60 



PACKING GEAPES. 



arched on them. Of the excellence of the black Ham- 

 burg as a stock for such high-flavoured though delicate 

 grapes as Muscat Hamburg, and the whole of the Fron- 

 tignans, I have not the slightest doubt ; and I have 

 during last summer inarched these sorts and many- 

 others on it, and recommend others to do the same, 

 feeling confident that success will be the result. 



PACKING GRAPES. 



There are many ways of packing grapes, though 

 perhaps none of them perfectly successful in the pre- 

 servation of the bloom where they have to be sent to a 

 considerable distance by public conveyance. The method 

 I practise myself is the following : — I have light deal 

 boxes made, capable of containing 10 lb. of grapes. 

 The boxes have a division in their centres ; they are 

 thus in two compartments. I place a layer of fine 

 paper -shavings in the box : I then wrap each bunch of 

 grapes in a sheet of fine silver-paper and lay it on the 

 shavings in the box, then a few shavings betwixt it and 

 the next bunch, till the compartment, which holds four 

 moderate-sized bunches, is filled, when all corners round 

 the bunches are stuff'ed full of shavings, and a layer is 

 laid on the top of all, so that when the lid is put on 

 with screw-nails the bunches are subject to a sort of 

 elastic pressure. This, without bruising them, keeps 

 them from shifting about in the box. It is better to 

 err on the side of packing them too firm than loose ; 

 for, tossed about as the boxes are in railway trucks and 

 vans, if they are not firm they sufier very much. The 

 division in the box takes ofi" the weight of pressure one 

 set of bunches would exercise on another. 



