CYDER. 
quit its hold. These fish report in multitudes 
during spring to the coast of Sutherland near 
the (3rd of Caithness. The seals which 
swarm beneath, prey greatly upon them, 
leaving the skins ; numbers of which, thus 
emptied, float ashore at that season. Great 
numbers of lump-fish are found in the Green- 
land seas during the months of April anil 
May, when they resort near the shore to 
spawn, bee Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 15/6. 
2. The liparis takes the name of sea-snail 
from the salt and unctuous texture of its 
body, resembling that of the land-snail. 
It is' almost transparent, and soon dissolves 
and melts away. It is found in the sea near 
the mouths of great rivers, and has been 
seen full of spawn in January. The length 
is five inches: the colour a pale brown, some- 
times finely streaked with a darker. Beneath 
the throat is a round depression of a whitish 
colour like the impression of a seal, sur- 
rounded by twelve small pale yellow tubera, 
by which probably it adheres to the stones 
like the other species. 
3. C. minor, or the lesser sucking-fish, is 
found' in different parts of the British seas. 
It is about four inches in length ; the skin 
without scales, slippery, and of a dusky co- 
lour. It has also an apparatus for adhering 
to stones and rocks, similar to the others. 
CYDER, or Cider, an excellent drink 
made of the juice of apples. In making this 
drink, it has long been thought necessary 
in every part of England, to lay the harder 
cyder fruits in heaps for some time before 
breaking their pulps ; but the Devonshire 
people have much improved this practice : 
in other counties the method is, to make 
these heaps of apples in a house, or under 
some covering, inclosed on every side; this 
method has been found defective, because, 
by excluding the free air, the heat soon be- 
came too violent, and a great perspiration 
ensued, by which, in a short time, the loss 
■of juice was so great as to reduce the fruit 
■to half their former weight, attended with a 
general rottenness, rancid smell, and dis- 
agreeable taste. In the southern parts a mid- 
dle way has been pursued ; to avoid the in- 
conveniences attending the above, they 
make their heaps of apples in an open part 
of an orchard; where by means of a free 
air and less perspiration, the desired matu- 
rity is brought about, without any consider- 
able waste of the juices, or decay of the 
fruit, and entirely free of rankness ; and 
though some-apples rot even in this manner, 
they are very few, and are still tit for use, 
all continue plump and full of juices, and 
very much heighten the colour of the cyder, 
without ill-taste or smell. In pursuing the 
Devonshire method it is to be observed: 
(first, all the promiscuous kind of apples that 
have dropped from the trees from time to 
time, are to be gathered up and laid in a 
heap by themselves, to be made into cyder 
after having so lain about ten days ; second- 
ly, such apples as are gathered from the 
tree, having already acquired some degree 
of maturity, are likewise to be laid in a heap 
■by themselves fqr about a fortnight ; third- 
ly, the later hard fruit, which are to be left 
on the trees till the approach of frost is ap- 
prehended, are to be laid in separate heaps, 
•where they are to remain a month or six 
•weeks, by which, notwithstanding frost, rain, 
&c. their juices will receive such a matura- 
tion as will prepare them for a kindly fer- 
mentation, and which they could not have 
attained on the trees from the coldness of 
the season. 
It is observable, that the riper and mel- 
lower the fruits are at the time of Collecting 
them into heaps, the shorter should be their 
continuance there ; and on the contrary, the 
harsher, more immature, and harder they are, 
the longer they should rest. These heaps 
should he made in an even and open part of 
the orchard, without any regard to covering 
from rain, dews, or what else may happen 
during the apples staying there ; and whether 
they be carried in and broken in wet' or dry 
weather, the effect is all the same. If it should 
be objected, that during their having lain ! 
together in the heaps, they may have ini- | 
bibed great humidity , as well from the air, j 
as from the ground, rain, dews, &c. which ; 
are mixed with their juices ; the answer j 
is, that this will have no other effect, than a ; 
kindly diluting natural to the fruits, by which 
means a speedier fermentation ensues, and ; 
all heterogeneous humid particles are thrown 
off The apples are then ground, and lire 
pumices received in a large open-mouthed 
vessel, capable of containing as much there- 
of as is sufficient for one making or one j 
cheese, though it has been a custom to let { 
the pumice remain some hours in the vessel 
appropriated to Contain it : yet this practice 
is by no nyans commendable ; for if the 
fruits did not come ripe from the frees, or 
otherwise matured, the pumice remaining 
in the vat too long, will acquire such harsh- 
ness and coarseness from the skins as is never 
to be got rid of; and if the pumice is of well- 
ripened fruit, the continuing too long there 
will occasion it to contract a sharpness that 
very often is followed with want of spirit and 
pricking; nay, sometimes it even becomes 
vinegar, or always continues of a wheyish 
colour, all which proceeds from the heat of 
fermentation, that it almost instantly falls 
into on lying together ; the pumice, there- 
fore, should remain not longer in the vat than 
until there may be enough broken for one 
pressing, or (hat all be made into a cheese 
and pressed the day it is broken. 
The stooming or stumming of cyder, is 
done by burning a match or scent in a clean 
hogshead, moist from recent rinsing, and 
racking the cyder on the fret into it. If 
much on the fret, when the cyder is half- 
racked into the matched or scented cask, 
burn another match in each cask, roll and 
tumble them well about (if there are no 
lees) for a couple of hours, and then finish 
the racking. Stum is the rich must of good 
cyder, blended with the vapour of the bunt- 
ing match or scent, stoomed as above, which 
prevents its fermenting ; and when disposed 
to fret, must be racked into another cask 
well matched; if this is neglected, and it 
once ferments, it is no longer stum, but 
becomes good cyder. Stum is used to mend 
declining cyder, make it ferment afresh, and 
give life and sweetness t6 it, a kind of reani- 
ma ton. Boiled cyder makes the best keep- 
ing stum. 
It would doubtless be a great improve- 
ment to many estates to cultivate the land 
not fit for corn, by planting the proper sorts 
of apples and pears, for the pioduction of 
so wholesome and pleasant a beverage as 
m 
cyder or perry. Iii the preparation of this 
very estimable liquor, there is no ex pence 
of iuei to brew it; and the labour is hut 
once a year, and when sold it yields a very 
encouraging profit. i he larger quantity 
there is made together, the better it suc- 
ceeds ; in large vessels it will keep sound 
and good for many years. Besides, it is a 
pursuit in which any gentleman can engage, 
without being considered as a trader. A 
man may exercise or amuse himself in any 
manufacture from the produce of Iris own 
land, as a necessary or usual mode of reap- 
ing or enjoying that produce, and bringing 
it advantageously to market ; and he shall 
not be considered as a trader, -though lie 
buy necessary ingredients or materials to fit 
it for the market ; for this is the way of en- 
joying the land in cyder countries: but 
where the produce of the laud is merely the 
raw materials of a manufacture, and used as 
such, and not according to the usual mode 
of enjoying the land ; in short, where the 
produce of the land is an insignificant article, 
in comparison with the whole expence of the 
manufacture ; there lie ought to be consider- 
ed as a trader, and so the law decides. 
The manufacturing of cyder and perry 
forms a capital branch in our fruit counties, 
and of which the improvement must he con- 
sidered as of great importance to the publie, 
but particularly so to the inhabitants of those 
districts where these liquors constitute the 
common beverage. 
| Cyder and perry, when genuine, and in 
; high perfection, are excellent vinous liquors, 
; and are certainly far more 1 wholesome than 
! many others which are at present in higher 
’ estimation. When the must is prepared 
from the choicest fruit, and undergoes the 
I exact degree of vinous fermentation requisite 
| to its perfection, the acid anil the sweet are 
I so admirably blended with the aqueous, 
i oily, and spirituous principles, and the whole 
I so imbued with the grateful flavour of the 
j rinds and the agreeable aromatic bitter of 
■ the kernels, that it assumes a new character; 
j grows lively, sparkling, and exhilarating : 
and when completely mellowed by time, the 
liquor becomes at once highly delicious to 
the palate, and friendly to the constitution ; 
superior, in every respect, to most other 
English wines ; for such (says Dr. Fother- 
gill) would it be pronounced by all com- 
petent judges, was it not for the popular 
prejudice annexed to it, as a cheap home- 
brewed liquor, and consequently within the 
reach of the vulgar. To compare such a 
liquor with some of the foreign, fiery, so- 
phisticated mixtures, sometimes imported, 
would be no credit to it ; for it certainly sur- 
passes them in flavour and pleasantness, as 
much as it excels them in cheapness : but 
rarely do we meet with perry or cyder of 
this superior quality ; for what is generally 
sold by dealers and innkeepers, is a poor, 
meagre, vapid liquor, disposed to the acetous 
fermentation, and, of course, very injurious 
to the constitution. It is very mortify- 
ing, after the experience of so many centu- 
ries, that the art of preparing those ancient 
British liquors should still be so imperfectly 
understood as to seem to be in their very in- 
fancy ; that, throughout the principal cyder 
districts, the practice should still rest on the 
most vague undeterminate .principles; and 
