528 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
COMMONPLACE NOTE. 
Preserving Apples and Plums. 
By T. H. Dipnall, F.R.H.S. 
Fellows of the R.H.S. may be interested to know the following 
methods of preserving Apples and Plums respectively, one of which 
I have found successful on personal trial, and the other I learnt from 
a neighbour, whose statements I have every reason to believe are 
quite trustworthy, and who said he had seen and tried fruit preserved 
in this way. The latter plan I only heard of the other day (in April), 
but when the plum season comes round again I hope to test it for 
myself ; even if it were a failure, it would only entail the loss of a 
pound or two of fruit, for one would not experiment with a 
large quantity at first. 
Anyone who has Apple trees growing in grass has found in 
February and March quite sound fruit hidden among the herbage, 
unhurt by the weather and quite firm and free from shrivelling. 
Having heard at different times that Apples would keep well if clamped 
like potatos, and with the knowledge that they often kept well lying 
perdu in the orchard, I determined to try clamping them myself. 
The variety experimented with was ' D'Arcy Spice Pippin/ one of 
the best flavoured of late dessert apples, but one which I have never 
succeeded in keeping much later than the end of February in the 
apple cellar without shrivelling. Last autumn there was a very 
heavy crop of these, and out of a heap put on a loft for sale early in 
the New Year I had a bushel and a half of sound, firm fruit picked 
out and a small clamp made of them in the garden at the beginning 
of January. Various circumstances prevented me from having the 
clamp made earlier in the season, otherwise I should have done so 
about the end of November, as soon as the fruit had finished sweating. 
A bed of clean wheat straw was made on the soil and the fruit heaped 
up on this, then the heap was covered with straw and earthed over 
in exactly the same way as one clamps potatos or mangolds. They 
were then left untouched till about ten days after Easter, when I 
opened the clamp to try them. Out of about half a peck of fruit 
taken out up to the present , four or five, which were evidently specked 
when clamped, had begun to go bad. The rest were perfectly firm 
and sound and the flesh was softer and juicier and, if anything, sweeter 
than in the case of apples kept exposed to the air, while in flavour 
they are quite equal to any I have tasted. The skins, apart from a 
little earth which had sifted through the straw on to them, were 
clean and smooth, but slightly damp and sweaty and wanted washing 
or rubbing with a cloth before use. I have been told that the skins 
