Manufacture and Preservation of Cider and Perry. 77 
fruit fall, and to shake and knock the rest off the trees ; but by this 
plan the trees are much injured for the next crop. 
The windfall should be kept apart from the riper fruit ; and 
that this may be the better done, the ground should be carefully 
picked over once every second week, and the fruit kept separate 
in the apple-yard. 
Any experienced person will be able to decide when the crop 
is ripe enough for being gathered ; the mellowness of the fruit, 
and the ease with which it can be shaken from the trees, readily 
show this ; and it is impossible to lay down any rule as to time, 
owing to the differences of climate, soil, and season. 
jP* When the fruit is ripe, and the day fine and dry, a careful man 
should be selected to go over the trees, armed with a light pole 
having a hook at the smaller end, with which he gently shakes 
each limb or branch in succession. 
The fruit should then be carefully picked up, free from leaves 
or twigs, the small apples being put into separate baskets, to be 
taken to the apple-yard, for second-class cider ; the best fruit may 
then be carted to the apple-loft. They should at first be spread 
in the loft about 12 to lB inches thick, but after a week or nine 
days, may be thrown up to a depth of 24 to 30 inches. When 
the apples are moved for this purpose any rotten ones had better 
"be removed to the mill, and any small or unripe fruit, which 
escaped notice at picking, should be taken to the apple-yard. 
This process of shaking and storing should be repeated in 
about a fortnight ; but where the orchards are large, when they 
are all once gone over, the men can commence again a second 
round. During the second process of shaking it is important that 
none of the fruit should be knocked off, as such, not being fully 
ripe, will not do for the apple-loft. 
When the trees are gone over again for the third time, the re- 
mainder of the crop may be shaken off, no more violence being 
used than is absolutely necessary. This third gathering must 
not be taken to the loft, but should be put in the apple-yard with 
the sortings of the first and second gatherings, unless you happen 
to have plenty of room under cover. As this portion of the fruit 
did not ripen so early nor so fully as the rest, it is best mixed 
with the windfalls and sortings for making second-class cider. 
The general practice is to leave all the apples in the apple-yard 
exposed to the weather until ready for grinding, few persons 
having proper accommodation for housing them. When such a 
course is pursued, it is important to separate all rotten ones 
before making, for even if, as some persons consider, the black 
rot in fruit is alone injurious to the cider, still, it is always best to 
err on the safe side. 
The fruit should not lie more than 2 feet thick in the heap, or 
