46 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



It has been also remarked that those who drink cider 

 are free from apoplexy, which often overthrows the 

 strongest ale tippler. But we are decidedly of opinion, 

 that our beverage, like our diet, ought not to be too 

 uniform. The constant use of any one particular kind of 

 drink, as of food, might have some bad effects. Nature 

 seems to give us this opinion by the aliments which she 

 has provided for man, and likewise by giving him an ap- 

 petite for different kinds of food. 



Many estates might be improved, the country enriched, 

 and the people benefited, were the planting of cider fruit 

 more attended to, particularly on those grounds not fit 

 for corn. Cider is always a marketable commodity, it 

 costs no fuel to make it, and when well made it brings 

 as high a price from the press as the Frenchman obtains 

 for his boasted wines from the vat: let us then imitate 

 the Parsis, who hold few good works in more estimation 

 than the planting of trees. They have also a great un- 

 willingness to cut down any fruit-tree- 



Apple-wine is admired as a summer beverage, but it is 

 by no means equal to the cider made from Golden Pip- 

 pins, which, when given in good condition, and well 

 timed, surpasses every other refreshing drink. The 

 spirit extracted from cider is equal to brandy for preserv- 

 ing fruit, or mixing in made wines or liquors. 



A solution of iron in the juice of the golden rennet, 

 evaporated to a thick consistency, proves an elegant 

 chalybeate. 



Apples were formerly used as a cosmetic to soften the 

 skin and take away freckles. 



" There is made an ointment," says Gerard, " with the 

 pulp of apples and swine's grease and rose-water, which 

 is used to beautify the face, and to take away the rough- 

 ness of the skin, which is called in shops pomatum, of 

 the apples whereof it is made." 



