GRAPE PRESERVING. 



769 



great caution into boxes or baskets to be taken to the preserving house, 

 where each stalk is plunged into a phial holding about 125 grammes of 

 water, into which, two or three days previously, a teaspoonful of wood 

 charcoal has been put. 



The phials are suspended as shown in the accompanying illustration 

 (fig. 898), and then certain precautions must 

 be observed : they must not be disturbed, nor 

 must any draught be admitted, as the tempera- 

 ture must not descend below i to 2 cent. 

 There is no necessity to change the water in 

 the bottles ; very little will evaporate between 

 November and May, when the process ought 

 to be finished, but the phials must neither be 

 corked nor concealed. 



In the dry process the same house can 

 be used, and stagings are employed. These 

 frames are furnished with grooved boxes in- 

 clined towards each other, and lined with very 

 dry fern-leaves or straw (fig. 900). Some Fig. 899.-Han g ;n S the grapes, 



days after the phials have been filled cut the grapes successively at the first 



time, which generally begins about 

 the 6th to the I2th of November. 

 The grapes are then put in baskets 

 and carefully carried to the pre- 

 serving room, where they are 

 ranged in the boxes so as not to 

 touch. Each box contains about 

 six kilogrammes of grapes. 



All the time of the conserva- 

 tion process care must be taken 

 to eradicate all grapes which 

 change colour or alter in any 

 way. If dampness be feared have 

 a lighted stove in the room for a 

 time. Grapes are also preserved 

 en espalier, but not so well. Some- 

 times a mouldy smell will be per- 

 ceived in the room ; to prevent 



Fig. 900. Drying process. 



this ventilators should be placed in the ceiling, which must, however, never 

 be opened until the mouldy smell renders such a proceeding absolutely 

 necessary. 



49 



