82 Manufacture and Preservation of Cider and Perry. 
cart can be driven up and tilted. The apples are thus easily got 
into the loft. Under this loft is the mill, which is fixed high, 
and fed through a hole opened in the loft ; there is little other 
difference except that in their mill the pair of upper rollers are 
of fluted cast iron. From this mill the pulp is placed in the 
press, as before described. Formerly, the cheese was built in 
straw, but this has now given way to " cider-hairs ;" and I am 
informed that the use of straw is now very rare. 
The capstan seems to be still used there, and also the single 
iron screw, but this has a catch at the bottom to prevent the screw 
running back on great pressure being applied. 
Until the portable apple-mills became general, we had a mill 
to almost every farm, and even to many of the cottages ; but in 
Devonshire one mill ox pound-house serves for a number of 
makers, and sometimes for a parish, each person paying so much 
per hogshead for the making. 
Most of the travelling portable machines in Herefordshire 
have two presses with each mill, and are worked by two horses, 
making 1000 to 1500 gallons in a day ; sometimes they are 
worked by a small portable steam-engine. They are \evy expe- 
ditious, and do very well for second-class cider, but if you would 
have the best, they are very objectionable, because the different 
sorts of fruit very rarely get ripe at once in sufficient quantities 
to enable you to make much at a time. Much cider is therefore 
spoiled, the fruit being ground when too green, by those who are 
impatient to finish the process. I think that each farm or holding 
should have a mill of its own, even if it be only a small hand-mill. 
There are several other rude plans of grinding, such as nut- 
mills, graters, scratchers, &c., but they are so objectionable that 
they hardly deserve notice. 
All metallic substances should be kept from contact with the 
pulp, as chemical combinations immediately take place on 
contact ; for instance, if you take a clean knife and cut an apple 
through, the knife quickly becomes black, as well as the apple. 
For this reason I think the iron teeth and cast-iron in the rollers 
are objectionable, as also the steel ones, although perhaps not to 
the same extent. I should recommend that this iron be removed, 
and fluted rollers of larger diameter be made of some hard wood, 
such as yew-tree, or American iron-wood. No doubt more power 
would then be required to work the mills, but this would be of 
little consequence if the produce was first-class cider. 
When this new mode of grinding was first tried, there was 
great complaint amongst the labourers that the cider did not 
agree with them, and this was generally attributed to the iron ; 
but in my opinion, the green state of the fruit when ground made 
the juice harsh, and caused irritation in the system. 
