PRESERVATION OF THE GRAPE.-FRUIT-MIRACLES, ETC. 
311 
PRESERVATION OF THE GRAPE. 
Last winter I sent a communication on this sub¬ 
ject to the New York Agricultural Association, 
which was read before that body by Dr. D. P. Gard¬ 
ner, and seemed to excite not a little interest. In 
February, I showed some grapes to Dr. G. which 
were perfectly sound, though ripened under very 
unfavorable circumstances, and which had been left 
on the vine until they wer z frozen as hard as bul¬ 
lets. Some of these grapes I kept until May, when 
the last of them suddenly disappeared down the 
throat of a friend. 
As the grape-season is near at hand, a description 
of my method of preserving this most luscious fruit 
may not, perhaps, prove uninteresting to many of 
your readers, and will, no doubt, be appreciated by 
some of them at least. The process is so simple 
that few words are necessary to describe it, and it 
will be easily comprehended by all. I first take a 
common unglazed flower-pot, and place over the 
hole in the bottom a small clam-shell (or a piece of 
broken pot), with the convex side down, to drain 
off surplus water. I then pour in clean, white sand, 
to the depth of about an inch; next I select a bunch 
of ripe grapes, perfectly sound, and firmly attached 
to the peduncle. These I hold in the pot in such a 
position as that they do not touch its sides, and then 
fill it up with sand, covering the grapes about an 
inch and a half deep. This being done, I set the 
jpot aside in a room of a temperature of from 40° to 
50° or 60°F., and water it about once a week, or 
as often as it becomes dry, with a watering-pot hav¬ 
ing a finely-pierced rose attached to it. 
This comprises the whole process, and I think 
you w r ill admit that it is very simple. I can assure 
you that it answers the end proposed; at least, it 
has done so with me for the last six or seven years. 
If it were not so, I should not think of hazarding 
my reputation by recommending it in this public 
way, and over my own name. That all will suc¬ 
ceed who attempt to preserve the grape in this man¬ 
ner, I do not expect; but that the great majority 
will, I firmly believe, because there is no reason 
why they should not, if they follow the directions 
above given. At all events, Mr. Editor, I am anx¬ 
ious that the process should have a fair trial; and 
there are few lovers of the grape who will begrudge 
a few bunches for the sake of making the experi¬ 
ment. I have succeeded in preserving the grape by 
other means, but the above method seems to be the 
most certain and economical. I will here state that 
finely-pulverized charcoal may be used instead of 
the sand with great advantage, but it is not so 
readily procured, and is much more expensive, 
though, in fact, the cost of either is comparatively 
insignificant compared with the important purpose 
to which they are to be applied. 
The above process I believe to be new; it cer¬ 
tainly is so to me. In the debates on the preserva¬ 
tion of the grape, &c., which have taken place from 
time to time before the N. Y. Farmers’ Club and 
elsewhere, no allusion, to the best of my know¬ 
ledge, has been made to any method nearly resem¬ 
bling the above; and if any person who took part 
in those debates was in possession of any such pro¬ 
cess, he was assuredly under obligations to make it 
known. 
I will just add that the pots may be larger or 
smaller, and that one or more bunches may be put 
in each pot, according to circumstances. When 
the grapes are to be eaten, the sand must be wash¬ 
ed off in clean water. I have said nothing in regard 
to the principles upon which the process is based, 
as these will be understood by the generality of 
readers. Peter B. Mead. - 
New York, Sept. 5, 1847. 
FRTJFTMIRACLES. 
In the Horticulturist of the present month, w r e 
have a notice of a peach-tree in the garden of Mr. 
Willis, at Portland, Maine, that bore a crop last 
year of perfect peaches, and this season is covered 
with nectarines. Here is a greater miracle than 
Boston can boast of. There, the Boston nectarine 
was raised by Mr. Lewis, from a peach-stone. On 
Saturday last, Mr. Bush presented to our Horticul¬ 
tural Society, a large, perfect, and beautiful plum, 
which he assured us was raised by him from the 
stone of an apricot planted in a pot and carefully 
tended till it bore fruit. Mr. Bush is a well known 
and reputable gardener in our vicinity, and his in¬ 
tegrity of character for truth will be vouched for, 
by all who know him. I as firmly believe this 
transmutation, as I do the Boston and Portland 
miracles. I will mention two others that came un¬ 
der my own observation, in the truth of which I 
have equal reliance, and the first far surpasses the 
Boston nectarine miracle, and the evidence of its 
truth stronger. Mr. Jones, Consul at Mexico, sent 
me three apricot-stones, which I cracked, and care¬ 
fully planted in mould from my garden, in a small 
garden-pot cf a triangular form, placed in a hot-bed. 
In a few days there came up, similarly located, 
three forest-trees, which I transplanted into larger 
pots, and in a few weeks into the open ground, 
where they were kept until six or eight feet high ; 
and I was assured they were trees not known in 
this region. No apricot-trees appeared, and could 
not be expected; for it would be too much to expect, 
even in the land of witchcraft, to have both forest 
and fruit-trees from the same kind of stones. 
The other miracle was at the vineyard of one of 
my tenants, a Mr. Amen. There was in his vine¬ 
yard a grape-vine that had for many years pro¬ 
duced abundant crops of white grapes, and a follow¬ 
ing season, the same vine bore an abundant crop of 
black, as well as white grapes. Mr. Amen was a man 
of truth, but fortunately, the fact did not, as was the 
case in the Boston nectarine, and my forest-tree 
miracles, depend on the word of a single individual, 
All the horticulturists for miles around saw for 
themselves, and vouched for the fact. Candor, how¬ 
ever/compels me to admit, that, in this case, 1 exam¬ 
ined the plant, and recollected that it was a Schuyl¬ 
kill muscadel (a black grape), on which, at my 
request, Mr. Amen had grafted a white grape, and 
the black fruit was produced on a shoot from the 
muscadel stock, which he recollected when I re¬ 
minded him of it. N. Long worth. 
Cincinnati , August 12th, 1847. 
How to Prepare Anchovy-Sauce. —Take three 
or four anchovies, chopped fine ; butter three or foui 
ounces; water two ounces; vinegar two table¬ 
spoonfuls; flour one table-spoonful; and stir ovei 
the fire until it thickens ; then rub it through a coarse 
hair-sieve. May be used on meat or fish. 
