CIDER-MAKING 77 
the stress of twentieth century competition, This kind 
of cider is not good enough for trade and exportation, 
the quality is too uncertain, we must have it standardised 
and reliable, and the wine merchants and others must 
know what they are buying, because the public wil! 
know what they are drinking. Therefore to bring this 
desirable result about (because we know that British 
brains and industry can produce the finest possible 
article of any description if the brains and industry 
combine), there is even now (March 1907) an agitation 
on foot to secure a standard for pure cider, in the same 
way as dairy-farmers have secured official standards for 
milk and butter. So much inferior cider (so called) 
has been put upon the market by unscrupulous people, 
who simply make up decoctions of nasty stuff, from 
which the juice of the apple is often entirely absent, 
that the trade is being damaged. This is all the more 
to be regretted, because, as pointed out in the Midland 
Herald, ‘« The cider-making industry is worth encourage- 
ment. Its tendency to-day is towards expansion, for 
there is probably more cider drunk in the great cities 
to-day than ever before, and only lately the makers of 
the West have found a new and promising market for 
the best of their produce in the Low Countries, where 
cider is regarded in the light of wine, and those who 
_ drink it are prepared to pay ordinary Continental wine 
prices for such as suits their taste.” 
This being so, another important part of the problem 
is to encourage the making of only high-class cider and 
perry, and to accomplish this we have the aid of the 
National Cider Institute at Long Ashton, near Bristol. 
To this we shall return almost immediately, but 
before doing so it is necessary to mention that a third 
difficulty which checks the progress of this important 
industry is the heavy cost of the transit of cider by the 
railways. [his matter formed the subject of a recent 
