Many different forms of apparatus are employed in crushing the fruit. The ordinary horse-mill, in which it is ground to a pulp by means of a circular atone wheel, described above, presenta many disadvantages, to all of which the manufacturer still persists in shutting his eyea. It requires an enormous amount of labour, and it consumea far more time than is necessary. Besides this, in auch a mill, the pippins or seeds of the fruit are crushed as well as the pulp, a contingency which ought to be carefully guarded against. The seeds of apples contain 25 per cent. of a colourless fixed oil, which is not absolutely injurious ; but they contain also a minute quantity of a volatile essence, closely resembling, if not identical with, the oil of bitter almonds. This oil, if present in cider in any quantity, effectually covers the flavour of the drink, and exerts a most powerful action upon the nervous system, and particularly upon the brain. To its presence are probably due. the prolonged intoxicating effects and the serious disorders which follow excessive indulgence in thia drink. The breaking up of the Heeds doea not render the cider more alcoholic, but it adds greatly to its intoxi cating effects, and should therefore be avoided in every possible way.
Another mill, used only in England, and much to be preferred to the one just mentioned, con sists of two cylinders, having a number of knife-blades attached to them; these move in opposite directions, and reduce tbe fruit, which is fed in from above, to small slices. The apples, thus divided, fall between two other cylinders, made usually of granite, which crush them to a pulp of 2 E moro or less fineness, according to the distance apart at which the cylinders are placed. By this means, the fruit is prepared for the press without any danger of bruising tho seeds and stems.
A machine, preferable to either of the above for crushing apples, was devised by Berjot, and is now used in France ; it is shown io Figs. 308 and 309, from which a good idea of the method of working will be gained. The two vortical wheels aro of granite ; they work in opposite directions, and may be regulated to stand at any required distance from each other. The apparatus is worked by horse-power, and can be made to crush 5 bushels of apples a minute. One of its chief merits is that thero is no iron used in its construction ; contact with this metal is very injurious to the quality of the juice. It may be used for a variety of other purposes besides crushing fruit; it occupies but little space, and, by reason of its extreme simplicity, it is very readily repaired. 1VIanual labour may he employed to work it if desired. This mill is decidedly the best at present
in use, and we recommend it, above all °there, to the cider-makers of this country.
The fruit having, by the above method, been reduced to a kind of pulp, and a large quantity of its juices expressed, the next operation is to extract, if possible, the whole of the remainder. If this extraction were completely effected, 100 lb. of apples would yield nearly 98 lb. of must for fermen tation. Nothing like this quantity is, however, obtained at present, the deficiency being made up by the addition of water. It is true that no apparatus has ever been devised by which it is possible to extract the whole of the saccharine juices ; but it is easily possible, with improved machinery, to get a yield of at least 70 or oven 75 per cent. Moreover, by the application of the prinoiples of maceration to the residues, or mares, this yield might be increased to about 90 per cent., and a residue left equal to no more than one-tenth of the original weight of the mass. Whereas, with all the large and clumsy apparatus at present used, and all the labour expended, a yitld of more than 45 per cent. is rarely obtained.
Many presses have been devised to take the pla,ce of the hug,e, old-fashioned cider-press. This unwieldy piece of mechanism often covers an area of 50 square yards, and requires the united strength of fifteen men to work it ; and yet, though many ingenious and labour-saving substitutes have been invented, this cumbrous monstrosity is still retained in many of the cider-producing districts of England and France.
Of the improvements referred to, the best and most convenient is the hydraulic press ; unfortu nately its price prevents its economical use by makers who produce only small quantities, but where the make is considerable it is to be preferred to any ot,her. In small farms, an ordinary small screw press may be used with advantage. It is shown in Fig. 310. It will be seen tbat the principal screw turns two others, which are placed one on each side of the former ; by this moans, the upper plate is subjected to a more unifurm pressure, and better results are obtained than with a single screw. R furnishes a yield of 65 to 70 per cent. at the first pressing.
The practice of submitting the crushed pulp to maceration, in order to extract the remainder of the juice, may be recommended without any hesitation. Two principal methods may be employed, according as it is desired to use the process simply as an auxiliary to the work of the screw press, or as a means for the extraction of the whole of the juice.