198 Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring. 



winter stock a large room in his house, fitting it up in all parts to 

 accommodate .handily the little bottles before spoken of, padding 

 the inside of the windows so as to exclude light, and obviate, as far 

 as possible, changes of temperature. The grapes are cut in October, 

 and preserved in good condition until April, when his earliest grapes 

 are ripe. He has frequently shown them in May, and even later, 

 and has kept them till August ; but of course the quality cannot be 

 expected to be good after such very long keeping, which is merely 

 done for the sake of show. The first result of the method to the 

 village of Thom^ry, which is almost whoUy occupied with Chasselas 

 culture, was a gain of from 100,000 to t ^0,000 francs per annum. 

 The system enables the cultivators to keep their grapes much later 

 than of old, and thus to add considerably to their revenue. A small 

 room in M. Charmeaux's house illustrates to a nicety the fact that 

 a similar one in most houses may be made to answer the purposes of 

 keeping grapes. It has no windows, and scarcely any means of 

 ventilation. The rest of the house is heated by hot air j but while 

 there are openings in the floor of the passages and rooms generally 

 to admit this, there are none in the room devoted to grapes. Thus 

 it is clear that the ordinary temperature of a well-constructed house 

 will present suitable conditions for the long preservation of grapes, 

 in any small room that may be devoted to that purpose. The 

 system was attractive enough when it was considered necessary to 

 construct a room specially to carry it out ; it is much more so now 

 when it has been proven that not only is it not necessary to take 

 any special means to warm or ventilate the structure, but that the 

 grapes keep very much better without such being taken. 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, Mr. 

 Whittaker, of Crewe Hall Gardens, exhibited a bunch of grapes 

 kept somewhat after this fashion ; but as he had not seen the plan in 

 execution, nor the figure of it given in this book, the experiment 

 was not carried out so simply as it may be. However, the grapes 

 had been kept a considerable time, and there was no reason to 

 suppose that their flavour was inferior in any noticeable degree. 

 Notwithstanding this, and that the test was not carried out in tlie 



