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afterwards, though it will greatly improve by keeping. 

 If bottled cider is required, it should be bottled and 

 wired in the September or October after it is made ; 

 some persons prefer an earlier time, the end of April 

 or the beginning of May ; a greater degree of effer- 

 vescence is thus attained, but a considerable loss oc- 

 curs from the number of bottles that will burst. 



The strongest ciders are made from fruits which 

 possess some degree of astringency ; and this quality 

 is so necessary in the pear, that we have never known 

 a single instance in which perry, made from fruits that 

 were without astringency, did not become sour before 

 the middle of the succeeding summer. It may be pre- 

 served by a mixture of the harsh juice of the crab, 

 and this is effected more by the astringent than by 

 the saccharine matter the latter contains. 



The merit of cider will always depend much on the 

 proper mixture, or rather on the proper separation of 

 the fruits. Those whose rind and pulp are tinged 

 with green, or red, without the mixture of yellow, 

 (for that colour will disappear in the first stages of 

 fermentation,) should be carefully kept apart from 

 such as are yellow, or yellow intermixed with red. 

 The latter kinds, which should remain on the tree till 

 ripe enough to fall without being much shaken, are 

 alone capable of making fine cider. Each kind should 

 be collected separately, and kept till it becomes per- 

 fectly mellow. For this purpose, in the common 



