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CIDER

Pears.—Taynton Squash, Barland, Oldfield, Moorcroft appliances of the farm by modern mills and presses capable or Malvern Hill, Bed-pear, Thurston’s Bed, Longland, of turning out large quantities of liquor. The clearing of the juice, too, which used to be effected by running it Pine pear. _ t r through bags, is in the factories accomplished more quickly No equally authoritative selection has been made tor tne Somerset and Devon districts, but the following varieties by forcing it through layers of compressed cotton in a. machine of German origin known as Lumley’s filter. The of cider apples are held in good repute in those parts. - actual process of cider and perry making is a simple one, Kingston Black, Jersey Chisel, Hangdowns, Fair Maid ot Devon, Woodbine, Duck’s Bill, Slaek-my-Girdle, Bottle and is as described in the ninth edition of this work, but, Stopper, Golden Ball, Sugar-loaf, Bed Cluster, Boyal owing in the main to the investigations of German Somerset, and Cadbury (believed to be identical with the scientists, it is now possible to trace the causes of those Boyal Wilding of Herefordshire). As a rule the best cider changes, familiar to all practical cider-makers, which occur apples are of small size. ‘Tetites pommes, gros cidre,” say in both cider and perry during fermentation, and thereby to impart to the manufacture of these liquors a degree of the French. , . Cider and perry not being taxable liquors m Fngland, exactitude unattainable hitherto. Cider made from a it is impossible to estimate with even an approach to judicious mixture of several varieties of apples is to be accuracy the amount of the annual production of them. preferred to cider made from one variety only, inasmuch In 1896 Mr Sampson, the then secretary of the National as it is less difficult to find the requisite degrees of richness, Association of English Cider-makers, in his evidence before astringency, and flavour in several varieties than in one; the Boyal Commission on Agriculture, put it at 55-| million but the contrary is the case with pears, of which the most gallons. Since that date the increased demand for these noted sorts, such as the Barland, the Taynton Squash, and native wines has given such an impetus to the industry the Oldfield, produce the best perry when unmixed with that this figure might with safety be doubled. In France other varieties. It is not now considered advisable toofficial statistics are available, and these show not only crush the seeds or pips in making cider from the bestthat that country is the largest producer of cider (includ- fruit, as their aromatic taste would mask or destroy the ing perry) in the world, but that the output is yearly delicate flavour of the juice; but where the latter is of poor increasing. In the ten years ending 1888 the annual quality the crushing of the pips is admissible in order toaverage production amounted to 14 million^ hectolitres. supplement its deficiency in flavour. Some fining of an albuminous nature is generally This average was, however, largely exceeded in 1899 and 1900, the production in 1899 reaching 21 million, and in requisite in order to clear the juice and facilitate its 1900’ nearly 30 million hectolitres, or within 5 million passage through the filter, but the less used the better. hectolitres of the output of wine in the last-mentioned The simplest and cleanest is skim milk whipped to a year. Although some cider is made in sixty-five depart- froth and blended gradually with the cider as it is ments, by far the largest amount comes froin the provinces pumped into the mixing vat. Many nostrums are sold of Normandy and Brittany. In Germany cider-making is for the clearing of cider, but none are necessary and most a considerable and growing industry. Manufactories on are harmful. Of late years the practice has largely obtained of using a small scale exist in North Germany, as at Guben and preservatives for the purpose of checking fermentation. Griinberg, but the centre of the industry is at FrankThe principal preservatives employed are salicylic and fort-on-Main, Sachsenhausen, and the neighbourhood, boracic acid and formalin. The two former are ineffective where there are five large and twenty-five small factories except in quantities likely to prove hurtful to health, while employing upwards of 1000 hands. Of late years the production of cider in Wurtemberg has greatly increased, formalin, in itself a powerful and deleterious drug, though stops fermentation, renders the liquor cloudy and unand large quantities of fruit are imported from foreign it countries, especially from Switzerland, where, there are drinkable. Other foreign ingredients, such as saccharin numerous orchards of cider apples. Stuttgart is the prin- and porcherine, both coal-tar derivatives—the latter a cipal depot for foreign fruit. Out of 2857 truckloads recent discovery of a French chemist, after whom it is brought in by rail in 1898, 1973 came from Switzerland named—are used by many makers, chiefly for the purpose and 561 from Austria. In Baden, Hesse,. Wurtemberg, of rendering bad and therefore unwholesome cider palatable and the Palatinate the highways have within, the last and saleable. Provided that cider and perry be properly twenty-five years been extensively planted with cider, fruit. filtered and attention paid to perfect cleanliness of vessels appliances, there is no need of preservatives or The trees belong to the respective states, which derive.an and sweeteners, and their use ought to be forbidden by law in increasing revenue from the sale of the fruit. Speaking England, as it is in most continental states in the case of generally, however, the native-grown fruit used in Germany liquors to be consumed within their borders, though not, it for cider-making consists of inferior and undersized table is significant apples not worth marketing. The cider thus made is. of exportation. to note, in the case of liquors intended for poor quality, but, as it is chiefly, used for “ bowle ”—a kind Within the last few years the wholesome properties of of cider cup flavoured with “Mai-kraut” (the common woodruff) the quality is not of consequence. The bottled cider cider and perry when pure and unadulterated have been recognized by medical men, who recommend them as for export is treated much like champagne and is usually pleasant and efficacious remedies in affections of a gouty or fortified and flavoured until, in the words of an acknowledged French authority, M. Truelle, it becomes a hybrid between rheumatic nature, maladies which, strange to say, these very liquors were once supposed to foster, if not actually to cider and white wine rather than pure cider. originate. Under a similar false impression the notion is The practice which formerly prevailed in England of general that hard rough cider is apt to cause diarrhoea, makino- cider on the farm from the produce of the home colic, and kindred complaints, whereas, as a fact, disorders orchards has within the last few years been to a large extent given up, and, as in Germany and many parts of of this kind are conspicuous by their absence in those parts the country where rough cider and perry constitute the France, farmers now sell their fruit to owners of factories of staple drinks of the working-classes. This is especially the where the making of cider and perry is carried on as a case in Herefordshire, which is said also to be the only business of itself. In these hand or horse, power is super- county in England whence no instance of the occurrence of seded by steam and sometimes by electricity, as in the factory of E. Seigel in Grunberg, and the old-fashioned Asiatic cholera has ever been reported.