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282 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY

CHAPTER: ORCHARDS

| ERE I quit this rich and delightful vale, I mußt not

paſs by unnoticed, their orchards, from which cider is made in the highefßt perfedtion.‘There are many gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Taunton who ſell their beſt cider for five or úx pounds per hogſhead; and it is ſuppoſed that they poſleſs an art, peculiar to themſelves, of condudting the fermentation, and thereby preſerving a rich and delicioús flavour.* The beſt fruit delights in a ſtrong clayey ſoil, and

Ff A Fp

* In part of this county, the art of making ſweet rich cider, which ſells from three to five or ſix guineas per hogſhead, is reduced to a ſyſtem; and there are ſome perſons who, on being furniſhed with a ſufficient quantity of apples, undertake to make and carry it through the whole procefs at the price of fifteen ſhillings a hogſhead. But the method of doing this they endeavour to keep a profound ſecret. The writer of this note, who is in poſſeſſion of this method, and has prac- tiſed it ſucceſsfully for his private uſe, deſirous that all makers of cider, who think it worth their attention, may profit by it, takes this op- portunity of making it more generally known:

PROCESS.

The apples being ripe, but not rotten, and all of the ſame ſort, that the fermentation may be more uniform, grind and preſs them mode- rately, but by no means cloſely. Pour the liquor into a tub to kive, and when the brown head(which will riſe on it ſooner or later as the weather is more warm or cold) begins to crack, andthe white froth appears in the cracks level with the ſurface of the head, it muſt be drawn of in order for tunning into your veſſel, At this time a great deal of feculence is thrown to the top, as well as depoſited at the bottom, and if the liguor is continued longer in the tub, the head will ſinks the bottom riſe, and a ſtrong fermentation take place, which it will be difficult to ſubdue, and which carries away the ſweets. Pro-

ceeding

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