CIDER AND PERRY.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Six,—In the short notice of my article in the current number of the Nineteenth Century on " The Cider Industry in France and England " which appears in the Spectator of August 3rd, your reviewer represents me as saying that the English pro- duction of cider is only worth one million sterling as against a French production of eighteen millions. I made no positive statement as to the relative annual production in the two countries, for the reason that in England, cider and perry not paying duty, there are no figures at hand from which anything approaching to an accurate estimate of the quantity made yearly could be based, whereas the figures of the French production are extracted from the Government Returns. Consequently, any calculation of the English production must be guesswork. Five years ago, it is true, the value of the annual production of cider and perry in this country was put by a competent judge at one million sterling; but, as I have said in the article .in question, at the present moment I should double this estimate, since all persons engaged in the industry of cider-making would admit that the last five or six years have been remarkable for the development of it. In England no doubt, as in France, the production varies with the seasons. For instance, the output in France in 1893, which was an excellent year for fruit, exceeded thirty million hectolitres, whereas in 1897 it fell to less than seven million. What is noticeable about the English demand is its steady increase year by year as more and more people learn to appreciate the dietetic value of cider and perry. The general public regard.cider as a purely summer drink, acceptable in very hot weather, but not to be thought of in winter. There are, however, many, especially of the professional classes, who now make cider or perry their staple drink, as we do in Here- fordshire, all the year round, giving a, preference to perry in winter as the more warming beverage of the two. Moreover, men who cannot stomach the nauseous and un- wholesome concoctions which pass for temperance drinks find in cider a salutary and, in many cases, a less spirituous thirst- quencher; Cider, like all fermented liquors, varies in alcoholic strength, and the bulk of what is supplied to the public as a summer drink hardly ever contains more than from two to three per cent. of alcohol. I speak of genuine cider, not the stuff sold, I regret to say, in considerable quantities in some of our big towns under that name. This, as the price alone would tell a true cider-maker, is a spurious article containing no apple juice, the sale of which under such a description ought, if local authorities did their duty, to bring the sellers within the penal clauses of the Food and Drugs Acts. I do not hesitate to pronounce cider of the light kind I have men- tioned to be a temperance drink. Indeed, when I say that it is so regarded by many who call themselves abstainers I am stating a fact within my personal knowledge.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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