48 



sive and not easily characterized. When the room is not too close the 

 odor is decidedly pleasant. Some makers are very careful to store the 

 fruit only a foot or two deep, but this is the exception. 



The invariable custom, so far as observed, was to run the fruit by 

 gravity from the loft storerooms into the grinders, whence the pomace 

 falls into vats before going to the presses. The fruit is ground from 

 these upper-floor storerooms as it ripens some varieties not coming to 

 their best until Januaiy or February. In the peculiar climate of Nor- 

 mandy and Brittan}^ there seems to be very little danger of the weather 

 becoming sufficiently severe to harm the fruit materially. 



The growers of this fruit are very largely the small peasant pro- 

 prietors and small tenants, with here and there a large estate. The 

 small growers are referred to in French literature as "-rocoltants.'' 

 Often these peasant proprietors make up their own fruit and that of 

 neighbors; hence the cider houses of these small makers are very 

 common in some parts. But there is a tendency to commercialize, and 

 more and more the fruit goes to the large manufacturer. To these it 

 is hauled in carts (PI. V, fig. 2) loose or in sacks, the latter being the 

 most popular method. These sacks are hoisted to the upper floor of 

 the factories and distributed to the proper storerooms. There is also 

 in France another class of cider makers, who buy the partly fermented 

 juice from the small growers and blend and work it up to suit the 

 trade they wish to supply. These are known as "commercants." 

 They often make an excellent article, but they are also charged with a 

 vast amount of trickery in the production of sophisticated goods. 



There is, in the great crop years, an extensive railway commerce in 

 cider apples, both to local points and to the near or distant states. The 

 shipments are made loose in what we call box cars, and also loose or 

 in sacks on flat cars (PI. V, fig. 1). The method of shipping in sacks 

 seems to be preferred in France and might well be copied in this 

 country. The Germans appear to prefer handling the fruit loose. 

 No railway commerce in cider apples was seen in England. In 1900 

 such an immense crop was harvested in Normandy that the local rail- 

 ways were literally blocked with fruit, as is sometimes the case on 

 American roads when great quantities of coal are carried. 



At the local factories visited in France great stress seems to be laid 

 upon gathering the late fruit when perfectly dry and storing at once 

 in the bins, where more or less of it lies until January and February. 

 There appears to be very little tendency to decay. The cider maker 

 judges the ripeness of the fruit, or its fitness for grinding, by pressing 

 with the thumb until the juice exudes or by breaking the fruit in half 

 and crushing one portion in his hand with a wringing motion. Great 

 stress is laid upon grinding at the best period of ripeness in order to 

 secure all the juice possible by expressing. Cleanliness is the rule 

 in the handling of fruit in France, yet some dirty bad work was seen, 



