180 / 248
i8o
THE FLOWING BOWL
Making cider is easy enough, but requires,
like all other manufactures, care and a modicum
of common sense.
And here let me join issue
with those who maintain that the inferiority of
English cider is due to the antiquated methods
employed in making it. In the first place I
question the inferiority ; and in the second,
although it is a fact that there is very little
difference between the methods of to-day and
two hundred years ago, we are more careful, on
the whole, in the selection of the material. Far
more important than complicated machinery is
the proper choice of apples. Grow these in a
scientific way, and do not eat all the best for
dessert. The cider appleshouldbe neither green
nor over-ripe—and certainly not rotten like those
used occasionally for the harvesters—free from
injury (and therefore not a "windfall") and just
full ripe. The selected fruit should be placed in
a mill which breaks them up and pulps them ;
the pulp is then put under a press, and squeezed
dry to the last drop. The liquid is then left to
ferment, and this process should be very gradual,
and be closely watched. Finally the cider is
drawn off, the finest qualities being bottled, and
they may be regarded as pure wine.
At all
events they are frequently sold " as sich."
It is claimed that cider, when pure and well
made, is not merely an extremely wholesome
drink, but a very helpful one to those who suffer
from gout or rheumatism. It is asserted that
cider will even cure these painful disorders, and
that those who drink the juice of the apple are
far less subject to aching joints and limbs than