THE ORCHARD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 879, 4 January 1889, Page 18

THE ORCHARD.

A NOVEL INSECT-DESTROYER. Last year John F. Kidder’s orchard, opposite the depfit, was infested with the. codlin moth and other fruit-destroyiug insects. Although no attempt to eradicate the pests was made, this year the orchard is free of insects and the fruit is sound and clean. .To the presence of an electric light iu the immediate vicinity this fact is attributed, and no doubt correctly, for thousands of the dead pests have nightly been found ou the ground under the light. The insects probably seek the light and their death as moths are attracted to a burning candle or lamp. Perhaps in this item may be seen the means of freeing other orchards of the pests. There is no patent on the discovery.—Grass Valley Tidings. MAKING AND REFINING CIDER. J. M. TROWBRIDGE, NEW YORK. Good cider can be made only from Bound ripe apples. After they are harvested thejr must lie in heaps long enough to ‘sweat,’ but must not bo allowed to rot or become musty ; the juice becomes more concentrated by this process of evaporation. Any taint of mustiness in the apples will persistently cling to the cider through all the process of making and refining. It. is an invariable rule that the better the fruit the better the cider. The finest grafted winter apples and crabs make good cider before they are fitted for the table, the maturing process going on in the juice instead of the fruit. If possible, it is better to keep the juice of each variety separate. Good cider cannot be made in a musty old mill that has become soured and foul with the accumulations of years. If there is any taint of mustiness or sharp vinegary acidity about the premises or apparatus, they should be thoroughly purified before they are used. Potash lye, boiling hot, is the best detergent for this purpose. Having everything fresh and clean, grind and press the apples. The cheese should be laid up with grass-cloth instead of straw between the layers of pomace. Straw is always more or less dusty, and often musty, imparting a bad flavour to the cider. Never water the cheese, as it dilutes and weakens the cider. The juice should be strained through a fine hair seive as it leaves the press. To still further clear the juice of specks of pomace and other foreign matters it should be run through a strainer of canton flannel in the form of a bag six inches in diameter and three feet long. One of these is hung over a tub, and the juice is dipped into it ; thence it flows into the tub and is ready to barrel. . .... • Having pressed and strained the juice, it is necessary to ascertain its saccharine strength. This is done by means of a little instrument called a saccharometer, which is a small glass tube, terminating in a bulb, and marked with a numbered scale. It is plunged upright into the juice and the depth to which itsinks indicates by the mark on the scale the amount of solids, chiefly saccharine, contained in the fluid. The instrument costs seventy-five cents and ia indispensable in making wine, cider and beer. By the test of the saccharometer, or * spindle’ as it is called, the juice should show at least thirteen per cent of solids, which are principally sugar. If the test shows it to be lower than thirteen per cent, the juice will be fit only for ‘ present use ’ cider, and will not keep over the following summer. It can, however, bo brought to the desired point.by the addition of sugar. If enough is added to bring it up to twenty-four and even thirty per cent., it will be no stronger in saccharine matter than grape juice from which wines are made. The barrels must be clean and free Irom mustinesa and every foreign flavour. New oak barrels and whisky barrels impart an unpleasant flavour, while any sharp acidity or mustiness is destructive. The barrels may be cleansed and freed from taint by washing them out thoroughly with boiling hot potash lye, made ,by boiling hard-wood ashes .in water, or, in their absence, by dissolving caustic potash in hot water. Iu whatever way it is made, the lye *nust strong enough to bear up an egg. The bar*

rels must be kept in an apartment where an even temperature can be maintained as nearly as possible at Bixty-five degrees Fahrenheit. It should never vary more than five degrees. Excessive heat will stimulate too violent activity and induce acetous fermentation, whereby the cider will be converted to vinegar. If the temperature is allowed to run too low, it will paralyze the action and sicken the cider so that if revived by subsequent heat the action is not a healthy one, and the cider acquires a bitter and disagreeable flavour. The bungs must be left out and the barrels kept full during the fermentation, so that the yeasty froth may be thrown out. When the saccharometer marks only two and a half per cent, the cider must be immediately racked off into cool barrels thoroughly fumigated by burning sulphur, or the acetic fermentation will ensue. Sometimes it becomes necessary to repeat the fumigation the second or even the third time before the germs of ferment are killed. The cider in the fresh sulphured barrels must be kept in a cool place ; a temperature of fifty degrees or even forty degrees is desirable. If there is any sound of fermentation at the bung-hole after twentyfour hours, the barrels must be emptied and again fumigated and this must be repeated until all fermentive action oeases. When the cider has been ■ silenced ’ it must be cleared of lees and all foreign matter by filtration. Large filters for this purpose are sold by implement makers. The cider, fermented, silenced and cleansed, is now made. It is not yet matured or ripened, as that takes time in the ordinary way, and for that purpose the cider must be stored in an even-tempered, cool apartment, the barrels full to within an inch and bunged, with a stout gunny cloth around the bung. It still requires to be inspected every week. If it becomes musty or loses its limpidity in any degree be sure the enemy is at work ; it must be racked off and sulphured again, and be filtered. Fumigations frequently repeated often impart a sulphur taste ; this is of no consequence and disappears very soon. The barrels must be kept full with the same cider to within an inch at each weekly inspection. It will be observed that the process here detailed Is one of purification and refinement. Nothing has been added to the cider, Cider so produced ia a true apple wine, and will keeD equally well with grape wine of the same strength. The lighter qualities must be nsed first, and a barrel must never be drawn upon for daily consumption. For this purpose procure enough kegs to be equal to a barrel in capacity and enough bottles to eojual one keg. Back off one barrel and fill the kegs, which must also be sulphured, and put the remainder into the bottles for daily consumption. The bottles must be securely corked and laid on their sides in a cool place.