ENGLISH STANDARDS. Any attempt to study the cider apples of England, or table varieties for that matter, is greatly complicated by the endless maze of names of similar orthography which have been given to apples, both cider and table varieties, and by the fact that there is no recognized authority on the nomenclature of orchard fruits in the entire country. Every local community appears to delight in applying names of its own choosing to the fruits grown, and there seems to be no general disposition to reduce the nomenclature to a system under some competent authority, as for instance, a national committee on pomological nomenclature. Of recent writers on pomology in its broader sense, there are very few, but the older works, as those of Knight, Marshall, Evelyn, and others are classics of their time. The best modern treatment of the subject of pomology, in a somewhat limited sense, which was secured is The Apple and Pear as Vintage Fruits, by Robert Hogg, LL. D., and Henry Graves Bull, M. D., a charmingly prepared general dissertation upon the subject of cider and perry making, with critical notes and cuts showing many varieties of cider fruits. In the way of recent literature, the Bath and West Society deserves great praise for the efforts it is making to develop a reliable literature on modern cider making. In fact, it is putting forth an effort to arouse the popular interest so necessary to the future progress in pomology as an art, and more specifically as it relates to cider making as an important industry. However, in this literature it does not appear that a successful attempt has been made to establish a standard toward which the growers of cider fruits should direct their attention. The nearest approach to a standard as to quality of cider fruits which was found in the works mentioned is in the report of the committee of the Woolhope Club, which visited the congress of the pomological societies of France, at Rouen, in October, 1884. When this committee determined to select a set of French varieties of apples for introduction into Here fordshire they laid down the following rules: " (1) The fruit must possess the very best quality of juice. (2) The trees must be hardy, vigorous, and fertile. (3) They must bloom at varying intervals. (4) The fruit must attain maturity in late autumn or winter. (5) The varieties must have obtained the highest reputation in the Norman orchards. The fact that these gentlemen from Herefordshire recognized the importance of securing some of the best Norman varieties of cider apples for introduction into England indicates that some of the best English growers are alive to the importance of producing fruit of high quality for the upbuilding of the cider industry. But such apples are already very common in England. The oldest English writers tell a Hogg and Bull, Vintage Fruits, p. 88. us of fruits yielding must of 1.091 specific gravity, which, if correct, is hardly surpassed in our day in any country. There is a large group of varieties of apples cultivated in England chiefly for cider, the names of which are made up of some English word prefixed to the word Norman or Jersey, as Cherry Norman, Broad-leaf Norman, Chisel Jersey, Red Jersey, etc. These apples all possess the peculiar bitter-sweet taste which characterizes so distinctly many of the most famous French cider apples. An interesting question arises in this connection as to whether these apples are ancient importations from Normandy and the Channel Islands. In the work on Vintage Fruits, quoted above, the opinion is given that they are not. This is based on comparisons made in 1884 at the congress of Rouen; which really prove nothing further than that they are not recent importations. It appears, after extensive comparisons, that this peculiar race of apples so common in Normandy has had a common origin, either in England or in France, indications all pointing to the latter country. Interchanges between England and the mainland have been such for many centuries that the parent stocks of the present race of bitter-sweet apples in England may very easily have been derived from French sources. Then there is the other argument, that all the historically old English cider apples, like Foxwhelp and Red Streak, which go back some two centuries in the literature, give no hint, either in chemical composition or quality, of common origin with the bitter-sweet varieties of France. From what was seen of these fruits in England it appears that if seedlings had been freely grown from them and well selected, as in France, England would to-day have as good a race of cider apples as France has. But are the bitter-sweets so essential? This question is not settled. In Germany scarcely a trace of this peculiar quality was found in the cider fruits, yet they make most excellent cider in Germany. Also in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, England, most excellent ciders were sampled, in whose making no particular attention was paid to the using of bitter-sweet fruit. The question is an important one, and, with a view of giving it ample study, the writer has procured and is growing a collection of French and English cider apples representing the bitter-sweet and other old types. It has been necessary to examine a considerable mass of data in the attempt to select a representative list of English cider fruits. Mr. F. J. Lloyd has examined and reported upon such a large number of varieties in his work for the Bath and West Society that it is possible to use but a small fraction of his data. Hence an attempt has been made to select a set of varieties which shall represent the old renowned cider fruits and the more recent sorts which are coming prominently into notice. Among the varieties selected, the Blenheim Orange, which is an old popular variety grown for general purposes, and used as a cider fruit also, has been selected for special presentation. Foxwhelp is the oldest, historically, of famous English cider apples, and Kingston Black is a very prominent recent variety. The others represent the English-grown bitter-sweet apples, and a number of them are given because of their present prominence. However, no variety known to be of recent French introduction is used in the table, though several of these recent introductions are now beginning to figure in the English cider factories. The chemical data are taken wholly from Mr. F. J. Lloyd's analyses, published in the reports of the Bath and West Society. The writer has compiled from his data analyses covering as many years as could be obtained for each of those varieties selected to represent English cider fruit. TABLE VI.—Analyses of English cider apples by Mr. F. J. Lloyd. AMERICAN STANDARDS. Early in the nineteenth century much interest was manifested in the United States in the culture of cider apples, and in the manufacture of this beverage at a few points. Perhaps Newark, N. J., was one of the most noted centers of this infant industry. In New England, however, the cider fruits were cultivated, and the Massachusetts Agricultural Society showed considerable interest in encouraging these efforts. From scraps of information and brief references, it also appears that Virginia planters were interested, and rated good cider highly. William Coxe was one of the first to write on this subject, so far as the early literature available shows. His treatise on Fruit Trees is dated 1817, and in it he speaks of the high quality of Hewes Virginia Crab and the Harrison apple for cider making. The latter is of New Jersey origin, and helped to make the quality of New Jersey ciders recognized in the early days of our history. Coxe also mentions the Newtown Pippin and Winesap, both well recognized to-day as yielding cider of high quality, but lacking in the element of tannin. The Hagloe Crab, an old English cider crab, is constantly mentioned in the early literature, and the Vandevere is also spoken of as a cider fruit. In the change of habits which came over our people about the middle of the past century, cider gradually lost its place as a beverage, used alike by the well-to-do and the laboring classes, and the art of making it seemed to fall into desuetude. The country people and a number of large commercial establishments have continued to make a beverage from apple must, but, in the main, it is very inferior in quality. Even the varieties of fruit best suited for making this beverage have almost been lost to our pomology, and later writers rarely mention them. Yet it can scarcely be contended that our people use less fermented beverages or less ardent spirits than formerly. The early American writers of consequence are Coxe and Thatcher, and these gentlemen did little more than copy the best English and French writers of their time, weaving in some local experience. Of real technical study there was none. The writings of Thomas Andrew Knight, and articles in Willich's Domestick Encyclopedia, furnished the basis of these early dissertations. Many of the principles laid down by these old writers contain the germ of the best practice of the present day. Strangely enough, the new encyclopedia of horticulture. (Bailey's) does not contain the word cider as a subject. It has already been stated that we have not at present in the United States a distinct industry in the growing of cider fruits. Yet it is true that some of our crab apples, and some varieties of apples also, have been cultivated to a limited extent for cider and are considered valuable for this purpose, but it is seldom that they are grown to any large extent. So far as the writer has learned there is no technical literature dealing especially with the chemistry of American apples, either for cider production or the manufacture of other products. Hence, at present it is not possible even to suggest a standard composition for American fruits used in making cider. Even partial analyses of the old fruits mentioned above could not be found, save of Hewes crab. Such analyses as have been made, up to a very recent date, are fragmentary and incomplete, and little attempt has been made to collect them. In 1886 Mr. Edgar Richards, then an assistant chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, made analyses of the whole fruits of 16 varieties of apples, and the results of his analyses are given below, so far as they concern this inquiry. These results can not be incorporated in the tables of average composition of must from American apples because the fruit and not the expressed juice was analyzed: TABLE VII.—Analyses of whole fruits of apples by Edgar Richards, Division of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1886. Recently, however, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station has taken up this line of work, and during 1899 Mr. C. A. Browne, jr., made a fairly complete study of 25 varieties of apples grown mostly upon the agricultural college farm, Center County, Pa. His work was first published as Bulletin No. 58, Pennsylvania department of agriculture, December, 1899. From this source are quoted the data derived from Mr. Browne's analyses as to the average composition of the whole fruit of these 25 varieties of apples: Inorganic matter: Water... Ash Organic matter: Total solids Invert sugar (grape and fruit sugar) Cane sugar (sucrose) Total reducing sugar (after inversion). Per cent. 83.57 .27 16.43 7.92 3.99 12. 12 .61 |