X 
GARDENS AND ORCHARDS. 
m 
In the great hit of 1784, common apples were sold 
at Is. 6d. to 2s. per sack of four corn bushels; and in 
1788 the same, but stire fruit, about four times that 
price. 
Common cyder is frequently sold from the press 
for less than a guinea per hogshead of 110 gallons, and 
common perry as low as 15s. yet the superior kinds are 
seldom so low as four times that price ; when once 
racked it is generally one fourth higher, and when 
fermented one half more than the first price, but in 
scarce seasons the prices are much higher. Stire cyder 
is worth, from the press, from 3l to lol. per hogshead, 
a price which, I believe, the finest wines are not worth 
in any country immediately from the press. Squash 
perry is worth, from the press, five guineas to twelve 
guineas per hogshead : at inns the price is seldom less 
than Is. per bottle, and, as they profess to sell only 
the best sorts, sometimes Is. 6d. and even 2s, per 
bottle. 
Profusion in good Years .—In 1784, for want of 
casks, cisterns were formed in the ground to receive 
the liquor, but they did not answer; the liquor was 
spoilt: in Pershore, the juice is said to ha/e run from 
the pear-hoards, in currents, into the common sewers. 
The excise on cyder, which passes through the deal¬ 
ers’ hands, is about threepence halfpenny the wine 
gallon. 
The yield of liquor depends on the species of fruit, 
and the season. Pears yield more juice than apples, and 
some species of apples more than others; two hogsheads 
of pears will yield one of liquor, but some sorts of apples, 
as the Hagloe crab, and the stire apple, in very dry sea¬ 
sons, will require near thr^: hogsheads of fruit to one of 
liquor. I was shewn single pear trees in Worcester- 
i shire 
