r its strength, and that of Devonshire
for its lusciousness.

Cider used to be made in the south of Ireland, but the industry had
almost become extinct until revived by the Department of Agriculture,
which in 1904 erected a cider-making plant at Drogheda, Co. Louth, gave
assistance to private firms at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, and Fermoy, Co.
Cork, and provided a travelling mill and press to work in the South
Riding of Co. Tipperary. The results have been highly satisfactory, a
large quantity of good cider having been produced.

Inasmuch as English orchards are crowded with innumerable varieties of
cider apples, many of them worthless, a committee composed of members of
the Herefordshire Fruit-Growers' Association and of the Fruit and
Chrysanthemum Society was appointed in 1899 to make a selection of
vintage apples and pears best suited to Herefordshire and the districts
adjoining. The following is the list drawn up by the committee:--

_Apples_.--Old Foxwhelp, Cherry Pearmain, Cowarne Red, Dymock Red,
Eggleton Styre, Kingston Black or Black Taunton, Skyrme's Kernel,
Spreading Redstreak, Carrion apple, Cherry Norman, Cummy Norman, Royal
Wilding, Handsome Norman, Strawberry Norman, White Bache or Norman,
Broad-leaved Norman, Argile Grise, Bramtot, De Boutville, Frequin
Audievre, Medaille d'Or, the last five being French sorts introduced
from Normandy about 1880, and now established in the orchards of
Herefordshire.

_Pears_.--Taynton Squash, Barland, Oldfield, Moorcroft or Malvern Hill,
Red-pear, Thurston's Red, Longland, Pine pear.

No equally authoritative selection has been made for the Somerset and
Devon districts, but the following varieties of cider apples are held in
good repute in those parts:--Kingston Black, Jersey Chisel, Hangdowns,
Fair Maid of Devon, Woodbine, Duck's Bill, Slack-my-Girdle, Bottle
Stopper, Golden Ball, Sugar-loaf, Red Cluster, Royal Somerset and
Cadbury (believed to be identical with the Royal Wilding of
Herefordshire). As a rule the best cider apples are of small size.
"Petites pommes, gros cidre," say the French.

Cider and perry not being taxable liquors in England, it is impossible
to estimate with even an approach to accuracy the amount of the annual
production of them. In 1896 Mr Sampson, the then secretary of the
National Association of English Cider-makers, in his evidence before the
royal commission on agriculture, put it at 551/2 million gallons. Since
that date the increased