THE CULTIVATOR. 
■of our best eating apples do not acquire this maturity until winter 
■or spring, this affords a satisfactory reason why winter fruit is sel¬ 
dom or never good cider fruit. In a dry apple, the essential ele¬ 
ments of cider are generally more concentrated, or are accompa¬ 
nied with a less proportion of water, than in a juicy one ; of course 
the liquor of the former is stronger than that of the latter. Of our 
best cider apples, ten or twelve bushels of fruit are required tor a 
barrel of juice; while of the ordinary juicy kinds, eight bushels 
generally suffice. 
The only artificial criterion employed to ascertain the quality of 
an apple tor cider, is the specific gravity of its must or unfer¬ 
mented juice;—or its weight compared with that of water. This, 
says Knight, indicates, with very considerable accuracy, the 
strength of the future cider. Its weight and consequent value, is 
supposed to be increased in the ratio of the increase of saccharine 
matter. In making wine of domestic fruit, say of the current or 
gooseberry for example, we use sugar till the unfermented liquor 
attains a certain specific gravity; or until the saccharine matter of 
the fruit and that artificially supplied, bears a certain proportion 
to the water. This ensures to the liquor, strength, or body, as 
the sugar is converted into spirit by the fermentive process. 
The specific weight of the most of apples differs materially.— 
That of some varieties is lighter than distilled water, while the 
juice of others is materially heavier. Taking water at 1.000 as 
the standard, the Redstreak, Styre, and other of the old cider va¬ 
rieties, afforded a must of the specific gravity of 1.060 to 1.079, 
and some of the new varieties, produced by Knight, as the Down- 
ton, Foxley, Siberian Harvey, &c. of 1.080 to 1.091. 
2. Soil and aspect .—The apple, like the grape, is known to 
take much of its character from the soil on which it grows. The 
best cider orchards in England, are on a stratum of red marl 
which stretches across the island. The soil of Herefordshire, 
highly reputed for its ciders, is an argillaceous, or clay marl. 
And Knight says, the strongest and most highly flavored cider 
which has been obtained from the apple, was produced from fruit 
growing on a shallow loam, on limestone basis. All the writers 
upon the subject seem to agree, that calcareous earth should form 
a component part of the soil of a cider orchard. It appears to 
have the effect of mitigating the harshness of rough and austere 
fruits, and of neutralizing the juices of those which are too acid. 
Coxe says, the soil which grow's good wheat and clover, is best 
for a cider orchard. Our own observation would induce us also 
to prefer a dry and somewhat loose soil, in which the roots, des¬ 
tined to furnish food for the tree and fruit, may penetrate freely, 
and range extensively, in search of nutriment. The juices of 
plants and fruits are always more concentrated when growdng on 
a dry than on a wet soil. Mint, or other aromatic herbs, is much 
stronger in the specific virtues of the plant, when grown on a dry 
soil, and greater in volume, when grown on a wet one. The ma¬ 
ple yields the sweetest sap, though less in quantity, on a dry soil. 
Apples may grow large on a moist alluvion; but the fruit will 
neither be so abundant, nor so rich, as on a dry soil. The thriftiest 
trees produce the most wood buds ; those less thrifty the most fruit 
buds. 1 he best aspect for an orchard is one somewhat elevated 
or undulating, protected from prevailing cold winds—and facing 
the south, south-east or east. Ciders brought to the Albany mar’ 
ket, from the hilly towns of Columbia and Saratoga, on the tran¬ 
sition formation, possess the most spirit, best flavor, and resist 
longest the acetous fermentation. 
3. Condition of the fruit .—Fruit should be used when it has at¬ 
tained its perfect state of maturity, and before it begins to decay, 
because it then yields the greatest proportion of saccharine matter. 
The most certain indication of ripeness, says Crocker, is the fra¬ 
grance of the smell, and the spontaneous dropping from the trees. 
Each kind of the apple should be manufactured separately, or 
those kinds only mixed which ripen at one time, and which ex¬ 
perience shall show, are not prejudicial to each other. Who 
would ever think of making- a superior wine from an indiscrimi¬ 
nate mixture of a. dozen kinds of g-rapes ? And yet w-e seem to 
expect good cider from an indiscriminate mixture of a dozen kinds 
of apples. It may be urged, that the evil is irremediable, because 
our orchards, containing these dozen varieties, have been furnished 
°j lr !‘? nds ’ and neither the quantity nor quality of any one 
kind oi fruit lenders it an object to manufacture it separately. Is 
it not time then, to set about correcting the evil, by selecting only 
the best kinds for new plantations ? A farmer should make cider 
91 
to sell, and it is material to him whether he obtains two or ten 
dollars the barrel. Our manufactories, our towns and cities, and 
the demand for exportation, will always ensure a market and price 
for good ciders. Mr. Wynkoop, of Lancaster, Pa. has 400 trees 
of fne Virginia crab, on less than five acres of ground ; and when 
his orchard was twenty-two years old, he stated to the President 
of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, that it produced him 
every other year forty hogsheads of cider, of 112 gallons each; 
which he sold at Philadelphia at 2s. 6d. the gallon, or about $1,500 
in the gross. And yet this apple is not a first rate cider apple. 
It is deficient in sugar, but abounds in astringency, rather a keep¬ 
ing than an enriching quality. What farmer can apply his land 
to better profit? Wines differ as much in their quality and price 
as ciders. Fruit, soil and skill make the difference in both ; and 
upon the proper selection and exercise of those depend the quality 
of the liquor, and the consequent profits of the cultivator. Upon 
this branch of the subject, I will only add, that the apples should 
ripen upon the tree, be gathered when dry, in a cleanly manner, 
spread in an airy, covered situation if practicable, for a time, to 
induce an evaporation of aqueous matter, which will increase the 
strength and flavor of the liquor, and be separated from rotten 
fruit and every kind of filth before they are ground. 
4. Grinding, &fc .—The apples should be reduced by the mill, 
as nearly as possible to a uniform mass, in which the rind and 
seeds are scarcely discoverable; and the pomace should be ex¬ 
posed to the air from twelve to twenty-four hours, according to 
the temperature, before it is pressed. The juices of the rind of 
fruit, as may be instanced in the orange and lemon, are highly 
concentrated ; and those of the rind of the apple have a material 
influence, with the aromatic bitter of the seeds, upon the flavor 
and strength of the liquor. 
On partially macerating the pulp of an apple, and subjecting it 
to immediate pressure, the juice which escapes will be found to 
be thin, nearly colourless and devoid of flavor. If the maceration 
is perfect, so as to crush the seeds and break dow-n the rind, the 
strength, colour and flavor of the must will be improved : and if 
the macerated pulp is exposed for a few hours to the atmosphere, 
and then subjected to pressure, these desirable properties in the 
liquor, will be found to be still further augmented. “ By the che¬ 
mical action of the roller,” says Knight, “ the various fluids which 
occupy the different vessels and cells of the fruit are mingled wfith 
the juices of the rinds and seeds, and with the macerated substance 
of the vessels and cells themselves. In such a mixture it seems 
probable that new elective attractions will be exerted and com¬ 
pounds formed, which did not exist previously to the fruit being 
placed under the roller; and hence the most correct analysis of 
the expressed juices will convey but a very imperfect degree of 
knowledge of the component parts of the different fluids, as they 
existed in their state of separation within the fruit. I have often 
extracted,” he continues, “by means of a small hand-press, the 
juice of a single apple, without having previously bruised it to 
pieces; and I have always found the juice thus obtained, to be pale 
and thin, and extremely defective in richness, though the apple 
possessed great merit as a cider fruit. I have then returned the 
expressed juice to the pulp which I have exposed, during a few 
hours, to the air and light : and the juice has then become deeply 
tinged and very rich. In the former state it apparently contained 
but a very small portion of sugar; in the latter it certainly con¬ 
tained a great quantity; much of which I believe to have been ge¬ 
nerated subsequently to the juice having been subjected to the ac¬ 
tion of the press; though it may be difficult to explain satisfacto¬ 
rily the means by which it could have been produced.” Knight 
ascertained by a subsequent experiment, that by exposing the re¬ 
duced pulp to the operation of the atmosphere, for a few hours, 
the specific gravity of the juice increased from 1,064 to 1,073; 
and from the experiment being repeated in a closed vessel with 
atmospheric air, he ascertained the accession to be oxygen, which 
according to Lavoisier, constitutes 64 per cent of sugar. For fine 
cider, he recommends, that the fruit be ground and pressed im¬ 
perfectly, and that the pulp be then exposed twenty-four hours to 
the air, being spread, and once or twice turned, to facilitate the 
absorption of oxygen, that it be then ground again and the 
expressed juice be added to it before repressing. In straining the 
must, too much care cannot be taken to exclude the pulp, as its 
presence is apt to render the fermentation too violent, and drive 
into the acetous stage. A hair seive, filled partly with straw, an- 
