27 



(says another writer) is the chief instrument which nature ma1ie> 

 use of to enrich the earth.'' 



A premium is offered for the best cider, in the hope that many 

 farmers may be induced to make that a pleasant liquor which is 

 commonly harsh and sour. Some few make cider which is smooth 

 and comparatively sweet to the taste. With equal care, all may 

 tlo the same. Such cider would not only be more pleasant, 

 but doubtless more wholesome, and it would lessen the con- 

 sumption, and ought eventually to supersede the use, of spiritu- 

 ous liquors. Cider is generally made without separating the 

 ripe from the unripe, and the rotten apples from the sound ones ; 

 and no measure is used to check its violent fermentation. Hence 

 the meagre and austere cider almost universal in New-England. 

 Were grapes, now producing the iSnest wines, managed as we do 

 our apples, their juice would yield liquors as little esteemed as 

 «ur cider. The following intimations for making good cider 

 may be uscful. 



1. Let the apples hang on the trees until fully ripe. Such 

 as are then mellow should be at once committed to the mill and 

 press. Such as are hard should be laid in heaps not more than 

 ten or twelve inches thick,* until they become mellow. For 

 apples never attain their highest flavour until mellow. 



2. Separate the rotten from the sound apples ; for the latter 

 only can produce good cider. Suppose all the rotten apples 

 were to be selected, ground and pressed by themselves, the 

 juice would be alike unwholesome and disgusting, and be thrown 

 away. Naw, in proportion as rotten apples are ground up with 

 the sound ones, will the cider be injured. 



3. Not a drop of water should be put to the cider, not even 

 to wet the straw used in making up the cheese. For it will re- 

 quire the whole strength of the pure juice to preserve it in 

 casks through our hot summers, in the coolest cellars. The 

 straw should be perfectly clean and sweet. 



* Many of the most experienced cider makers in New-England house 

 *heir apples before grinding by laying them on the flour of the cider house, 

 or on the barn floor, taking care to move them often, to prevent their 

 heating. 



