Cider and Apples Amateur orchard-owners have often been urged—even by
such an august, if sometimes ignorant, body as the Ministry of Agriculture—to make cider of their small apples: The advice is unwise because the cider apple and the ordinary apple are very different in constitution. The various sorts of cider apple vary a good deal in make-up; but they are alike in containing more tannin, and often more sugar than other apples. They are true to the name, given to one class of cider apple, of bitter-sweets. They are, so to say, oxymorons. The tannin prevents certain undesirable medical effects ; and, though the chemists may supply a substitute, it is-not possible to make good, wholesome cider or perry without using a large proportion of cider apples or perry pears. Some of the latter are particularly rich in tannin, which makes them inedible but most potable. Some of the old sorts—and cider was popular at least as early as the twelfth century—were in danger of being lost (Bulmers Norman for example) when a cider enthusiast made an intensive survey of " the Three Counties " and planted two museum-orchards, so to say, with the rarer and better varieties both of apple and pear.
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