78 Manufacture and Preservation of Cider and Perry. 
it is liable to become heated ; and a depth of 1 foot would be 
preferable. In frosty weather it is essential to have the heap 
covered with a good coating of sweet wheaten straw, which 
should be removed when the frost is gone ; but hay must not be 
used, as it gives a taste to the cider. 
Fruit is much injured by frost on account of its breaking up 
the structure of the apple. The juice becomes solid when frozen, 
and increases in size ; the cells are then burst, and any rain which 
afterwards falls upon the heap washes out the saccharine matter 
from the damaged portions, and this encourages decay in the 
other fruit. 
To the management of pears the same remarks apply with 
equal, if not greater, force, more especially as regards the removal 
of windfall and rotten fruits. 
If the perry is required for bottling or long keeping, careful 
selection of the fruit is imperatively necessary ; but if for early 
drinking, the same care need not be taken. 
When it is desirable to preserve a portion of the fruit for eating 
or culinary purposes, it should not be allowed to get too ripe on 
the trees ; and generally, the longer it is intended that an apple 
shall be kept, the greener should be its state when picked. 
The best mode is to take a ladder, and with a small basket 
hand-pick the trees over a fortnight or three weeks before the 
general crop would be ripe enough to collect for cider, choosing 
a dry day, and not commencing till after the dew is off. 
The store-room should be dry and, if possible, on the ground- 
floor, as the frost affects the fruit more in lofts, especially if not 
ceiled inside. The fruit should be placed between good thick 
layers of sweet wheaten straw, and left until required for use. 
2. — The Different Modes of Grinding and Pressing. 
Within the last few years a great alteration has taken place in 
the way of grinding in the counties of Hereford, Worcester, and 
Gloucester, by the adoption of a system which has long been the 
custom in Devonshire. Our old plan was to place 8 or 10 
bushels of fruit in a circular trough (a No. 2), round which a 
stone runner of about a ton weight was propelled by a horse (see 
Plan No. 1) until all or nearly all the kernels and the apples 
were ground to a fine pulp. To accomplish this the sooner, the 
boy attending to the horse had to move the partially-ground pulp 
from the sides of the circular trough to the bottom. This grinding 
was usually continued for about two hours more or less, according 
to the mill and the fruit. The pulp was then put up into horse- 
hair sheets and pressed, and the liquor running from it received 
into a stone cistern or vat. 
The cumbrous old-fashioned press, with its wooden screw and 
