406 GATHERING THE APPLES. 



apples. Some cause them to be picked up almost 

 every day, as they have fallen from the trees, those 

 which have fallen being most commonly ripe, or ap- 

 proaching the state of ripeness ; others, for expedi- 

 tion, or convenience, when the apples appear ripe, 

 shake the tree, and get them all down at once : the 

 first is, we have no doubt, the preferable mode. After 

 the apples have fallen from the trees, or are otherwise 

 removed from them, it is very usual to lay them in 

 a large heap or heaps, in the orchard, for some time, 

 till an opportunity offers for making them into cider ; 

 but we do not consider this the best practice. If 

 apples are exposed in heaps, in the open air, they 

 should be where the sun and wind could have access 

 to them ; but as, in the autumn, the air is usually 

 surcharged with moisture, and the sun frequently 

 invisible, we prefer a large airy room over the cider- 

 house, if to be obtained, where the apples may re- 

 main, and there be kept not only till they become 

 soft and ripe, but till they have also shrunk consi- 

 derably in quantity, which they will not fail to do, 

 by parting with a great portion of the water which 

 they contain, while thus kept ; the longer indeed 

 apples are kept, provided they are not decayed) the 

 better and stronger will the cider be, for the very 

 obvious reason, that the aqueous portion of the juice 

 is diminished, and the saccharine portion in larger 

 quantity relative to every gallon of the juice. 



You may indeed obtain, by shaking down your 

 apples and converting them into cider immediately, 

 a much larger measure of juice from any given 

 number of apples, but your cider will be poor and 



