332 Cider and Cider-Manufacture. 



ant makes his dinner from a crust of bread, washed down with a small 

 bottle of cheap sour wine ; and esteems himself fortunate if he can have 

 for a relish a bit of cheese or a pickled onion. With this simple but 

 healthful diet he is invigorated for his afternoon's work, and never knows 

 the diseases nor the remorse arising from intoxication. Wine we have 

 not, and cannot expect to have, in cheap abundance in New England ; but 

 we have a substitute for it in cider. We may be plebeian in our tastes ; but 

 we greatly prefer good cider to cheap wine : and apples can be raised, and 

 cider manufactured, at one-tenth of the expense of grapes and wine. 



Some of our radical temperance-men affirm that there is no nutriment 

 in cider ; that it only stimulates the nen-ous and muscular system to a 

 temporar}- unhealthy action, and is succeeded by a re-action which is as 

 depressing as the action is exciting. Parton, in his famous article, " Will 

 the coming man drink wine ? " seems to have this impression ; but he has 

 endently studied historv- more than physiolog^^ The analysis of wine and 

 cider may not give many elements of nutrition ; neither will the analysis 

 of tea : still, there can be no doubt that tea is an economical article for 

 the laboring-classes. The tired washerwoman craves it for her dinner, and 

 finds refreshment and strength. Our soldiers found that tea and coffee sup- 

 plied the place of more hearty food ; and in long, fatiguing marches, tea was 

 preferred to beef Observing hotel-keepers notice that strong tea fur- 

 nished to their hungr)- guests saves niore costly articles of diet. The 

 philosophy of it is, that tea and cofiee prevent the waste cf the tissues of 

 the body ; and the action of wine and cider is analogous. "Whoever has 

 made a dinner of bread and cider knows that his strength is renewed and 

 continued without an unhealthy re-action ; and the effect on most stomachs 

 is more healthful than that of tea. We therefore believe that cider is one 

 of the good gifts which are to be received with thanksgiving ; and we desire 

 to see its manufacture so perfected, that it will rank with wine in public 

 estimation: and, if our experience can add to the stock of information on 

 this subject, we cheerfully give it, though we may encounter the reprobation 

 of some ultra abstinence, not to say temperance, men. 



In general, we may say Uiat the same principles that govern the manu- 

 facture of wine hold good in making cider ; for cider is merely wine made 

 from apples instead of grapes, and deserves the name of wine certainly as 



