Farming of Herefordsldrc. 



441 



.also had previously given very full details in liis ' Rural Eco- 

 nomy of Gloucestershire ; ' the best article which has appeared 

 in more recent times is that of Mr. Falkner, in the 4th volume of 

 the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. It 

 is intended in the first place to give a synoptical view of cider 

 making, and afterwards enter upon the special management 

 required for the perry manufacture. In doing this it is not meant 

 to enter upon every minute manipulation, a large part of which 

 is not only well understood, but is also to be found more or less 

 in full in the treatises written by the authors already named. 

 It is contemplated only to give such details as are requisite to 

 the due elucidation of the subject, rather than an exact descrip- 

 tive account, thus leaving space to dwell more fully upon points 

 of management where it is probable that improvements may be 

 . effected. 



In Herefordshire the ordinary mode of gathering the fruit is 

 by sending men to beat the trees with long slender poles or 

 rods, which are sometimes armed with iron hooks to enable the 

 labourers the better to lay hold of and shake the branches of the 

 trees; these poles are provincially termed "polting lugs." 

 Women afterwards follow^ with baskets for the purpose of picking 

 up the fruit, who, according to circumstances, carry the apples 

 or pears at once to places selected for their deposition, and 

 there arrange them into small heaps, or, as sometimes is the case, 

 empty their baskets laden with the fruit into a cart employed 

 for its reception, by which means it is at once removed from 

 the orchard ; in either case however the fruit is permitted to 

 remain in heaps for some time in order to mellow ; seldom less 

 than 3 v/eeks are allowed for this purpose, often much more. As 

 fruit on the same tree differs in the time of ripening, and con- 

 sequently possesses unequal qualities, careful persons go over 

 the trees twice, once with a hook when the spontaneous fall 

 takes place, leaving such of the fruit to mature as will not quit 

 the boughs with a gentle agitation ; and a second time with 

 " poking lugs," when the remaining fruit is sufficiently matured, 

 or winter is likely to set in. The fruit heaps are allowed to 

 remain for a period, the length of which is decided by the 

 ■state of ripeness, generally however in Herefordshire the heaps 

 remain a much longer time than is necessary, often until part 

 begins to decay, in which case the production of a really fine- 

 flavoured liquor becomes impossible. It is not deemed necessary 

 in the present instance to describe the mechanical operations of 

 > grinding the apples into pulp and pressing the juice, but to 

 confine the observations to the more difficult part of the :manu- 

 facture connected with the fermentation, 6cc. It may, however, 

 .be well to observe that the mill of Hereford differs materially 



