COMMONPLACE NOTE. 
529 
of clamped Apples have an unpleasant flavour, but I have not tried 
them, as all apple skins are too tough for my teeth nowadays. Next 
autumn, as the first trial has turned out so well, I mean, if the fruit 
crop fulfils the present promise of the blossom, to experiment with 
other varieties. If clamping will keep ' Cox's Orange Pippin ' firm 
and juicy till April, as I believe it would, it is a method well worth 
adopting with choice fruit, at any rate when there is a big crop. 
The system of preserving Plums which, as I have said, I have 
not yet been able to try, is a variation of the common practice of 
bottling and a very simple one, having the usual object of excluding 
all air from the fruit. In this case, however, heat is not used as a 
sterilizing agent, it is a cold-water method. All the apparatus required 
is screw-stoppered bottles, a vessel deeper than the bottles to stand 
them in, and a plentiful supply of cold water. Having prepared the 
bottles in the usual way, seeing that they are quite dry and clean, 
fill them with fruit from which the bloom has been carefully wiped, 
taking care to use only fruit which is quite sound and free from bruises. 
Then fill the bottles to the brim with cold hard water, and, placing 
them in the deeper vessel under the tap or pump, let the water run 
into this, or keep on pumping into it till the bottles are absolutely 
free from air bubbles. As soon as this happens, screw the lids down 
tight on the bottles under water, then take the bottles out and store 
them for use when required. That is all, and, if effective, it is certainly 
a very easy and inexpensive method. Whether other fruits would 
keep well preserved in this way I do not know, but one would think 
that it might be adopted for such things as green gooseberries and 
tomatos at least. Of course the fruit would need more cooking when 
used, as it would be quite raw in the bottles and not partially cooked, 
as is generally the case. 
