"Our cider is the worst article we produce. Our hay, potatoes, grain, and fruit, do not depend on ourselves. They are the gifts of God, the productions of his goodness, which we call nature. Our butter, cheese, and cider are partially the result of our own industry. The two former are, often indifferent enough, yet, with some important exceptions, they are in a state of improvement. Our cider is not improving; we have of late learned to treat it better in great towns, but the farmers, whose interests we espouse, drink a miserable liquor instead of an excellent one, which they might have; they obtain a reduced price for the article, in consequence of the bad state in which it is brought to market.

"It would appear from the above extracts from the works of the most celebrated writers in the best farming countries of Europe, that more ought to be done at the press, and less at the cider cellars of the cities. We get, to be sure, a clear, but a medicated and factitous liquor, easily discernible by men acquainted with the subject. The improvement, if we have any, must originate at the cider press, and the farmer must reap the profit, not the retailer, who sells it at thirty dollars per barrel.

"The difficulty now is, that families are compelled to go through this process of racking their cider frequently, and refining it, after all which they are not sure of having it good, and of course prefer to pay the retailers three dollars a dozen for bottled cider.

"The price of the cider paid to the farmer will always be regulated by the risk of its being good, and the trouble required to make it so. If the farmers could reduce the liquor into a vinous state, and it is much more easily done before the agitation of a removal, before it is transported to market, they would obtain five and even ten dollars a barrel instead of three. I have no hesitation to say, that cider not only reduced to the vinous state, but re

fined, would more readily bring from five to ten dollars a barrel than it now does three.

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Something too must be allowed for the addition to their own comfort and enjoyment. With three days labour of one man, forty barrels of cider may be sufficiently attended to, racked one or more times, the casks rinsed, and stummed with sulphur; then the farmer would never have to resort to foreign liquor to regale his friends. A good bottle of cider is often equal to the best Champagne, the most popular wine of France.

"It may be thought that the rules above extracted are too numerous, and too complicated. We shall show that they are essentially reducible to a few, and yet they are mostly such as we are not in the practice of adopting. If this publication shall have the effect of inducing one publick spirited man in each town, to adopt all or any of these recommendations, our object will have been answered.

"The rules may be reduced to the following, the respective importance of which we shall notice as we proceed.

"First. Apple orchards ought to be planted with the same kinds of fruit, or with fruits which ripen as nearly together as possible.'

"This, though valuable, is not among the most important rules. It is, however, very important that there should be no early summer or autumn apples in the cider orchard.

"Two or three trees near the house for early fruit may not be amiss, but for cider they are generally lost and wasted.

"Second rule. The apples, whenever gathered, should be put for some time in piles, and before they are pressed, should be sorted, and not only the rotten ones separated, but those only ground together which are of a uniform and equal degree of ripeness. The first part of this rule is followed with us; the second is but too much neglected.

"Third rule. The pumice should be suffered to stand from six to twenty-four hours, according as you may wish to give a higher or paler colour to your cider. But in our climate, if the weather is hot, it should be turned frequently, to prevent fer

mentation.

"Fourth rule. The first runnings of the press should be kept separate, being a superiour quality of cider.

"This, it is believed, is seldom attended to. Barrels warranted of this sort ought to fetch, and after a short time, would fetch a greater price.

"Fifth rule. Where the farmer is rich and forehanded, it is advisable to have a 'vat made near the press, which will contain from eight to twenty barrels. This may be made either square or round. Into this vat the cider, as it is made, should be turned, and suffered to work off in the open air. This will save much future trouble. There should be a cock, or tap and faucet, near the bottom, to draw off the cider when the scum or crust is perfectly formed.

"But lastly. If farmers will not go to this expense, they should leave their barrels not full by a gallon or two, and as they work off, they should fill them up, and after they have done working, rack them into other casks. This should always be done before they are sent to market, or put into the place where they are to remain. Removing them before they are worked produces an agitation often fatal to the cider.

"Such is the invariable practice as to wine. There is no difference between the two liquors, except the fruit from which they are made. They undergo the same process of fermentation. Wine, if neglected as we do our cider, would be an acid and vile liquor.

"If these ideas shall contribute to give information to those who have not books at command, I shall be happy."

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF CIDER.

THIS excellent liquor contains a small proportion of spirit, but so diluted and blunted, by being combined with a large quantity of saccharine matter and water, as to be perfectly wholesome. When of a proper age and well refined, pure cider may be considered as a pleasant and salutary beverage, and calculated to obviate a putrid tendency in the humours.

Strong, astringent cider, well impregnated with fixed air in bottles, has been found of great utility in various diseases. In low fevers of the putrid kind, it is not merely a good substitute, but is equally efficacious with port, or other foreign wines.

"Excellent brandy is made from apples in the United States, notwithstanding what Chaptel has said on the subject. If carefully distilled from sound apples, and kept a few years in a warm situation, it is very agreeable, when diluted with water. One wineglass full, added to a half gallon bowl of punch, highly improves the flavour of that drink.”

POMONA WINE.

It is said that several of the agricultural societies have adopted regulations for the encouragement of American beverage, at their annual jubilees. Currant wine is to be substituted for claret; and the great staple of New England, cider, is to be substituted for Madeira. The following is a receipt to make it :

“Take cider, made of sound apples, sweet from the press, and leach it through a barrel filled with clean dry sand. After it has passed through, carefully drain it off into a brass or copper kettle, in

which it must be boiled one hour over a slow

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fire, and skimmed clean. After it has been taken off and cooled, strain it through a fine cloth, and put it into a cask that is perfectly clean. Set it in a of the cellar, and let it remain five or six part weeks, when one quart of best French brandy, and one pound of raisins must be added to eight gallons.

cool

"It ought to be made a year, at least, before it is used. It is needless to state that the quality of the liquor will be improved by age."

"This American process has, of late years, been imitated in the cider counties, and particularly in the west of England, where several hundred hogsheads of cider wine are annually prepared; and being supposed to contain no particles of copper, from the vessels in which it is boiled, the country people consider it as perfectly wholesome, and accordingly drink it without apprehension. In order to ascertain the truth, various experiments were instituted by the late Dr. Fothergill; from the result of which he proved that cider wine does contain a minute portion of copper, which, though not very considerable, is sufficient to caution the publick against a liquor that comes in so very questionable a shape. Independently, however, of the danger arising from any metallick impregnation, we doubt whether the process of preparing boiled wines be useful, or reconcileable to economy. The evaporation of the apple juice by long boiling, not only occasions an unnecessary consumption of fuel, but also volatilizes the most essential particles, without which the liquor cannot undergo a complete fermentation, so that there can be no perfect wine. Hence this liquor is, like all other boiled wines, crude, heavy and flat; it generally causes indigestion, flatulency and diarrhoea. Those amateurs, however, who are determined to prepare it, ought at least to banish all brass and copper ves