The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-01-22
CREAKING CIDER MILL
ON THE OLD FARM
Rural Life in the Back
woods Fifty Years
Ago.

The creak OF the cider mill was a
familiar sound fifty years ago up among
the hills up North, where the farmers
had orchards OF natural fruit on The
hiIlsides. Natural fruit was the yield
of apple trees that had not been graft
ed. The seed Of a Baldwin or OF any
ether fine variety of apple will produce
q tree that viii bear natural fruit
Where land was cheap farmers set
out orchards of young seedlings, but
often neglected to graft the trees and
the orchard grew up TO bear only nat
ural fruit. Such apples were good for
cooking and for making cider. once
in a while a tree would bear excellent
natural fruit and the variety would be
worth perpetuating by grating or bud
ding
The creak of the Old-time cider mill
was one OF the familiar sounds OF the
early winter. After the farmers had
housed their corn and pumpkins and
gathered their apples they made few
barrels Of cider out of natural fruit.
Somewhere IN the neighborhood was
a cider mill that anybody could use.
There was no regular charge for using
II, nut the farmers usually left bar
rel or two OF cider as toll when they
took their product away.
The mill was r gOOd-siZCd sned. usual
" open on one side. The grinder con
sisted of two upright wooden cylinders
OF hard maple, perhaps three feet nigh
and eighteen inches IN diameter. Around
the surfaces were wooden cogs, each Of
which fitted into a slot IN the other
cylinder.
To the top of one cylinder a long
sweep was mortised. There was a hop
per that fed the apples TO the cylinders.
and q vat below caught the pulp as II
came through
A horse was hitched TO the end Of the
sweep. and as he walked slowly around
the old min CreaAed and the crushed
apples came through. AS the mill grew
older the apples came through rather
badly cracked, but far from crushed. But
apples were plenty, and the clear cider
came from those half crushed applesi
The cider press was as primitive as
the grinder II consisted of a bed or
heavy plauk5. set slanting. with gOuged
channels 10 lead the apple juice TO the
point where II flowed into a big kettle.
In the frame above this bed were two
screws made of logs perhaps ten inches
IN diameter, fitting into q threaded beam
above Near the lower ends of the
screws were hubs, with mOrtises in
them for hand-spikes. A heavy square
OF planks, 10 be used as follower, COM
pleted the press.
1t was something of an art to put the
pumice in the press. First a layer OF
straw was placed around the edges Of
The bed. somewhat like the fringe of
mat Then a layer OF pumiCe was show
eled on with a scoop shovel, nd the
outer ends Of the straw were folded in
ward over the crushed apples.
Another fringe Of straw was laid
around, another layer of pumice shov-
elled on and the ends of the straw
folded over as before. The process was
repeated until the cheese was built up
three or four feet high or more. when
the follower was put on top and the
screws turned down. A few twists with
the handspil1es set the cider flowing in a
clear stream.
There was almost no sediment in this
cider after It had been barrelled. If the
pulp could have been taken from the
pressed cheese and subjected to mod
ern methods Il would have yielded per
haps as much cider as had been already
expressed from Il. But what the farm
ers got was good cider.