76 THE BOOK OF FRUIT BOTTLING 
works out at under 4d. a gallon. Of course it is made 
in a rough and ready fashion, often without any attempt 
at cleanliness, either with regard to the appliances, mill 
vats, cider cloths, carts or waggons into which the fruit 
is pitched; or with any care to the selection of the 
apples or pears; they are picked and tumbled in any- 
how, along with leaves and dirt and decayed fruit, to 
which may also be added the dirt from the unwashed farm 
hands. Luckily, however, the pure air of the country, 
or some special preservative which seems to attend so 
much of our food supply, keeps the rampant town 
microbe in abeyance, and we drink this ‘‘ dangerous” 
concoction with impunity, and congratulate ourselves on 
the certain knowledge that on a hot day nothing is more 
delightful than a ‘‘long drink” of cider. Added to 
this, there are the picturesque surroundings of Farm- 
house cider-making: the rick-yard, in which the cider- 
mill is often to be seen, is crowded with the rich harvest 
now gathered in (October is the usual month for cider- 
making); the monotonous grind of the mill itself, as 
the great cog-wheel revolves, with the aid of the staid 
old horse who plods round and round the circle, 
always carefully avoiding stumbling over the long 
shaft which cuts across his circumference, and propels 
the machinery, in the half dark shed wherein the 
mysterious operations are performed. Add to this 
the varied conveyances which bring the fruit to be 
ground, and the still more varied owners who stand 
about in the delicious warmth of a late September or 
October sun, with just a touch of autumn in the air, 
and a background of old stone barns and thatched roofs 
with colours which would delight a Morland, and you 
have the whole scene of rural cider-making. See illus- 
tration, ‘‘Cider Making in the Midlands.” 
But alas! ‘‘this is not business,” as ‘‘ business” is 
understood by the readers of the Daily Mail or in 
