1. Many varieties of the fruit should be cultivated, in order that there may be a certain supply in all seasons ; those are especially to be desired which, when just ripe, contain the maximum quantities of sugar and tannin.
2. The apples must not be gathered before they have attained full maturity ; they should fall to the ground when the tree is lightly shaken.
3. The gathered apples should be at once protected from rain or frost. If perfectly ripe, there is no necessity to lay them aside before using.
4. The division of the fruit is best performed by means of root-cutters if maceration alone is to be employed to extract the juice ; or by Berjot's mill if the press is to be used.
5. The extraction of the juice may be performed either by maceration or by pressure.
6. When maceration alone is used, the must should be brought to the density of the natural juicea ; in the case of preasure, maceration may be used to exhaust the squeezed pulp, but in ouch a way as not to increase the proportion of water, or to diminiah the denaity of the must to less than that of the natural juices.
7. The extraction of the juice by presaure should be performed in a screw prese, or hydraulic press if in great quantity, of *Ample construction, requiring but little power, aud capable of producing at least 65 to 70 per cent. of juice.
8. The saccharine density of the must ehould be as high as 8° Baumd for ordinary cider, aud 12° to 13°.5 for cider destined for exportation.
9. A convenient quantity of eatechu (20 grains per gallon) should be added to the must if the latter do net show a diatinct precipitate when treated with a solution of gelatine.
10. These additions of sugar and catechu should be made to the must in the fermenting vat ; the latter should be rather deeper than wide in order to leasen the surface exposed to the air.
11. The temperature of the air in the fermenting room should be regulated at 14° or 15° ; that of the must should atand throughout the procesa at from 18° to 20'; the proceas should be started by means of brewer's yeaat (15 to 20 grains per gallon). The vats should be filled to about five aixtlis of their capacity, and ahould be covered up aa soon as the process commeuces.
12. The liquor should be drawn off as soon as the pmeess is complete—after about sixty hours. The head or scum should be removed from the surface before drawing off.
13. The secondary fermentation should be conducted in clean tune, of 130 t,o 150 gallons capaeity, and quite full.
14. When the secondary fermentation is over, the liquor is racked off, during which process it is kept as much as posaible from contact with the air, into casks properly sulphured and cleaused.
15. Clarification must be performed immediately after the firat racking off. A teat of the liquor with gelatine should be made before adding more catechu.
16. Another racking should follow immediately after the clarification. A second clarification and racking off should be performed upon cider for exportation. When made, the eider should be placed in easka of 50 to 60 gallons capa,city, aimilar to thoae used for wine. Thew should be stored in cool cellars.
17. When sweet cider is desired, the first process of fermentation may be checked as soon as the cider has attained the proper degree of sweetuess. Secondary fermentation should he hindered by frequent repetitions of the clarifyiug and racking-off processes, and by well sulphuring the casks.
Careful attention to all these points cannot fail to result in the production of an exceedingly agreeable and perfectly wholesome beverage, which is certainly more than can he said of the cider of to-day. The procese which has been described is in actual operation in Normaudy, and it yields resulta which aro little abort of perfectiou. There is nothing to prevent similar results from being attained in this country, and the preparation of really good cider would be a source of much benefit to the community at large, since it might to a large extent take the place of beer, a beverage which is extensively adulterated, and hence often very injurious to its habitual consumers. Cider is, or might be, also much more cheaply produced than beer. The cultivation of apples upon land highly favourable to their growth, but now lying utterly waste, sueh as railway cuttings and embankmeuta, would in a few years greatly increase the productiou of fruit, and tend to lower the cost of the manufactured beverage. Vast numbers of aeres of such land, upon which thousands of tons of apples might be grown, with profit to the oultivatora and benefit to the community, now, for want of a little enterprise on the part of the railway e,ompanies, produce nothing but rank herbage of little use as fodder, and consequently of no commercial value. The cust of covering this land with apple and pear trees would be very email; and, apart from the value of the fruit itself, the presence of the trees would probably be of great service as a means of preventing the soil from slipping. This mode of utilizing the slopes of railways has already been partially adopted in some e,ountries of the Continent.