Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/789

CIDER, an alcoholic beverage obtained by the ferment ation of the juice of apples. The manufacture is chiefly carried on by the cultivators of the fruit, and it has been conducted from very remote times in Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset, and Devonshire in England, and in Normandy in France. Cider is also largely prepared and consumed in Upper Austria, Wurtemberg, in the districts of the Maine and the Moselle, and in Holland ; and it is besides a common beverage in the New England and Western States of America. In the south-west of England the most esteemed varieties of apple cultivated for cider- making are the Royal Wilding, ihs Foxwhelp, White Normandy Beech, Yellow Styre, Handsome Mandy, and Skynne s Kernel. For a superior quality of cider the large well matured apples of several varieties are selected, and are ground up to a fine pulp either in an old-fashioned cider mill, or in one of several newer machines which have been introduced for pulping the fruit. The old form of mill consists of a circular trough around which a huge heavy stone wheel or runner, weighing about a ton, is drawn by a horse. Into the trough a charge of apples, to the amount of from 8 to 10 bushels, is thrown, and the mill is kept in motion till the whole mass is reduced to a fine uniform pulp, which is technically called " the cheese. " The old-fashioned mills are now generally superseded by modern inventions, of which Coleman s cider press may be taken as the type. It consists of two pairs of rollers mounted in a strong wooden frame. The first and upper pair are of hard wood, studded with iron teeth or knives, set immediately under a hopper into which the fruit is fed. In passing between the iirst pair the fruit is sliced into small pieces which fall between the second pair of rollers, placed immediately below. These consist of heavy cylinders of stone set quite close so that the opposing surfaces press against each other, and the sliced apples in passing between them are bruised to a fine pulp which is received into a trough placed directly under. The pulp or cheese is, or ought to be, laid aside for at least a night to allow fermentation to set in before the juice is expressed. By this means the aromatic oil contained in the seeds is extracted, communicating its aroma to the mass, and a richer, fuller-flavoured beverage is the result. The cheese is placed in hair-cloths in a strong framed box for expressing the juice, an operation which must be gently and carefully performed, so that the liquid may be obtained as pure and clear as possible. The juice ought to have a specific gravity of from 1 07 to 1 08, and should contain 10 or 11 per cent, of sugar and 6 to 7 per cent, of malic acid. The liquor is strained and placed for fermenting either in large vats or in separate casks. In the fermentation which ensues an abundant sediment is thrown to the bottom and a scum rises to the surface. In a week or ten days this action should leave the liquid clear and bright if the fermentation has continued steady and moderate. The liquid is then racked off into casks, as free as possible from scum and sediment, and excluded from atmospheric influence to stop the further action of the fer ment. If in the early part of the following spring it is found to be still clear, nothing further is required except to cask it up for the market ; but should it have become thick and ropy it must be " fined " either by means of is inglass or with stewed and mashed apples. It is frequently found necessary, in order effectually to stop fermentation, to expose the liquor to the influence of sulphurous acid gas, which is done by burning a sulphur tipped stick inside a cask half filled with cider, and shaking the cask so as to make the liquor absorb the acid gas. Such " matched " cider is readily detected by connoisseurs. The artificial colouring of cider, when practised, is done eitier with burnt sugar, the juice of red beet, logwood, or cochineal ; and in Germany a flavour is sometimes communicated to the bever age with elder flowers, cinnamon, cloves, or other aromatics. The following analysis of a pint of common cider such aa is supplied to agricultural labourers in Somersetshire is by Dr Voelcker:—

Water 8292-41 grs. Alcohol 367-69 Grape Sugar 31 67 Gum arid extractive matter 45 05 Albuminous compounds 1 94 Malic Acid 44 86 Ash . 18-38 8802-00 grs

Cider is very prone to undergo acetous fermentation, and develop a rough, sharp, vinegary taste ; and in that condi tion its consumption readily causes diarrhoea and colic. Roughness may be much reduced by treatment with vari ous compounds prepared for the purpose which contain lime, or by the addition of a quantity of hops boiled with treacle or honey to the acetified cider. When sound it is a wholesome, agreeable, and refreshing stimulant beverage. In Germany a spirit, apple brandy, is distilled from cider.

CIENFUEGOS, Nicasio Alvarez de (1762-1809), poet and publicist, was born at Madrid. He studied with distinction at Salamanca, where he sat at the feet of the poet Melendez Valdez. The year 1778 saw the first of his poems published, and the attention of his countrymen was immediately attracted. He was appointed editor of the Government organs, the Gaceta and Mercuric, and an article on Napoleon published in the former drew down on him the heavy hand of Murat. Cienfuegos was condemned to death ; he refused submission, and would assuredly have been executed but for the prayers of his friends. At their instance the sentence was commuted into one of de portation into France. Worn out with grief and fatigue, he died at Orthez in the following year. His verses are imitated from these of Melendez Valdez ; they are by no means deficient in science or passion, but they are too often disfigured by a spurious sentimentality and by an affectation of the flimsy philosophy of the age. He was blamed for an unsparing use at once of archaisms and of novelties, which some regarded with approval, but others denounced him as a traitor to the glorious traditions of Castilian art, and as bent on Frenchifying the noble Castilian idiom. His plays Pitaco, Zoraida, La Condesa de Castilla, and Idomeneo, four tragedies on the pseudo- classic French model, and Las Hermanas Generosas, a comedy have been long forgotten both in the closet and on the stage. See Tickuor, History of Sjxinish Literature, vol. iil ; and Cienfuegos, Obras Poeticas, 2 vols., Madrid, 1816.

CIGAR, a form in which tobacco is prepared for smoking

without the use of a pipe. Cigars consist of certain portions of small and broken leaf tobacco rolled together in the form of a short stick or rod tapering to a point at one end called the curl or twist, and firmly wrapped round with one or two wrappings of whole leaf tobacco. The manufacture of cigars is conducted by hand-labour, and the various operations are performed with great dexterity. The selected leaves to be used for wrapping are first damped and stripped or freed from the midrib, by which each leaf is torn into two halves. These are smoothed out and pressed to remove any creases, and with a sharp knife the workman cuts each into the proper shape to form a wrapper. On each wrapper so prepared a sufficient quantity of small and broken leaf is placed, and the whole is then wrapped up in the form of a cigar. An external wrapper of] fine uniform leaf is added and secured in a peculiar kind of knot at the smaller end. The thick end is trimmed by placing the cigar in a gauge and cutting it to a definite size. After

finishing the cigars are dried on trays either by exposure to