70 
THE FLORIfiT AND POJIOLOGIST. 
[ MAV, 
however, that the art of grafting, at the period 
in which he lived, was comparative]}^ modern. 
The making of cider from the apple rvas in¬ 
troduced into Britain by the Normans, who, 
it is said, obtained the art from Spain, where 
it is no longer practised. This liquor is sup¬ 
posed to have been first known, however, in 
Africa, from its being mentioned by the two 
African Fathers, Tertullian and Augustine, and 
was introduced by the Carthaginians into Bis¬ 
cay, a province unfavourable to the vine, on 
which account it became the substitute. The 
making of cider in this country is almost en¬ 
tirely confined to three or four of the rvestern 
counties of England, a circumstance much to 
be regretted, considering the wholesome nature 
of the liquor, and the simple mode employed to 
make it. Some knowledge is, however, re¬ 
quired in the selection of those sorts which 
should be crushed together, as all apples are 
not equally good for the purpose, the best 
being those of an astringent nature; besides, 
the strongest cider apples vary much in their 
power to develop alcohol by fermentation. The 
strongest cider, as a rule, comes from apples 
which contain the least amount of juice, hence 
the cjuality of cider is considerably improved 
by allowing the fruit to sweat and dry for a 
short time before being ground. After the 
crushing or grinding process, the pulp is gener¬ 
ally laid aside for at least twenty-four hours, 
and turned occasionally, to allow fermentation 
to set in before the juice is expressed. The 
aromatic oil contained in the seeds is thus ex¬ 
tracted, communicating its flavour to the mass. 
The Apple is said to hold the proud position 
of the most popular of British fruits. None 
can be brought to so high a degree of perfec¬ 
tion with so little trouble; moreover, the 
varieties are now all that can be desired, varie¬ 
ties calculated for almost every soil, situation, 
and climate, and yet, comparatively speaking, 
how few orchards are to be met with ; they are 
confined to a few favoured localities, and appear 
to have been, since Evelyn wrote of one Richard 
Harris, a fruiterer to King Henry VIII., that the 
fields and environs of about thirty towns in Kent 
only were planted with fruit (from Flanders), 
to the universal benefit and general improve¬ 
ment of that county to this day; and by the 
noble example of my Lord Scudamore, and of 
some other public-spirited gentlemen in those 
parts, all Herefordshire is become, in a manner, 
but one entire orchard. Lord Scudamore was 
Ambassador to the Court of France in the time 
of King Charles L, and having collected in 
Normandy scions of Cider apple-trees, en¬ 
couraged the grafting of them throughout the 
county of Hereford. That the apple is still 
cultivated in Kent with consummate skill and 
intelligence there is no doubt, the great bulk 
of the fruit, however, being in demand for 
dessert and cnlinary purposes, so that very 
little attention is paid to the manufacture of 
cider, and such as does find its way to the 
retail dealers in liquors is made from a miscel¬ 
laneous selection of apples crushed together, 
entirely regardless of the suitability of the 
fruit for cider-making purposes. It is this in¬ 
sipid beverage which is most frequently ex¬ 
posed for sale in London, under the name of 
“ Devonshire cider.” The sale of this bastard 
article has done infinite injury to the free 
development of cider-making as an industry in 
this country. The orchards in the Western 
counties are, wdth few exceptions, in a neglected 
condition, most of them seeming to bespeak on 
the part of the owner a degree of ignorance 
and carelessness trnly lamentable ; indeed, had 
it not been that Providence has endowed the 
Apple-tree with a long life, most farm-houses 
in Devon and Somerset would have stood 
minus a single Apple-tree at the present time. 
The making of cider is consequently on the 
wane, even in the favonred West, where Nature 
herself would grow Apples, if only man would 
plant, and afford the common protection and 
care necessary to the free development of the 
tree. If a law were enacted whereby tenant- 
farmers holding a lease for a certain number of 
years were compelled to plant and maintain an 
orchard in creditable condition during such 
lease, and in the case of annual holdings or 
short lease this were done by the proprietor, 
such a law would ultimately prove a source of 
profit and pleasure alike to both parties. 
Neither need the Orchard be strictly confined 
to the Apple ; a well-planned and well-managed 
Orchard, of two to three acres, would grow a 
vast supply of other fruits and vegetables ; in 
fact, sufficient produce might be sold from such 
an Orchard in ordinary seasons to pay the 
rent of a farm of forty acres. 
The extensive cultivation of fruit would 
