202 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the paste, which are replaced by similar ones from an old and fine cheese. After keeping 

 the cheeses thus prepared for a few days, they will have acquired all the agreeable qualities 

 of old Gloucester. 



Preserving Timber. 



ANTOINE LE GROSS, of Paris, has recently obtained a patent, the object of which is to pre- 

 serve all kinds of timber by a cheap chemical solution, which does not injure its fibre. For 

 this purpose he employs a solution of hydrochlorate of manganese, saturated with chalk and 

 the oxide of zinc. The logs or pieces of timber are steeped in this solution about twenty-four 

 hours. The vessel to hold the timber is placed vertically, so that the timber can be placed 

 on end to allow the liquid to flow through the pores by capillary attraction. If placed hori- 

 zontally, the liquid will not flow through the fibres of the timber. Some creosote may be 

 added to the liquid, and with a good effect. 



On the Preservation of Vegetables. 



THE following extracts on the preservation of vegetables are taken from the work of a 

 French author, M. Appert, entitled ''The Art of Preserving all kinds of Animal and Vegetable 

 Substances for several years. Published by order of the French Minister for the Interior, in 

 the Report of the Board of Arts and Manufactures." The author states that "this method 

 is not a vain theory. It is the fruit of reflection, investigation, long attention, and numerous 

 experiments, the results of which, for more than ten years, have been so surprising, that not- 

 withstanding the proof acquired by repeated practice, that provenders may be preserved two, 

 three, and six years, there are many persons who still refuse to credit the fact." 



After stating the experience he has had in the cellars of champagne, in shops, manufac- 

 tories, and warehouses of confectioners and grocers for forty-five years, he proceeds to say 

 "I owe to my extensive practice, and more especially to my long perseverance, the convic- 

 tion 1. That fire has the peculiar property not only of changing the combination of the con- 

 stituent parts of vegetable and animal productions, but also of retarding, for many years at 

 least, if not of destroying, that natural tendency of those same productions to decomposition. 



"2. That the application of fire in a manner variously adapted to various substances, after 

 having, with the utmost care, and as completely as possible, deprived them of all contact 

 with the air, effects a perfect preservation of those same productions with all their natural 

 qualities. 



" The details of the process consist principally 1. In closing in bottles the substances to 

 be preserved ; 2. In corking the bottles with the utmost care, for it is chiefly on the corking 

 that the success of the process depends ; 3. In submitting these enclosed substances to the 

 action of boiling water in a water-bath for a greater or less length of time, according to their 

 nature, and in the manner pointed out with respect to each several kind of substance ; 4. In 

 withdrawing the bottles from the water-bath at the period described." As an example of his 

 practice, we give his method of preserving dwarf kidney-beans: "I cause the beans to be 

 gathered as for ordinary use. I string them and put them in bottles, taking care to shake 

 them on the stool, to fill the vacancies in the bottles. I then cork the bottles and put them 

 in the water-bath, which is to boil an hour and a half. When the beans are rather large, I 

 cut them lengthways into two or three pieces, and then they do not require being in the 

 water-bath longer than one hour." When they are to be used, he gives the following instruc- 

 tions : " Scald the French beans as if they were fresh, in water, with a little salt, when not 

 sufficiently dressed by the preserving process. This often happens to them as well as to 

 artichokes, asparagus, and cauliflowers. If sufficiently boiled, on being taken out of the 

 bottles I have only to wash them in hot water in order to prepare them afterwards for vege- 

 table or meat soup." 



This author furnishes several recipes for other vegetables, all of which are on the 

 bottling principle ; but there is another process, which consists in evaporating the watery 

 parts of vegetables, and preserving them dry. We recollect some years ago receiving from 

 Holland a few packages of sugar-peas, kidney-beans, and other vegetables, in this dried state, 

 which, when cooked, were as well flavored as they would have been in the green state. 



