The Topeka state journal., 1919-10-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
TREDERIc J. HAaK1N. Dirsc4oe.
waahtns4sn. d. G.
THE RISE OF CIDER.
waahtnstm. d. g.


A few years ago you could buy all
the cider you wanted for about five
dollars a barrel. Now you are lucky
If you can buy a barrel of good cider
for twenty dollars, and in many sec
tions you are lucky if you can buy
good cider ct ALL
This sudden increased demand for
cider may. or may not be connected
with the fact that the senate has ex-
cluded n-intexicating cider and
wine from the long list of beverages
banned and that the conference COM
mittee on the prohibition measure
shows a tendency to concur in this
leniency. OF course, the conference
committee may change its mind, even
before this is off the press, but If
present indications hold good you may
make cider and own cider without
breaking the law.
1t seems probable that cider may
rise to the dignity of a national bev-
erage. Cider has for many years been
made in almost every community in
the United States. Most Americans
are acquainted with cider as a soft or
sen1i-soft drink which is both whole
some and good to the palate. and
few of them are aware that cider
which has attained mature age
under favorable conditions is not so
soft. In fact the drinking of hard
cider is in some country communities
well recognized and popular vice.
But cider is wholesome and it never
develops a very high percentage of
alcohol. Furthermore, the making of
hard cider is a difficult art which not
many amateurs will master. If not
hardened in just exactly the right
way, the cider will turn into vinegar
and align itself with the white-rb-
boners by biting the tongue of the
would-be sinner. Most of us will
probably never know cider except in
its strictly fresh and very mildly alco-
nh Of a
enough room inside to get drunk on
one or two per cent beverage. 1t
would seem, therefore, that If there is
any beverage in the world besides
spring water and milk with which an
American citizen can be trusted alone,
cider is that one. If there is a cup
that cheers without inebriating. that
can keep the joy of convivality alive
in the world without scandalizing the
righteous, that cup may well contain
cider.
The new interest in cider has had
the effect of turning attention upon
the few cider mills and cider bars
which are scattered about the country.
These establishments have heretofore
existed overshadowed by their more
powerful rivals. They are almost sure,
now, to increase in number and in
| Importance.
A typical cider mill is the establish
! ment of Mr.. T NJ. Whitney of Penn
| syIvania avenue. here in Washington.
Mr.. Whitney has been making cider
and cider vinegar, and nothing else,
at this same stand for thirty-five
| years, and yet many Washingtonians
have discovered the place but recently
/ The back part of Mr.. Whitney's estab-
lishment is a factory where fifty bar
| relS OF cider per day are turned out
| by steam power process. The front
| part is a bar of the old-fa shioned
kind, with foot rest and a grateful
fragrance. Nothing but cider passes
| over this bar.
Mr. Whitney, a kindly old gentle
man, Is what people describe as a
| character He knows cider from the
! tree to the stomach in all it's varieties
and ages. On his country place he
raises apples so that he may expert
ment with different varieties ain the
] making of cider. He will tell you,
for example, about the Hughes Vir-
ginta crab apple, little known brand
| which is the most wonderful cider ap-
pie in the world. Cider, made prop
erly from this little red apple with
| the black spots, has a peculiarly deli
| cate flavor, and has the further pc
culiarity that it will develop ten per
| cent of alcohol without trace of
acid. OF course, it need not be de-
veIoped to that extent.
| This crab apple cider also produces
I
| farmers say-a content of carbon di-
oxide, which makes it tickle the
tongue just like soda water. Mr..
| Whitney says that a good cider made
from these apples, and aged under the
proper conditions, is the nearest thing
in the world to a ringer for cham
| pagne
This interesting statement is cor
| roborated by Doctor Gore of the bu-
reau of chemistry, who has expert
| mented with this crab apple cider in
| a scientific way, Just as Mr.. Whitney
has experimental with it in a pro-
/ fessionaI way. Mr.. Whitney has a
hundred trees bearing this wonderful
apple, but he keeps most of the cider
that he makes from them for his own
use and that of his family and inti-
mate friends.
The dealer and the scientist agree
that the making of apple cider is an
art, that many good apples are ruin
in the attempt to make cider, and that
the making of hard cider in the home
is not apt ever to become a widely
successful practice.
In the first place, the right varie-
ties of apples must be used. Sumner
apples are no good. A fine winter
apple is necessary, such as the Ben
Davis or the. Winesap. OF course
culls are used almost exclusively. but
they must be culls of the better sort
Many rotten or wormy apples will
spoil the cider.
In the second place, the pressing
must be done in cold weather In
fact. cold is the secret of good cider
From the day it is pressed out of the
apples until it finds lodgment within
the human system, cider must never
be warm. The layman generally asso-
ciates warmth with fermentation, but
cider will ferment at any temperature
|, above freezing, and at any tempera-
/. ture above As degrees Fahrenheit il
; will turn to vinegar. The juice mus
therefore be pressed out on a. cold day
and must be put immediately in d
cold place. A cold cellar is good in
winter in cold climates. Otherwise il
must he put in an ice box or in somt