1S75. ] 
PRESERVING GRAPES AFTER THEY ARE CUT. 
145 
THE SULTAN PLUM. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
owe our thanks to Messrs. Rivers and Son, of Sawbridgeworth, for the 
X/ specimen represented in the accompanying Plate of this fine new Plum, 
which is a seedling raised by them in 1871. Dr. Hogg, in the new 
edition of his Fruit Manual , describes it as “ a culinary plum of great 
excellence ; ripe in the middle of August.” Our specimens were received near 
the end of August in last year, and were then in a nicely ripened condition. The 
variety is considered to bear some degree of resemblance to the Orleans Plum, but 
it is said to be a most profuse bearer, and much earlier than that variety; and 
it differs further in having the bark of the young shoots smooth. 
The following is Dr. Hogg’s description :— u Fruit above medium size, round, 
marked with a deep suture. Skin dark purple, covered with a thick blue bloom. 
Stalk about half-an-inch long, inserted in a wide hollow. Flesh greenish- 
yellow, adhering to the stone, firm, brisk, and sweet, with a pleasant flavour.” 
Our own notes of the fruits submitted to us run thus :—Fruit round, about 
middle size, with a rather shallow suture. Skin pucy-purple or dark purplish- 
red, dotted with minute brown specks, and covered with a thin bluish bloom. 
Stalk set in a deepisli cavity. Flesh deep greenish-yellow, separating tolerably 
freely from the stone, juicy, and with a pleasant flavour, similar to that of the 
Orleans Plum. 
It is a handsome and useful Plum, and one which, being of prolific habit, is 
likely to become a favourite with fruit-growers.—T. Moore. 
PRESERVING GRAPES AFTER THEY ARE CUT. 
HIS subject has very deservedly occupied the attention of a good many 
writers in the columns of the horticultural press of late years, the 
majority giving the preference to the system of keeping them attached to 
the lateral on which they grew, placing its end in a bottle of water. In this 
way, they have undoubtedly kept their Grapes plump and sound till April, or 
even till May. Perhaps the finest examples of this sort ever seen in public, 
were the splendid bunches of Black Alicant exhibited at the Apiil show of 
the Royal Caledonian Society, in Edinburgh, recently, by Mr. Douglas’s gardener, 
from the neighbourhood of Dalkeith ; they were perfect as far as appearances went. 
Others who have made their success known through the press, were no doubt 
equally successful. In the face of all this, however, I doubt if grapes so kept 
are wholesome. They are kept plump by a certain portion of water entering the 
berries. There, in an undigested state, it mixes with the sugar in the grapes, 
and unless they are kept in a temperature little above freezing, less or more 
fermentation takes place, rendering the fruit anything but suitable for the 
stomach of an invalid, to say the least of it. I was first struck with this in 
the year 1848. Previous to that date, I had been in the habit of cutting a good 
many fine Muscat Grapes, with the lateral they grew upon, both ends of which I 
3rd series.—viii. o 
