluted roller which revolved against a table 

 under the hopper, and after passing between the cylinders the 

 apples were not only bruised but also grated into the required 

 pomace. This machine was capable of grinding 100 bushels of 

 apples per day. Numerous modifications have been made in the 

 plan of Mr. Hickock's mill, some being simply spiked cylinders 

 against which the apples were carried and held till grated by 

 reciprocating plungers. 



Our limits will not permit us to notice all the various styles 

 of portable mills before the public or the multitude of graters or 



