82 THE BOOK OF FRUIT BOTTLING 
layer of fruit, and another cloth spread to receive 
more pulp. When the requisite number of layers 
are complete, very great pressure is applied, the 
juice falls into a vat below, and is conducted by a 
wooden trough, let into the floor, into slate tanks sunk 
into the floor of the cider-room, and from these tanks 
it is pumped into the ‘‘keeves”+ in the keeving-room. 
When the keeving operations are complete and the 
frothy head which has risen shows signs of cracking, 
the juice is racked or pumped from the keeves into 
barrels placed in the cider-cellar, and here the process 
of fermentation goes on, and when complete the cask is 
bunged down lightly. The process of fermentation is 
that which converts the original apple juice into mature 
cider. In Leaflet No. I, published by the National Cider 
Institute, the process of Alcoholic Fermentation is fully 
and lucidly described, and to it we would refer our 
readers for information, only quoting one paragraph to 
explain what is meant by Alcoholic Fermentation. 
«¢ Alcoholic Fermentation,” says Mr B. T. P. Barker 
(Resident Director), ‘‘is the result of the action of 
certain living organisms or germs, called yeasts, on the 
sugar contained in the apple juice. Yeasts find their 
way into the juice from various sources: many, for 
example, being found attached to the skins of apples and 
being washed off into the juice at the time of grinding 
and pressing the fruit, while some are always present in 
the atmosphere of cider-making premises and attached 
to appliances used for cider-making. . . . As the sugar 
disappears and the sweetness is lost, alcohol is formed 
in its place and carbonic acid gas is given off from the 
liquid in the form of small gas bubbles. ‘This, then, is 
the change which occurs in apple juice during the course 
of fermentation.” 
During this process the hydrometer should be 
1 Keeves=vats or pipes with the heads taken out. 
