The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-26
THE EOLD-T|ME CREAK OF THE CIDER MILL A Feature of Farm Life Half a
 Century Ago THE MODERN METHOD Power Presses and Apple Graters Have Relegated the Old Form To a
 a Memory-Perfect
 Cider Vinegar.


 liar sound fifty years ago up among the hills, where the farmers had orchards of natural fruit on the hillsdes Natural fruit was the yield of apple trees that had not been grafted. The seed of a Baldwin or of any other fine variety of apple will always produce a tree that will bear natural fruit.
 Where land was cheap farmers set out orchards of young seedlings, but often neglected to graft the trees, and the or chard grew up to bear only natural fruit. Such apples were good for cooking and for making cider Once in a while tree would bear excellent natural fruit and the variety would be worth perpetuating by grating or budding.
 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 choice apples, they made few bar rels of cider out of the natural fruit.
 Somewhere in the neighborhood was a cider mill that anybody could use. There was no regular charge for using it, but the farmers usually left barrel or two
  duct away.
 The mill was a good size she'd usually open on one side. The grinder consisted or two upright wooden cylinders of hard maple, perhaps three feet high and eighteen inches in diameter. Around the surfaces were wooden cogs, each of which fitted into slot in the other cilinder.
 To the top of one cylinder long sweep was mortised. There was a hopper that fed the apples to the cylinders, and vat below caught the pulp as it came through
 A horse was hitched to the end of the sweep, and as he walked slowly around the old mill creaked and the crushed ap- ples came through. As the mill grew older the apples came through rather badly cracked, but far from crushed. But apples were plenty. and what clear cider came from these half crushed ap- plesl
 The cider press was as primitive as the grinder It consisted of a bed of heavy blanks set slanting, with gouged channels to lead the apple juice to the point where it flowed into q big kettle
 In the frame above this bed were two screws made of logs perhaps 10 inches in diamater, fitting into threaded beam above. Near the lower ends of the screws were nuDS Wlln InOTllStS liicil iOl handspikes. A heavy square of blanks, to be used as follower, completed 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 a mat Then layer of pumice was shoveled n with a scoop shovel, and the outer erds of the straw were folded inward ov~s the crushed apples.
 Another fringe of straw was lni6 around, another layer of pumice show eled on and the ends of the straw folded over as before. The process was repeal ed 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. few twists with the handspikes set the cider flowing in 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 modern methods it would have yielded perhaps as much cider as had been already ex- pressed from it. But what the farmers got was good cider.
 It was easily kept sweet by putting mustard seed into the barrel. It made hard cider that went down as smoothly as Olu appleJack ana would down an h. cautious thinker before he knew his dan- ger.
 With a red hot iron in 1t it made a flip that was just right and just as insidious. With a bit of mother dropped in the barrel it made cider vinegar that was perfect.
 Most of the farmers had apples in plen- ty; so when they had filled up a dozen or two dozen barrels they called it a job and left the rest of the apples for anybody who wanted them. Of the barrels of cider taken away one was kept sweet with mus tard seed and the others were allowed to get hard
 Now and then a farmer sold a barrel of hard cider or vinegar. but the price was hardly enough to pay for the empty bar rel, and so the cider and vinegar lay in the cellar until they were thrown out to make room for the next seasons product.
 Cider making nowadays is different. The apples go into a mill called a grater usu- ally run by steam or water power and come out in consistency like porridge
 This is poured into the press, the shift ing Of the belt runs the follower down in jiffy, and in the time taken for a twist of the wrist barrel of apples is turned into nearly barrel of cider.
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