Cider and Cider-Mamifacture. 331 



CIDER AND CIDER-MANUFACTURE. 



Cider, if not one of the proximate, is one of the ultimate results of horti- 

 culture, and deserves more attention than it has ever received in our hor- 

 ticultural journals. Many things have conspired to put this beverage in the 

 background. Careless manufacture formerly produced an inferior article, 

 and the price was so low as not to justify any great care in making. The 

 common price of cider in New England, thirty years since, was a dollar per 

 barrel ; and, for this sum, farmers could not be expected to spend much time 

 in its manufacture. Whether the low price was the effect of an inferior 

 article, or the inferiority was the result of cheapness, we leave for political 

 economists to decide. At all events, the price of the cider was low, and 

 its quality equal to its price ; while the beverage was esteemed very plebeian. 

 Then came the Temperance reformation, which put its ban upon fermented 

 as well as upon distilled liquors. In zeal for total abstinence, many orchards 

 were cut down, cider-mills allowed to rot down, and scarcely cider enough 

 was made to supply the wants of the vinegar-barrel. For twenty years, we 

 did not venture to touch the proscribed article. We must confess, this was 

 yielding to public opinion rather than to our own convictions. 



Gradually, re-action from this extreme view took place, and the little 

 hand cider-mills came into use, by which, a superior article was made for 

 family consumption. The beverage was not found so full of disease and 

 death as had been supposed : on the contraiy, it was health-giving. 

 There can be no question that most stomachs crave something of an acid 

 nature. This is particularly true of bilious constitutions ; and no acid 

 proves more efficacious in keeping the stomach in good tone than malic, 

 especially when combined, as it is in bottled cider, with a good proportion 

 of carbonic acid. Physicians prescribe it in cases of dyspepsia ; and the 

 general testimony is, that this uncomfortable disease seldom occurs where 

 cider or cheap sour wine forms a common beverage. The testimony is no 

 less conclusive, that temperance, as well as health, is promoted by the use 

 of fermented acid drinks. These allay the craving for the more exciting 

 alcoholic beverages. Travellers assure us that cases of intoxication are 

 raiely to be met with in the wine-drinking countries of Europe. The peas- 



