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See also:CIDER, or CYDER (from the Fr. cidre, derived from the See also:Lat. sicera or cisera, Gr. mucepa, Heb. shade, strong drink)
, an alcoholic beverage made from apples
.
See also:Cider and See also:perry (the corresponding beverage made from See also:pears) are liquors containing from as little as 2% of See also:alcohol to 7 or 8%, seldom more, and rarely as much, produced by the vinous See also:fermentation of the expressed juice of apples and pears; but cider and perry of See also:prime quality can only be obtained from vintage See also:fruit, that is, apples and pears grown for the purpose and unsuited for the most See also:part for table use
.
A few table apples make See also:good cider, but the best perry is only to be procured from pears too harsh and astringent for See also:consumption in any other See also:form
.
The making of perry is in See also:England confined, in the See also:main; to the counties of See also:Hereford, See also:Worcester and See also:Gloucester
.
These three counties; together with See also:Somerset and See also:Devon, constitute, too, the See also:principal cider-making See also:district of the See also:country; but the
See also:industry, which was once more widely spread,. still survives in See also:Norfolk, and has lately been revived in See also:Kent, thought; in both these counties, much of the fruit used in cider,rnakingis imported from the See also:west country and some from the See also:continent
.
Speaking generally, the cider of See also:Herefordshire is distinguished for its lightness and briskness, that of Somerset for its strength, and that of See also:Devonshire for its lusciousness
.
Cider used to be made in the See also:south of See also:Ireland, but the industry had almost become See also:extinct until revived by the See also:Department of See also:Agriculture, which in 1904 erected a cidertmaking plant at See also:Drogheda, Co
.
See also:Louth, gave assistance to private firms at See also:Dungarvan, Co
.
See also:Waterford, and See also:Fermoy, Co
.
See also:Cork, and provided a travelling See also:
Inasmuch as See also:English orchards are crowded with innumerable varieties of cider apples, many of them worthless, a See also:committee composed of members of the Herefordshire Fruit-Growers' Association and of the Fruit and Chrysanthemum Society was appointed in 1899 to make a selection of vintage apples and pears best suited to Herefordshire and the districts adjoining
.
The following is the See also:list See also:drawn up by the committee:-
A pples.—Old Foxwhelp, See also:Cherry Pearmain, Cowarne Red, Dymock Red, Eggleton Styre, See also:Kingston See also:Black or Black See also:Taunton, Skyrme's See also:Kernel, Spreading Redstreak, Carrion See also:apple, Cherry See also:Norman, Cummy Norman, Royal Wilding, Handsome Norman, See also:Strawberry Norman, See also: In See also:Germany cider-making is a considerable and growing industry . Manufactories on a small See also:scale exist in See also:north Germany, as at See also:Guben and Griinberg, but the centre of the industry is at See also:Frankfort-on-Main, Sachsenhausen and the neighbourhood, where there are five large and twenty-five small factories employing upwards of moo hands . Large quantities of cider fruit are imported from See also:foreign countries, as, speaking generally, the native-grown fruit used in Germany for cider-making consists of inferior and undersized table apples not See also:worth marketing . The bottled cider for export is treated much like champagne, and is usually fortified and flavoured until, in the words of an acknowledged French authority, M . Truelle, it becomes a hybrid between cider and white See also:wine rather than pure cider . The practice which formerly prevailed i 1 England of making. cider on the See also:farm from the produce of the See also:home orchards has within the last few years been to a large extent given up, and, as in Germany and many parts of France, farmers now sell their fruit to owners of factories where the making of cider and perry is carried on as a business of itself . In these See also:hand or See also:horse See also:power is superseded by See also:steam and sometimes by See also:electricity, as in the factory of E . Seigel in Griinberg, and the old-fashioned appliances of the farm by See also:modern See also:mills and presses capable of turning out large quantities of liquor . The clearing of the juice, too, which used to be effected by See also:running it through bags, is in the factories accomplished more quickly by forcing it through layers of compressed See also:cotton in a See also:machine of See also:German origin known as Lumley's See also:filter . The actual process of cider and perry making is See also:simple, and resembles that of making See also:grape wine . The fruit is ground or crushed in See also:machines of various construction, the latest and most powerful being of See also:American origin . The resulting pomace is pressed for the extraction of the juice, which is then run into vats, where it undergoes fermentation, which, converting the saccharine ingredients into alcohol and carbonic See also:acid See also:gas, turns it into cider . Cider made from a judicious mixture of several varieties of apples is to be preferred to cider made from one variety only, inasmuch as it is less difficult to find the requisite degrees of richness, astringency and flavour in several varieties than in one; but the contrary is the See also:case with pears, of which the most noted sorts, such as the Barland, the Taynton Squash and the Oldfield, produce the best perry when unmixed with other varieties . Some fining of an albuminous nature is generally requisite in See also:order to clear the juice and facilitate its passage through the filter, but the less used the better . The simplest and cleanest is skim See also:milk whipped to a froth and blended gradually with the cider as it is pumped into the mixing vat . Many nostrums are sold for the clearing of cider, but none is necessary and most are harmful . Of See also:late years the practice has largely obtained of using preservatives for the purpose of checking fermentation . The principal preservatives employed are salicylic and boracic acids and See also:formalin . The two former are ineffective except in quantities likely to prove hurtful to See also:health, while formalin, in itself a powerful and deleterious See also:drug, though: it stops fermentation, renders the liquor cloudy and undrinkable . Other foreign ingredients, such as See also:saccharin and porcherine, both See also:coal-See also:tar derivatives—the latter a See also:recent See also:discovery of a French chemist, after whom it is named—are used by many makers, chiefly for the purpose of rendering See also:bad and therefore unwholesome cider, palatable and saleable . Provided that cider and perry be properly filtered, and See also:attention paid to perfect cleanliness of vessels and appliances, there is no need of preservatives or sweeteners, and their use ought to be forbidden by See also:law in England, as it is in most See also:continental states in the case of liquors to be consumed within their See also:borders, though not, it is significant to See also:note, in the case of liquors intended for exportation . The wholesome properties of cider and perry when pure and unadulterated have been recognized by medical men, who recommend them as pleasant and efficacious remedies in affections of a gouty or rheumatic nature, maladies which, See also:strange to say, these very liquors were once supposed to See also:foster, if not actually to originate . Under a similar false impression the notion is See also:general that hard rough cider is See also:apt to cause See also:diarrhoea, See also:colic and kindred complaints, whereas, as a fact, disorders of this See also:kind are conspicuous by their See also:absence in those parts of the country where rough cider and perry constitute the See also:staple drinks of the working-classes . This is especially the case in Herefordshire, which is said also to be the only See also:county in England whence no instance of the occurrence of See also:Asiatic See also:cholera has ever been reported . The importance which the cider industry has of late attained in England has been marked by the See also:establishment of the National Fruit and Cider See also:Institute at See also:Long See also:Ashton near See also:Bristol . This institute, founded in 1903 at the instance of the See also:Board of Agriculture, is supported by grants from the board, the See also:Bath and West of England . Society, the See also:councils of the cider-producing counties of Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, See also:Monmouth, Devon and Somerset, and by subscription of members . The See also:objects of the institute are the promotion of See also:research into the causes of the changes which occur in cider and perry during fermentation, with the view of imparting to these liquors a degree of exactitude hitherto unattainable; the See also:adoption from See also:time to time of improved machinery and methods in cider-making; the dgtection of See also:adulteration; the giving of instruction in the principles and practice of cider-making; the publication of reports detailing the results of the researches undertaken at the institute; the testing and selection of the sorts of fruit best suited for vintage purposes; the See also:propagation of useful varieties likely from neglect to go out of cultivation; and the conducting of experiments in regard to the best systems of planting and protecting See also:young fruit trees . Fruit-growers who look to cider-making " as a means of utilizing windfalls and small and inferior apples of cooking and dessert varieties not worth sending to See also:market " should be warned that it is as important to the cider industry that good cider only should be on See also:sale as it is to the fruit-growing industry that good fruit only should be sent to market . The juice of the apple is naturally affected by the See also:condition of the fruit itself, and if this be unripe, unsound or See also:worm-eaten the cider made from it will be inferior to that made from full-grown, ripe and See also:sound fruit . If such fruit be not good enough to send to market, neither will the cider made from it be good enough to See also:place before the public . Nevertheless, it may furnish a sufficiently palatable drink for home consumption, and may therefore be so utilized . But when, as happens from time to time in fruit-growing districts, there is a glut, and even the best table fruit is not saleable at a profit, then, indeed, cider-making is a means of storing in a liquid form what would otherwise be See also:left to rot on the ground; whilst if a proportion of vintage fruit were mixed therewith, a drink would be produced which would not discredit the cider See also:trade, and would bring a fair return to the maker . (C . W . R .
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