Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring. 20 1 



season when every inch of glass is valuable. I'he work just named 

 relates how the author cut a lot of bunches of grapes in February, 

 and with them a portion of the stem, which he pointed and in- 

 serted into roots of mangold- wurzel — a sufficient proof, even if none 

 other existed, that something in this way would be a boon. How- 

 ever, there is no person who knows what it is to grow grapes but 

 is aware that some improvement is desirable. 



The Rev. Mr. Berkeley is reported to have said with regard to 

 a system which is certain to avert much of the expense and in- 

 convenience above alluded to, that it had justly been remarked that 

 they (the grapes) were certainly not improved in quality, that even 

 with the addition of charcoal the water might get into a putrid 

 state, and finally that the method was " universally acknowledged 

 not to be a success !" With regard to the first statement, nobody 

 has ever said that the grapes were improved in quality ; but that they 

 are not deteriorated in any appreciable degree by keeping as long 

 as is necessary, is well known to those who have tasted grapes 

 kept thus. With regard to the second statement, I can simply 

 assure the reader that no putrefaction was observable in the water 

 thus treated, and add my conviction that a pinch of animal charcoal 

 will keep the water quite safe, and also that it is very likely the 

 system will be useful without the use of charcoal at all, especially 

 in cases when we do not require to keep the grapes for a long time. 

 I have recently had a letter from Mr. Whittaker in which he states 

 that the water kept perfectly sweet with him, and that he believes 

 this mode of keeping grapes to be good, and that it will yet be 

 universally adopted in this country. As to the third statement, 

 that the method was " universally acknowledged not to be a 

 success." I should like to ask, by whom ? By those in England 

 who know nothing about it and have probably never seen it carried 

 out? or by some in France who judged of it from specimens 

 kept a very long time ? M. Rose Charmeaux and other culti- 

 vators at Thomery — the place of all others to test its merits — 

 are, though the best calculated to judge of its merits, certainly not 

 among those who have condemned it ; for when I was there last 



