CIDER versus WINE.
Now the juice of the apple grows more popular ; and begins to rival the juice of the grape and, may one say ? of John Barleycorn. There is little doubt that the days might be revived when the West Country was "one huge or- chard" and cider was exported from western counties in immense quantities by the western seaports. The apples are demanded but not provided. Cider makers are, therefore, driven either to purchase imported apples from France, which is the only country in the world that grows cider tipples on a large scale, or imported juice of all sorts of apples, Mostly of quite a wrong sort, from any part of the world. There is, of course, the unlovely alternative of a synthetic pro duct consisting chiefly of tartaric acid and water. This vanishing of the cider and perry orchards was emphasized in a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture after the War and little has been done since, except by a few individuals, to renovate the old orchards or plant new.
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