CIDER. Cider is the juice of the apple after it undergoes the natural or vinous fernaentation. Sweet cider is that fresh from the press and which has undergone only a slight fermentation. Good cider is only made from sound, ripe apples, and its use and manufacture has been known ever since the cultivation of the fruit became general. The use of the modern mills and presses will enable any person of intelligence to make good cider, by allowing the juice to stand in the pulp a longer or shorter time, according as a, lighter or darker color is required in the juice . When ready for pressing the juice should be placed in barrels, and these in a cellar, where the temperature will not fall below 60°, nor increase above 75°, Fahrenheit. An active sac charine fermentation will commence in a few hours; this should be permitted to continue with the bung loose until the hissing sound, so readily discernible where carbonic acid gas is escaping, shall cease. The cider may now be racked or drawn off into clean barrels, separating it from its sedhnent, and again suffered to ferment after being bunged up for a few days, the bungs, of course, being loosened as before. This fer mentation will be of short duration. The cider rnay now be racked again, the bungs should be tightly closed, and if intended for draught use it should be kept in a cool cellar; if intended for bottling, it should be bottled early in the spring. The old-fashioned rule is to do so before the appear ance of apple blossoms. This prevents an undue fermentation or acetification, and secures a proper degree of life inside the bottle. Bottlers in cities sometimes use ripening agents but, for well made cider, bottled at a proper season, these are unneci essary. Isinglass, fish sounds, etc., are some times used to clarify and refine cider. All these, however, may be dispensed with if the cider is well made, and the rules before given are strictly adhered to. The addition of ripe quinces, when this fruit is grown, very much improves the flavor of cider. The following is a simple and
excellent plan for making cider wine : Take sweet and sour apples in about equal parts by measure. Let them be sound, pleasant-flavored and free from rot and worm-holes. Grind them in a mill, and let the pomace stand twenty-four hours, stirring it up often so as to expose it to the air. A.fter the juice is expressed, add two pounds of refined sugar to each gallon of cider, and put it in a perfectly clean barrel for fermen tation. Rack off after fermentation ceases, and cleanse the cask well, then return it and bung it up closely. Cider wine, prepared in this way and bottled after four months, is nearly equal to the best champagne wine, and is, in fact, very much like it; but if vely light colored wine is desired, the juice should be pressed from the pulp as soon as it attains the proper color desired. If a wine of less strength is desired, use four pounds sugar and one gallon of water to each gallon of apple juice. All apples will not make cider. The best eating and dessert apples are too juicy, and do not furnish rich juice. Among the more celebrated of cider apples are Campfield, Harrison, Hewes' Virginia Crab, Whitney's Number Twenty (crab), Plumb's Cider, Gilpin, or Red Romanite, Smith's Cider, and Waugh's Crab. 'The farmer, however, must cultivate such varie ties as do well with him, or in his locality. The varieties mentioned, except Gilpin, are not adapted to general cultivation. The juice of this apple is, however, exceedingly rich and, if mixed with the orchard varieties generally culti vated, will make excellent cider. Red Romanite furnishes very heavy, rich juice and, within the last few years, it is found that Ben Davis, an apple that bears heavy crops, in various soils and situations, gives a rich, heavy juice for cider making. It should be stated, in this connection, that Gilpin and Little Red Romanite are identi cal, and Carthouse is also a synonym. (See also article Gallizing.)