winter. In a year or a year and a half the 
cider should be fair vinegar and better yet in 
two years. Siphon it off carefully when it is 
ready for market and rinse out the barrels 
before filling them again. Do not stir the 
cider much, as the sediment when once stirred 
up settles very slowly. Instead of the old way 
of putting a bottle in the bung-hole, cover it 
with cloth netting. 
FROM J. H. ANDREWS. 
I consider the small natural apples that grow 
on high ground and gravelly soil best for 
cider for bottling. If for winter use, almost 
any rich, pleasant apples can be used—about 
two-tlnrds sour and one-third sweet. For 
bottling, I prefer all sour. Every cider maker 
will be obliged to decide for himself by 
experience what varieties are best. Apples 
should be fully ripe to make best quality cider, 
and this is often overlooked by cider-makers. 
I believe apples are sometimes assorted in or¬ 
der to grade the juice; but such a practice is 
expensive; and I think a better way is that the 
farmers who furnish the apples should go over 
their orchards about October 1st to 10th and 
gather all the apples that have falleD, and 
have them made into vinegar. The apples 
that remain on the trees will be nearly all per¬ 
fect and they should be gathered before they 
freeze at all. They should then be piled in 
heaps of about 50 bushels on the ground (they 
should never be stored in a building), where 
they should remain about 10 days to ripen. 
They will then be ready for cider, which 
should be made about November 1st to 20tb, 
or before the apples can freeze very much. 
-In regard to profit: it sometimes pays better 
to put all the apples into cider, and sometimes 
it pays better to barrel the best. This depends 
entirely on the market. Last season we had 
hundreds of bushels of as nice winter-apples 
as I have ever seen brought to our mill to be 
made into cider. In some other years we get 
none. 
The apples should be ground very fine, in 
order to get all the juice, and we run a power 
press, which we prefer to hand power, though 
good cider may be made either way. At our 
mill the cider runs from the press into a 30- 
barrel vat, and is racked off the same day on 
which it is pressed, being strained through a 
fine cloth strainer. Everything about the mill 
and press must be kept clean and sweet, or it 
will be impossible to make first-quality cider. 
After the casks are filled, they should be 
placed in a cool cellar as soon as possible, and 
the bungs taken out, and care should be taken 
that every cask is full. The cider will com¬ 
mence fermentation in a few days, and the cask 
should be left open as long as the foam con¬ 
tinues to rise from the bung-hole. When it 
settles back in the barrel, the bungs may be 
put in. After this if the barrel shows any sign 
of pressure, a vent hole should be made with 
a very small gimlet, and it should be closed 
after the cask is relieved. After remaining ten 
days, the cider should be racked carefully, 
care being taken not to draw the sediment, 
and again the barrels must be filled 
full, and bunged tight. This racking 
may be repeated two to three times 
or until the cider is perfectly clear, then it 
should not be disturbed till February or 
March, when it will be in condition to bottle. 
Put oue teaspoonful of sugar in each bottle 
and cork tightly. If cider is to be kept to sell 
by the barrel, it is a good plan to filter it after 
it has fermented a few days, aDd add some 
anti-ferment and store it away till it is 
wanted. 
Apple pomace I have always considered 
worthless, but of late farmers have been 
using it as feed for cows, and claim that it is 
better than any kind of roots. I have not 
tried it, but I know those who have done so 
with good results. 
There are many kinds of generators for 
making vinegar. I have never used any. 
What vinegar I have made has been made by 
the old process of putting the cider into casks, 
filling them two-thirds full and letting the 
cider stand till it turns to vinegar, which 
usually takes about two years. If any one 
were going into the vinegar business largely 
it would pay to use some kind of generator, as 
in this way the vinegar is made much more 
quickly. 
When cider is bottled it is a good plan to 
use champagne bottles, with a nice label, and 
have the corks nicely wired. If sold by the 
barrel, it is the quality of cider that tells. The 
business is fairly profitable if well managed, 
and the quantity now sold is much larger than 
a few years ago. My business has increased 
from 200 barrels to over 3,000 barrels yearly 
in 25 years, and the demand for good cider 
appears to be increasing. Apple juice is made 
into jelly in many parts of the country, but I 
think the business does not pay very well. 
For boiled cider—that is, cider boiled down 
from five gallon? to one—there is a moderate 
demand at 50 cents a gallon, which pays well. 
FROM RIEMER & HUFCUT. 
The best cider is made from Golden Russet 
and Newtown Pippin apples mixed, fully 
ripened, two-thirds of the former and one- 
third of the latter. 
Unripe or decayed fruit will not make sala¬ 
ble cider, although the latter will make fair 
vinegar. It pays better for the farmer to sell 
his good apples in barrels if they are easily 
picked and sorted than to sell them for cider 
vinegar puiposes, but as a rule one-lhird of 
the crop cannot be sold in barrels on account 
of being bruised or misshapen. 
At our nulls we grind, on an average, 1,500 
bushels per day and press by means of the 
improved extra heavy power pi esses, each 
capable of taking care of 10 cheeses of 80 
bushels each in 10 hours. All the pomace is 
repressed at night for vinegar stock. The 
juice is filtered through paper pulp as soon as 
it leaves the press, then stored in large casks iu 
a cellar where it’will undergo a slow fermen¬ 
tation, the slower the better. When about 
one-third of the saccharine in the cider has 
been converted into alcohol by fermentation, 
which is generally determined by means of a 
hydrometer for cider, it is carefully racked 
from the sediment into clean casks and suffi¬ 
cient isinglass added to clarify it. When 
clear it should be again racked from the pre¬ 
cipitated isinglass (to which the solid matter 
in solution will have adhered, if properly 
done), into clean casks and bunged tightly. 
Cider should not be bottled until the second 
year after bemg made. 
Pomace is sold to farmers at $1 per load for 
cow feed, and if properly fed it gives 
good satisfaction. The market for apple 
seeds is among nurseries, but it is limited. 
Most of the vinegar now on the market is 
produced on generators of which there are 
several kinds. Juice, for vinegar, should be 
fermented until all the fruit sugar or saccha¬ 
rine has been converted into alcohol. 
The most attractive way of putting cider on 
the market is in bottles, foiled and labeled 
and cased. The vinegar should be sold in 
barrels, but the quality of the goods is of 
prime importance. The margin for profit in 
the cider and vinegar business is at present 
quite small compared with what it was 10 or 
15 years ago. Aggregated capital combined 
with experience in the business, has made it 
possible for the large makers to place stock 
upon the market .at a figure so low that it 
would be considered unsafe at present for the 
inexperienced to endeavor to compete in 
quality and price. Juice directly from the 
press can be converted into cider jelly by 
means of a cider evaporator heated by steam. 
Dover Plains, N. Y. 
FROM S. R. & J. C. MOTT. 
We consider Golden Russet apples as the 
very best for cider-making purposes. They 
are very hard, do not easily bruise or decay in 
handling, have an excellent flavor and about 
the right amount of acid. Next in popularity 
comes the large variety of crab apples. We 
use these two varieties separately, and after 
that, all other kinds mixed together as they 
are assorted from the larger fruit when bar¬ 
reling for market or shaken from the trees. 
Apples are brought to our mills direct from 
the orchards in October and November, either 
iu wagons with deep boxes containing about 
50 bushels each, or, if we do not get enough 
from near-by orchards, they are loaded at more 
distant points in cars in bulk, and on arrival 
at our place, where we have track scales lor 
weighing the car before unloading and after¬ 
ward, they are conveyed by elevators to the 
top of the mill where they are ground and fall 
into a vat on the floor below, and thence into 
presses operated by steam power. The first 
run of juice from each pressing is sold for 
drinking purposes, while the latter part, being 
subjected to higher pressure, is used for vine¬ 
gar making. Some of the juice is sold during 
the fall and winter in an unfermented condi¬ 
tion, but the larger part is fermented until 
about one-half of the natural sugar is con¬ 
verted into alcohol. It is then clarified either 
by filtration or the use of isinglass, and if 
kept in cool, well ventilated cellars, it will re¬ 
main in drinkable condition during all of the 
following spring and summer, and, in fact, if 
not exposed to changes of temperature it will 
remain good for two years. 
This cider we also bottle. The second press¬ 
ing of cider, which is used for vinegar, is 
mixed with other vinegar and exposed to 
the action of air at a temperature of about 
80 degrees; this oxydizes it rapidly and noth¬ 
ing more is required to make first-class vine¬ 
gar. At some mills the seeds are separated 
from the pomace by washing under a stream 
of water; our mill is located in a dairy sec¬ 
tion and we sell pomace and seed together for 
$1 per ton to farmers, who find it excellent 
feed for milch cows and other cattle. 
There is a little jelly made by the condensa¬ 
tion of apple juice, but the demand is very 
limited and we think the business is not prof¬ 
itable. As regards the general profits of the 
business, in our opinion it is much like pub¬ 
lishing—to some it brings fortune, and to 
others misfortune. 
Bouckville, N. Y. 
FROM J. G. WARD. 
Russetts and Newtown Pippins fully ripe 
and mellow—no rotten ones—make the best 
cider, although any good, nice, ripe apples 
will make very nice cider. Some mills are 
not very particular about sorting apples, but 
such cannot make good cider or get good 
prices. It is absolutely nece?sary to Lave good 
apples to make good cider. One might as 
well try to make bread from stones as good 
cider from poor apples. But the poor apples 
can all be worked up into vmegar, which will 
pay very well if the vinegar laws are properly 
enforced. A barrel of good apples will make 
10 gallons of cider, which, if properly handled, 
would bring more than the average price of a 
barrel of apples in market; but one must be 
governed by circumstances as to which would 
pay the best. 
In making cider everything about the mill 
must be clean and sweet, especially the racks, 
cloths, platforms, tubs, etc. We press our 
apples as soon as ground, and press slowly. 
Cider is usually kept till spring before bot¬ 
tling, and some use fish sounds for clarifying. 
It is greatly improved by racking from one 
barrel to another, keeping it excluded from 
the air and in a cool place. Good, fresh, sweet 
barrels must be used. It takes a great deal of 
experience and good judgment to refine and 
bottle cider properly. The pomace is valued 
for feeding in the fall and winter, and also 
for manure, as it soon rots. One farmer drew 
over 100 loads from our mill last winter and 
fed it to his sheep. His only regret was that he 
did not have more sheep. 
I would pack cider in half barrels for the 
grocery trade, with the heads neatly painted. 
If bottled, it should bo in pints and quarts, 
nicely labeled and well corked. The prospect 
is good for th6 cider business, and it will pay 
well if conducted properly, and the vinegar, 
of course, works well in connection with the 
rest. There is an enormous consumption of 
cider which increases each year. It is a good 
temperance drink and also the most healthy 
beverage when properly handled; but it can 
be made, with very little trouble, the most 
abominable drink imaginable. 
Coeman’s Junction, N. Y. 
FROM H. A. BARTON & SON. 
Good ripe sound Northern Spys are the best 
apples for the best flavored cider. Unripe 
fruit will not make such good cider. 
When apples are very plentiful and cheap, 
it pays to make them into first-class cider, as 
that can be kept over until it will bring good 
prices. We never have any more old cider on 
hand when we begin to make the new than 
what we design for vinegar. When good winter 
apples bring good prices it is better to sell the 
apples by the barrel. 
We use the Boomer & Boschert grater and 
a press run by steam. The apples are elevated 
to the third story; the press is on the second; 
and the cider goes down to'the first story or 
basement of the mill into a cistern that holds 
25 barrels, and is drawn from the cistern by a 
hose and put into casks. It is pressed through 
cloths, and runs through a cloth strainer into 
the cistern. We have never bottled any 
cider. All of our early-made cider we run 
into vinegar into large vats and let it stand 
there until it is ready to be put into casks 
as vinegar. Most of our late-made cider is 
sold as sweet cider as fast as we can make it. 
The pomace is all used as feed for our stock, 
for we have a large dairy of from 40 to 50 
cows, together with swine, poultry and horses. 
We consider pomace worth about what it 
costs to make the cider. Apple seeds are val¬ 
uable. Some mills save all the seeds, where 
they do not feed the pomace. 
The best way to put anything on the mar¬ 
ket is on its reputation. It pays very well 
with us, and the prospects for the future are 
looking better, as the State of New York and 
other States are passing laws to protect the 
farmers, so that good cider vinegar will not 
have to compete with a bogus product. Cider 
from the first and the last pressings is not of 
as good quality as that from the middle pres¬ 
sing; but by running together the product of 
all the pressings, the cider is of uniform 
quality. 
Apple jelly is made from the juice of apples, 
and there is a good demand for it, and when 
properly put up it can be kept for any length 
of time. There is a prospect of a large crop of 
apples in this locality this season. Vinegar is 
worth 15 cents a gallon by the cask and cider 
the same. 
Dalton, Mass. 
FROM J. M. PORTER. 
Although there are some varieties of apples 
that are considered better for cider than 
others, no special sorts are grown here for 
that purpose. The cider mill gets the waste 
product—small, inferior fruit, dropped apples, 
etc. A general mixture of all varieties I find 
makes the most uniform and in all respects the 
best cider. This would not hold good if large 
quantities of some special varieties could be 
obtained. Apples should be matured; but not 
necessarily fully ripe. Early green windfall s 
POLITICAL CIDER. TOO MUCH AS IT IS. Fig. 299. 
