Kris Inwood wrote: >How do you know when hard cider disappeared? How do we know >which farmers at any given date date were turning some >of their apples into cider, and thence hard cider? > >Kris Inwood, >U of Guelph > You're right of course, Kris. The historical course of hard cider's decline has been much more a matter for supposition and speculation than solid evidence. Yet cider's decline IS one of the intriguing and unsolved mysteries of alcohol's history in the U.S. Bill Rorabaugh's brave and pathbreaking time-series table (_The Alcoholic Republic_, 1979) shows hard cider completely disappearing from the consumption scene by 1845. But, and by contrast, Biddle and Falconer's authoritative _History of Agriculture in the Northern United States 1620-1860_ tells us: "After 1840, and in an increasing degree after 1847, much attention was given to the planting of orchards....By 1850 it seemed, indeed, as if every eastern farmer were planting an apple orchard" (p. 380). B&F attribute the new enthusiasm to the rise of the cities, creating new demand for FRESH FRUIT, and the newly available transportation means to get fresh fruit to the consumer. Hence apple production and hard cider production may have been moving in opposite directions. David R. Williams at George Mason Univ. has written a very nice essay on the mystery of hard cider's 19th cent. decline, which I saw in draft some monghs ago. (I've emailed him asking if it has since been published, and I'll get back to the list with his response.) There is also an interesting popular-historical article on cider's history and would-be return to the American palate in _Beer the magazine_ (Jim Dorsch & Greg Kitsock, "Cider Comes Full Circle," No. 7, May-June, 1995, pp. 36-39). Trees were cut down, too, as part of the nation's new thirst for temperance, but the exact course of hard cider's production/consumption history is an elusive historical target--believe you me. Ron -- ================================================================= Ron Roizen voice: 510-848-9123 1818 Hearst Ave. dulce est fax: 510-848-9210 Berkeley, CA 94703 desipere home: 510-848-9098 U.S.A. in loco [log in to unmask] =================================================================