442 



Farming of Herefordshire. 



from that used in Devon ; in the former the mill consists of one, 

 or, in some instances, two solid stone rollers, termed " runners," 

 which revolve on a stone trough, called the chase, the latter 

 being generally from 18 to 20 feet in diameter, the runners, 

 being about 5 feet diameter. In Devon the crushing is usually 

 done y^iXh rollers. The Hereford mill resembles a common 

 mortar or cement mill, and a pictorial sketch of it must be 

 familiar to many as exhibited in the advertisements annually 

 sent out to their customers by the different cider merchants in 

 the metropolis and other large towns. It is conceived by some 

 that the flavour and quality of the cider or perry is much im- 

 proved by leaving the mass of crushed fruit for 12 or 24 hours 

 prior to sending it to the press. An aroma and preserving 

 power is thus supposed to be acquired from the broken skins 

 and pippins, which it is said that otherwise it will not attain. 

 In either case the juice, after expression, is carried to casks, 

 where in a few hours fermentation spontaneously commences, 

 on the due management of which the subsequent strength and 

 quality of the cider or perry depends. The expressed liquor, as 

 it issues from the press, is a turbid brownish liquid, luscious 

 and sweetish in taste, but far from inviting in appearance. The 

 coarsest of these impurities speedily becomes separated from the 

 body of the liquor, after the commencement of fermentation ; 

 being partly discharged in the form of scum which issues through 

 the bunghole along with the first yeast which is discharged, 

 and partly as a dense sediment or lees which gradually settles to 

 the bottom of the cask as the activity of the fermentation sub- 

 sides. When the cider becomes clear it is racked into a second 

 cask, and in the majority of instances no further trouble is taken 

 with it. The liquor so crudely prepared will, however, con- 

 tinue to ferment for a long time afterwards, or in fact so long 

 as any saccharine matter remains to be converted into alcohol. 

 For commercial sale, it is however generally considered desir- 

 able to retain a considerable amount of sweetness in the liquor ; 

 in order therefore to check the fermentation it is repeatedly 

 "racked," or drawn off from one cask into another. On the care- 

 ful management of this process the " body " or sweetness, as 

 well as the flavour, will be found to depend ; in some cases the 

 same end is obtained by employing a sulphur match. These 

 matches are made of linen or woollen cloth, about 10 inches 

 in length and an inch in width, and are thickly coated with sul- 

 phur for about 8 inches of their length, by repeatedly dipping 

 the strips into that substance when heated to liquidity ; previous 

 to its employment every vent in the cask is tightly stopped, 

 except the bung-hole ; the match is then kindled and lowered 

 into the cask, being held by the undipped end until well lighted, 



