I 



396 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



May 18, 1912. 



institute has 



investigate and to learn. 



AN ECHO FROM THE WEST. 



ting Day at the National 

 Fruit and Cider Institute. 



Mention has been made from time to 

 time in these pages of the National Fruit 

 and Cider Institute, at Long Ashton, near 

 Bristol but, except in the West of Eng- 

 land, it is doubtful whether many people 

 know much about it, for the simple reason 

 that the institute is mostly engaged in 

 the culture of apples suitable tor cider 

 making, and in investigating a hundred 

 and one things that are of interest to 

 the people who make and drink the popular 

 wholesome beverage of the West Country. 

 For nearly ten years the 

 pursued its modest way, supported by the 

 Board of Agriculture, the Bath and West 

 of England Agriculttiral Society, and the 

 County Councils of Devon, (;ioucester, 

 Hereford, Monmouth, Somerset, and Wor- 

 cester. Quietly it has proceeded in its work 

 during this period, an<l amongst the records 

 it has to show there is many a problem con- 

 nected with cider making that Mr. T. B. 

 P. Barker, M.A., the able and genial 

 director, has solve<l for the benefit of the 

 industry on behalf of which he works. 



The position of the institute is unique. 

 In th(^ first place, it fills the office of a 

 teacher an<l advisor, and any farmer or 

 cider maker in the West Country who is 

 in difficulty about his cider may go to the 

 director of the institute with tbe assur- 

 ance of receiving couileous attention and 

 iwssiistance. Secondly, its business is to 



In short, tlie 



institute is an experimental station. aii<[ 

 the nee<l of such a place is realised by 

 those who are practical cider makers, and 

 know how much is yet to be found out 

 about the work. The present-day cider 

 maker is a bit of a philovSO))her in his way. 

 He does the best he can, according to his 

 experience and his lights, but there is 

 always the possibility that th<' ( idcr may 

 not come up to the the standard expecte<l, 

 Or it may go wrong, and become undrink- 

 able, through some unknown cause, and 

 when this happens the farmer puts it down 

 to a slice of bad luck, just as he wouhl if 

 he lost a sheep or a calf, and hopes for 

 better things next time. 



Aided by science, it is the business of 

 the institute to investigate these troubles 

 in cider making, with the object of as- 

 certaining causes, and suggesting reme- 

 dies, and it may lay claim to a fair m.ea- 

 sure of success. But while it teaches the 

 institute is also learning, whicli. I)y the 

 way, is a point that is often overlooke^l 

 by p)ersons who are unacquainted with such 

 establishments. In the little laboratory, 

 with its test tubes and apparatus, thert* 

 is a good deal of useful research work 

 going on. and probably Mr. Barker knows 

 more about cider making, from a .sr-ientiiic- 

 fitandpo'nt, than any other man in the 



West Countrv. 



Thirdly, the institute is a nnrseiy for 

 the propagation and distribution of cider 

 apples, and in this department some of its 

 most useful work is recorded. Though 

 the history of cidej- making is ancient, and 

 many of the orchards which now provi<le 

 the fruit also fed the cider mills of a past 

 generation of farmers, the planting of cider 

 apples in recent years has been sailly nv*s- 

 lectefl. The <lemand for table apph s was 

 largely res])onsible for this, and because 

 they gave a quicker, and pcssibly, a more 

 remunerative return. farmers selected 

 them for plant rig n<*w orchards and filling 

 up ohl ones, in [preference to vintage varie- 

 ties. It must also be said that some of 

 them wer*' ppr^niuh fl that they could sell 

 the best of the fruit for table purposes 

 and grind the remainder uj) for cider, but 



anybody who is acquainted with cider mak- 

 ing knows what a fallacy this is. Drink- 

 able and saleable cider must be made from 

 apples suited to the purpose. What has 

 the institute done in this direction? It 

 has scoured the counties which contribute 

 to its support ; it has discovered local varie- 

 ties, which are well known in districts 

 where they originated, but nowhere else ; it 

 has brought them together at Long Ashtnn, 

 propagated them, and sent them out as 

 orchard trees, and it is questionable 

 whether there is such a complete collection 

 of cider apples to be found at any other 

 station in England. By this branch of its 

 work the institute has probably prevented 

 some splendid old cider apples from drop- 

 ping out of cultivation ; it has been the 

 means of distributing varieties over a wide 

 area, and since the distribution began it 

 is safe to say that more cider orchards 

 pure ami simple have been planted in the 

 West of England than for many, many 

 years past. 



The first of these orchards, planted three 

 or four years ago, are now coming to a 

 bearing stage, and when fruiting becomes 

 general a new era of interest will be opened 

 in the cider-making counties. What is 

 more, this work is acting as a stimulant to 

 cider apple planting. There is not the 

 anxiety to plant table fruit that there 

 was; in fact, the scarcity of cider apples 

 is beginning to be felt ; the experience of 

 the last few years has shown that good 

 cider fruit will pay; people are realising 

 what thev owe to their forbears for the 

 orchards that the latter planted, and with 

 it comes the sense of duty as to what they 

 owe to those who will follow them. In 

 fact, orcharding teaches its lesson of un- 

 selfishness. If former generations had not 

 propagates! and planted there would be no 

 need for a National Fruit and Cider In- 

 st it lite . and there would be no j u ice to 

 fill the hogsheads. In the same way, if 

 this generation does not propagate and 

 plant, where is the cider to come from in 

 the vears to come ? 



some of the visitors, who selected Frequin 

 Audievre (evidently of French origin), 

 Medaille d'Or, and Yarlington Mill, and 

 were content. Each visitor was presented 

 with a printed list giving particulars as to 

 the time of making, the percentages of 

 malic acid and tannin in each cider, as 

 well as the specific gravity and rate of 

 fermentation, and one could learn from 

 the sweetness, the bitter-sweetness, or the 

 sharpness of the different single variety 

 ciders the necessity of judicious blending 

 in order to obtain a palatable beverage. 

 There were also ciders to be tried which 

 were the result of different interesting ex- 

 periments, and this tasting day proveil once 

 more that if cider is to be made out of 

 one apple alone there is no variety equal 

 to Kingston Black. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Granville E. 

 Lloyd Baker, a little impromptu conference 

 Avas got up, Mr. Barker having something 

 to say about the cider making, while Mr. 

 J. Ettle, the well-known horticultural in- 

 structor in Somerset, who is superintendent 

 of the Fruit Department at the institute, 

 dealt with this branch, and Mr. G. H. Hol- 

 lingsworth, of Gloucester, describe<l the 

 progress of the experimental orchards in 



the latter county. 



In addition to the tasting, the visitors 

 had an opportunity of inspecting the young 

 cider orchard at the institute, in which 

 a number of varieties are represented, and 

 on these a 



ducted. 



Lastlv. <-irler is made at the Institute, bancs that y\ 



host of experiments are con- 

 There is also an old orchard which 

 is tvpical of a hundred others like it in 

 the West, and by contrast with the young 

 one it looks particularly antiquated. 

 Further on is the nursery and the planta- 

 tion, for.it must not be thought that the 

 institute is confined to cider and cider 

 apples. It also takes commercial truit 

 <ulture under its wing, and a plantation 

 laid out on market lines is under the 

 charge of Mr. J. Ettle. In fact, there 

 was a lot to see, and to describe it all would 

 take more space than is available here, but 

 as the visitors mounted the motor oliara- 



back to 



to carry them 



It has a mill and plant of its own, apples 

 are obtained from an area which ranges 

 from Devonshire to Worcester, and the 

 cider is made, not in the haphazard fashion 

 seen on so many farms, but on proper and 

 syvStematic lines, and the different results 

 of making the beverage from single v 

 ties, and also from blending the juices of 

 different types of apples, are shown. 



The institute has one great field day 

 each year, but it is called Tasting Day." 

 for tbe simple reason that interested per- 

 sons from the contributing counties are in- 

 vited to come and taste the different ciders 

 made at the institute, and obtain any in- 

 formation they may desire about them. 

 Tastint: Dav tof)k iilace this year on May 

 1?. nntl in j)()int of interest and attendance 

 was the Ix'st yet arranged at the insti- 

 tute. Nearly two hundred jiersons were 

 present, and ttiev <'anio from many i)arts. 

 Devonsh re si^nt some, there were farmers 

 and cider nnikers from Zunnnerzet,'* two 

 bio; parties of farmers from f Gloucester- 

 shire, as well as a sprinkling of commercial 

 cider makers, another party from Here- 

 ford, a few from Worcester, and Mon- 

 mouth was rejuesented by that man of so 

 m.any [)arts, Mr. W. J. Grant, who is 

 honorary secrftnrv of the institute. 



velopment Commissioners 



Bristol town they felt that they had spent 

 a pleasant and instructive day. 



This, then, is a brief description of the 

 work of the National Fruit and Cider In- 

 stitute up to now- What it will do in the 

 future remains to be seen, but it has pos- 



stretched before 



have cast a 



favourable eye upon it, the large sums of 

 money that it was necessary to raise locally 

 has mostly been promised, and there is a 

 probability in the near future that tne 

 modest little group of buildings at Long 

 Ashton will grow, and with them the faci- 

 lities of the establishments, and the scope 

 of its usefulness. In short, Ave hope to 

 write of this place one day as the reco-,- 

 n\sed State-supported Fruit Station ni tne 

 West of England doing more and n\ore 

 work in the interests of thr inut-^rowin„ 

 and <'ider-making industries in ili*' 

 Countrv. 



Tasting was no small business. 



First 



there were fifteen lots made from sharp 

 apples to be sampled, and of these Porter's 

 Perfection. Yellow Styre, and Cap of 

 L berty a\ ere generally agreed to be the 

 best. Next came half a dozen samples of 

 cider made from sweet apples, and here 

 preference seemed to be given to Sweet 

 Alford and Slack-ma-girdle. Fouri:een lots 

 of bitter-sweets were rather too much for 



Eucharis amazonica.— In Tnaii 



gardens this plant has fallen out ol 

 tion, and where a few years since it ^^^^ 

 grrown in quantitv, it is now i-arely s • 

 This may be duetto change of \^-*^^^^^^^e 

 gardening, but in some cases, perhaps, 

 to attacks of the " mite.^ It is therefore 

 pleasant to occasionally come across ^ 

 one-time favourite in g-ood condition. ^^^^ 

 cently saw some well-flowered plants i 

 gardens at Eagworth Hall; there were a«J^^^ 

 a dozen plants carrving strong ^P'*^^^^^^ 

 large blooms. Their condition ^^"^j^^d 

 credit on the gardener, Mr. Hall: the ^^^^ 

 no special treatment afforded thoni, an 

 prevailiiitr coiiditiiMis in the district ^^g^ 

 of tin- lu'M tor tlic rultivation V^j^^pE. 

 whether indoors or outside. — ^Paul 1. 



