FRUIT MANAGEMENT : THE MILL. 
I 35 
must of necessity produce. The very common practice of mixing all sorts of fruit in the heaps, 
and of carrying them altogether to the mill, whatever may be their sort and condition, is fatal to the 
production of good Cider. The quaint remark of Worlidge on this careless custom is as true at 
this time, as it was in his own days. “ This error or neglect hath not onely been the occasion of 
much thin, raw, phegmatical, soure and unwholesome Cider, but hath cast a reflection on the good 
report that Cider well made, most richly deserves ; ” and he adds very sensibly “better lose part of 
the cider than spoil the whole.” 
Pears are not considered to require so much care and good judgment as Apples do until they 
are carried to the mill. The early varieties may be taken at once from the trees to the mill, and the 
usual custom is when the fruit begins to fall, freely to shake off the remainder of the crop, and grind 
the whole without delay. The long keeping varieties require to be placed in heaps as Apples are, 
and are much improved by being allowed to become uniformly ripe. 
“ Lo ! for Thee my Mill 
Now grinds choice Apples, and the British Vats 
O’erflow with generous Cyder.” 
(Philips, “to his friend Harcourt in Italy. ” 
The Mill.— The modes of extracting the juice from Apples and Pears, to make fermented 
liquors seem to have been of the rudest kind until a comparatively recent period. The fruit was 
grated, or crushed in any rough and simple way, and since the quantity required was but trifling 
and labour cheap, it answered sufficiently well. Worlidge writing near the end of the 17th century, 
says “ The operators did beat their fruit in a trough of wood or stone with beaters like unto wooden 
pestles with long handles, whereby three or four labourers might beat twenty or thirty bushels in a 
day.” When a larger quantity of fruit was grown, and Cider and Perry became important articles 
of commerce it was necessary to find out some process more economical and expeditious. The 
happy idea occurred to some one—whose name is lost to a grateful country—to make the trough of 
a circular shape and roll round a heavy cylinder in it. This mill originally was of a very rude 
construction, and both the wheel, or cylinder, and trough were made of wood studded with hobnails. 
The wooden cylinder soon gave place to stone for the advantage of its weight, and this entailed the 
necessity of making the trough of the same material. A mill thus constructed worked with one 
horse, crushed the fruit so rapidly as to make from two to three hogsheads daily. 
“ Blind Bayard worn with work and years 
Shall roll the unweildy stone from morn to eve.” 
Philips “ Cyder I 
Dr. Beal in Evelyn’s Pomona speaks of some mills so large as to grind half a hogshead at a time. 
The construction of such a mill required the heaviest and most durable stone. In Herefordshire 
the Millstone Grit from the Forest of Dean soon came to be noted as best suited for this purpose. 
Such a mill was necessarily very expensive in construction, and so efficient that one mill often served 
for the district; the grist, in the shape of Apples and Pears, being brought to it from all the 
surrounding Orchards. In course of time every large farm had its own mill, and these mills are 
very numerous at the present time, and many of them regularly used. The great fault of the Stone 
