CHAPTER IT. 



DOMESTIC USES OF THE VL\E. 



To licep grapes fresh. — There are several ways practised of pre- 

 serving the grape fresh for the use of the table ; one is to leave it on 

 the stock, first twisting the foot-stalk ; to hang the bunches each in a 

 paper bag ; or suspend them in a clean airy room, or spread them out 

 in aloft on straw. The sugar of very sweet grapes will preserve them 

 dry in this condition for a time; but|they soon mould, especially if they 

 have not been slightly dried in a stove, or in the bread-oven, when no 

 longer hot enough for baking; and they are certain to fail, unless 

 they have been gathered while the sun was shining, and put up in a 

 dry place, beyond the reach of the air or light. 



But the following process is simple, and the success certain. Take 

 a new cask, dry and strongly hooped; stand it in some spot where 

 the temperature is always very nearly equal; cover the bottom of it 

 with bran that has been well dried in the oven; and put into it the ripe, 

 unblemished, perfect bunches, layer by layer, filling in with the bran, 

 before another layer is laid down. When filled, the head must be fasten- 

 ed down air-tight. Grapes thus put up will keep so well, that 7 months 

 after the vintage they will be unspecked, without mould or foreign 

 flavour, even the greyish-white down upon them, the same as if 

 fresh that moment from the vine. Kiln-dried spent-ashes are used by 

 some instead of bran ; or, as Franklin' recommends, very dry millet 

 seed. It was his custom to keep grapes fresh in kegs lined with Chinese 

 sheet lead, and filled compactly with millet-seed. The Spaniards 

 use saw-dust, dried in the sun ; and the casks are previously painted 

 inside with pitch. 



Boxes with rows of wires and hooks to keep the bunches suspended 

 and separate, are used for this purpose, the joints plastered with mor- 

 tar, and the boxes are then buried in dry ashes or fine sand ; but grapes 

 thus put up are nothing equal to those preserved in casks of bran. For 

 my own part, I cannot say much in favour of the method above men 

 tioned of spent-ashes sifted into the cask, instead of bran, although it 

 is a successful one ; before the grapes can be eaten they must be put in- 



