IV. 



THE RED MUST. 



The writers on orchards of the 17th century have described 

 three kinds of Musts, the red, the white, and the striped.* 

 The red and white Musts were once very extensively culti- 

 vated, and are still found in the orchards of Herefordshire ; 

 but the striped has disappeared, and was probably a very 

 old variety in the middle of that century : for the author of 

 the Herefordshire Orchard, who wrote in 1656, states that 

 the planter of trees of this variety commonly survives to see. 

 the decay of his own XDork." 



The Red Must has, at all periods, been esteemed a good 

 Cider Apple, though the Ciders latterly made with it, un- 

 mixed with other Apples, have been light, and thin ; and I 

 have never found the specific gravity of its expressed juice 

 to exceed 1064. In mixture with other varieties it may 

 however, have deserved the character which it has acquired ; 

 for it is universally admitted that a richer Cider is often 

 made by mixing two or three varieties of Apples together, 

 than either of those varieties, if used alone, would afford ; 

 and when after having ascertained the specific gravity of the 

 juice of two varieties, the one being sweet and succulent, 

 and the other dry and astringent, I have mingled the pulp 

 of each in such proportions as to afford nearly an equal 



* Evelyn's Pomona, and Woxlidge. 



