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
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