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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887. 
date its origin from the same cause. In those cases 
where butter prepared with the most extreme care, 
unobjectionable in the very fresh state., but becoming 
rancid and offensive two days later may not that 
puzzle be solved by the organic poisons in putrefied 
driuking-water ? 
Cider-making is on the increase in France since 
the destruction of about one-third of the total of 
the vineyards. In any case the beverage has been 
peculiar since the 11th century to Normandy, Picardy, 
and Brittany, as wine has been to other regions. 
Where climate and soil suit the growth of apple trees, 
cider can be prepared and if it be well made the 
beverage is healthy, stimulating and nourishing. From 
the time of Columella the secret of cider making has 
remained unchanged. Select three classes of apples, 
sweet, bitter and acid in equal proportions. How- 
ever, in the valley of the Auge where the best 
French cider comes from no acid apples are em- 
ployed. Care should be taken to select the fruit 
arriving at a common period of maturity. The sweet 
apples produce an agreeable drink, but weak in color 
and not keeping long; the bitter impart strength, but 
tend to thicken the beverage, while the acid apples 
yield a weak cider, thin and apt to brown when in 
cask. As the artist when painting Venus borrowed a 
grace wherever he could find it, so perhaps the prin- 
ciple may be applied to cider-making in selecting 
the apples. 
Bitter apples yield the least juice ; but aginst this, 
the juice has strength and keeping quality. Sweet 
apples give more and acid apples most juice. Over- 
ripe apples weaken the cider and injure its flavor, 
while those from old trees yield a cider very strong. 
Not much error will be committed if well-matured 
large apples and of different varieties be chosen. It 
is when the apples commence to turn yellow exhale 
their well-known odor, and especially when plenty of 
sound fruit has fallen on the ground that the moment 
has arrived for the harvest, selecting dry weather if 
possible, as apples when wet and put in heaps " must " 
rapidly. The apples are allowed to remain under a 
dry and aerated shed, but not exposed to frosts for 
one to three weeks. The old pulping mill is now 
discarded, wherein a deep circular trough in wood 
or flags twenty yards in circumference, the apples 
were ground under a running mill-stone weighing a 
ton and worked by a horse. The pulp or " cheese" 
is allowed to rest for a night to ferment. It is an 
error to suppose the seeds of the apple injure the 
quality of the cider ; the contrary is the case, as they 
impart an aroma to the juice and assist its keeping. 
Of the modern cider mill, the models are legion. 
If the cider be destined for long keeping no water 
is added ; if otherwise, one quart of water per 
thirty-four pounds of fruit is mixed during the 
grinding. The best water is that from a pond and 
the worst from a well. The pulp is placed in hair- 
cloth bags inside a strong box and pressed ; the aim 
should be to have the juice clear, rich by 10 per 
cent, in sugar, and registering a specific gravity of 
T07. Next, the juice is drawn off to a vat or into 
wine-hogsheads, and successively racking it in different 
casks as the scum rises, and which should be skimmed 
off and the lee subsides. If the fermentation has 
been uniform, 7 to 10 days will be sufficient for the 
clarification. Then the fermentation should be checked 
by excluding connection with the air. 
In March it will be ready for bottling ; if it does 
not require fining to remove thickness or ropiness, 
and which isinglass or stewed pears and apples will 
correct. To check fermentation a bit of sulphur is 
burned on the end of a stick inside a half-field 
cask, the cider is then shaken to absorb the fumes. 
This doctoring generally tells its own tale. To color 
cider, cochineal, burnt sugar, &c, are employed ; and 
cloves, cinnamon, kc, to give it aroma. Effervescing 
or champagne cider is made by abruptly checking 
the incipient fermentation with a little burning sulphur 
or some blazing brandy, aDd drawing off into earthern 
bottles with tied down and sealed corks. First class 
bottled cider has kept good for eight years, 
In France, cire is taken never to alter the quality 
of the soil which produces good apples. All animal 
manures are studiously avoided ; only a compust of 
the residue of the cider press and a little lime 
strewn at the foot of the trees is all the iuanuiiug 
required. On an average one tone of apples yield 
120 gallons of good cider and 12 gallons of brandy. 
"With the extension of apple culture isjdevelopiug the 
distillation of apple brandy. 
A good deal of discussion is still taking pU«e 
respecting the Goetz method for laying down laud 
to permanent pasture. His experiments commtneed 
in 1873-4, and be maintains he can by careful top- 
dressing fertilizers indefinitely obtain a return of 4 
to 5 tons of hay per acre. Practical men are not 
so enthusiastic. M. Goetz makes a selection of thirteen 
or seventeen choice grasses suited to the locality. 
The mixture he sows at the rate of 60 to 70 lb. 
per acre, that which represents a cost of 50 to 60 fr. 
He excludes clover lucerne, sainfoin &c, which tap 
the subsoil for mineral food. Thus, the surface soil 
is his working area. And for success even here the 
application of fertilizers must be liberal. Hence the 
plan would suit poor, thin soils or those exhausted 
or tired from clover cropping. In reality, four gras-65 
form the bases of the sowing. Fromental (aveiia 
rhitior), dactyle (Jjactylis glomerata), ray grass (Sulium 
perenne) and the woolly houlque {Rolens tanatus) iu 
the proportion of one-half, one-fifth, and one-seventh, 
respectively ; the other varieties are generally selected 
for their odoriferous qualities. 
It is a good plan for the farmer to raise each 
variety of grass seed himself. In spring, if the soil has 
been well prepared and the sowing period favorable, 
two months will suffice for producing au excellent green 
carpet. The following spring the fertilizers — nitrate 
of soda or sulphate of ammonia &c, as may best 
suit the land, are applied at the rate of one to three 
cwts. per acre. When the crop is intended to be 
cut for hay, the grass should be mown when coming 
into flower ; if later, the principal grasses will become 
hard and woody. Purchases of Goetz — raised hay 
assert, it lacks the fineness and aroma of that from 
natural meadow, so never brings so high a price; 
but the yield is heavier, the latter whenever laid is 
thus difficult to mow by the machine. The Goetz 
system has certainly succeeded in the case of poor, 
almost of worthless lauds, in producing an abundant 
supply of fodder for the support of six cows per 
five acres. 
Horse breeders in Normandy and Limousiu before 
turniug yearlings into meadows iu spring, prepare 
them for the change by augmenting the ration of 
carrots; the latter are cooliug and aqueous and suit 
admirably the transition. The feet of the foals are 
carefully pared flat before quitting the sheds. It is 
during this period that foals ought to be studiously 
well fed; hence, select appropriate pasturages. In 
Normandy, there are meadows having a special repute 
for the rearing of foals. If the latter be of pure 
blood and destined for the saddle, it would not be 
right to place them in an over rich pasture ; that 
would be rather to fatten them at the expense of 
their development. On the contrary foals which 
promise to become large and heavy iu build, ought 
not to be brought up on meagre pastures ; such would 
tend to make them flat-sided and spindle-legged. 
Many breeders supplement the poverty of the herbage 
by auxiliary rations of crushed oats or barley ; but 
nothing can replace good meadow feeding in May 
and June united to continual exercise. 
When several foals of different ages have to be 
reared together, the youngest are allowed to enter the 
meadow some time in advance. This plan enables 
them to nip the delicate ends of the grass, for the older 
stock will be ever able to find sufficient for themselves. 
When the foals are not the product of native, that 
is of acclimatised races, it is better to enclose them 
under shed during night. A foal in robust health 
will eat nearly all the night. In July when the 
supply of grass in warm climates diminishes, it will 
be necessary to augment the auxiliary grain rations. 
If the, season be very dry the foals are brought into 
