372 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[September, 
SiBl 
THE CIDER-MILL . —Designed and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
'.U HPIH'i'Hl 
Ci«ler an<l Cider Makiiig'. 
My young readers might draw a conclusion from 
the “Trouble in the Orchard,” given last month, 
that the apple is the source of a great deal of suffer¬ 
ing—if not of the first sin, in the world. This fruit 
plays such au important part in our childhood, that 
I am induced to treat of it again, though in a some¬ 
what different way. The apple is a juicy fruit, and 
when hard pressed yields an amber-colored liquid 
well known by the name of cider. It would be 
pleasing and perhaps not without profit for us to 
look into the origin of the word; and see that it 
was oriental in its birth, and came into use very 
early in the history of the human family. The 
French have their ci Ire, the Italians drink cidro, and 
the Spanish sidra. The Portuguese sit around their 
ndra, the Romans called it sicera, and the Grecian 
boys had the same fluid in the form of oikepa, and 
the Hebrew children rejoiced over a drink of shakar. 
Thus we see that our cider is no new thing, and yet 
it is “new cider” that most interests the boys 
and girls of the world. To many young readers 
it would be out of place for me to tell how cider is 
made. Every child so fortunate in its birth as to 
live where apples grow, and is old enough to read 
this, already has a pretty clear idea of the process 
through which apples must go in the making of 
cider. But a great many who will read this 
were not born in the country, and these know 
nothing of the pleasures of country children, in¬ 
deed, have never seen a cider-mill. To such the 
engraving will be all new. Country children, on the 
other hand, have been to the cider-mill—perhaps 
upon a load of apples, and there watched the fruit 
as it was shovelled into the mill, and the pulp as it 
was placed in the press, and the stream as it flowed 
into the vat below. It was a sort of a holiday—one 
that was looked forward to with pleasure, and the 
thoughts of the day made the labor of gathering 
the apples seem light and even joyous. There is a 
double pleasure in cider-making for the children— 
it takes them away from home for a day—a sort of 
a visit, and at the same time it affords them the 
opportunity to get their “ fill ” of one of the most 
pleasant of drinks, fresh from the very fountain.— 
When I told “ The Doctor ”—and I need not explain 
to you who he is; he has been writing the interesting 
“Talks” and “Correspondence” for you so many 
years—when I told him that I thought of getting 
up a picture of a cider-making scene, he said: 
“ You must be careful not to do anything that would 
lead any of our young readers to like cider too well. 
It is not cider, in its fresh state at least, that is ob¬ 
jected to, but by encouraging them to drink cider 
they might be led to drink something worse.” I be¬ 
lieve that these are words of wisdom, and instead of 
saying to all, old and young, make and drink all 
the cider you can, I will remark here that cider has 
its place, and whenever it is used for purposes of 
intoxication, as it can be when it gets “old,” it is 
not rightly employed. I would be the last one to 
put anything in the way of the advocates of tem¬ 
perance, and if the cider-mills, that are scattered 
all over our broad land, are making drunkards by 
making cider, that is, increasing the tendency to 
indulge in strong drink, I for one should vote that 
the match be applied, and that all be burned to the 
ground. As they now stand, they furnish a good 
share of the autumn pleasure of the farmer’s family, 
and are a means of making a valuable, marketable 
product out of apples that it would not pay to ship 
to market. A very large part of the cider of the 
country goes into vinegar, and in so far as this is so 
there can be no objection. Take it altogether, I 
am inclined to think the cider-mill is not a curse, 
and that a little cider, when fresh, is good to drink. 
The engraving herewith presented shows an in¬ 
terior view of one of the old-style cider-mills, 
in which the children are evidently having a good 
time. One lad is climbing to the top of the press, 
as if he would try and see how the machinery 
w'orks that causes the pressure upon the ground 
apples and the flow of rich juice from the slanting 
board below. The larger girl is filling her cup 
with the fresh cider, and, it may be, takes delight 
in holding her dish to catch the amber stream as it 
falls. The most real fun may be in another corner, 
where two children are enjoying the sport of 
“ sucking cider through a straw,” and that from 
the bung of a well-filled barrel. This is sport that 
is familiar to many young readers, and carries older 
ones back to earlier days. Uncle Hat.. 
