[There is significant digression from the title topic into a energy transmission mechanism based on ætheria. In a poetic sense, one can still see truth in it, but it is terribly outdated, as we now know much more about the nature of light and energy than we did in 1862. -ASC]

As food is the greatest want of man, it would hardly need the demonstrations of statistics to show that a preponderating share of human labor must be devoted to its production, or that the value of food in any country must exceed that of any other specific production. Yet, before entering upon a discussion of the methods of its preservation, it would be appropriate to seek some approximate estimate of the values we propose preserving; otherwise, though our general idea may be correct, we shall fail to be impressed with the immensity of their extent and importance.

Amounting, in round numbers, to about one thousand millions of dollars.  From this brief examination it appears a just conclusion that in this country the aggregate value of food products must nearly equal, if not in fact exceed, the combined value of all the other varied departments of human labor.

The most important distinction in these two classes of values is their stability; the one being eminently perishable, and the other, for the most part, quite permanent. Cotton, wool, iron and their fabrics, hay, lumber, &c., may depreciate in the course of a year or two, but they still remain with a high percent of their original value, while the greater number of fruits, vegetables; grains, and meats become valueless or entirely perish.

This peculiarity of food, this tendency to decomposition, from which arise, necessarily, methods of preservation, originates in its chemical constitution. In their natural condition, whilst certain particles of matter are inert or repellant towards others, other particles are acted upon by positive affinities, giving rise, thus, to certain natural compounds, usually consisting of two or four elements.  But when the simple elementary particles are acted upon by either vegetable or vital force, they are grouped together in large combinations altogether regardless of affinities or repulsions. The stability of this new, living compound, depending, therefore, upon the relative power of its combined chemical and vital forces, and the decomposing agencies, if its particles have of themselves a good degree of natural affinity, life will be tenacious, and decay correspondingly slow; but if, on the other hand, the particles are naturally repellant, life will easily yield, and decay will progress with rapidity.

• Grain.—Albumen, starch.
• Fruits—Sugar, water, cellulose, and acid.
• Vegetables.—-Starch, sugar, water, cellulose.
• Meat, lean.~ Albumen, fibrin.
• Meat, fat—Oil.

These proximate principles having a fixed composition as to number and kind of elements, have each their own status of durability and their own laws of decomposition. Starch has a tendency toward the saccharine fermentation, or to change into sugar; sugar, to the vinous fermentation, or to change into acid; albumen and fibrin, to direct decomposition; cellulose, to unite with oxygen; while the oils are nearly fixed.  But for either of these changes oxygen is required, for if no oxygen is supplied, in many cases the decomposition is, to a large extent, arrested or wholly prevented.

1. By the use of salt
2. By the use of sugar
3. By the aid of heat
4. By the use of creosote
5. By exclusion of air

The action of salt in preservation is compound, being partly chemical and partly mechanical. It first draws out the moisture from the substance of the meat, making a brine which acts, secondly, as a separating medium from the air.

Salt—chloride of sodium—being composed of chlorine and sodium, and hence incapable, by any decomposition, of affording oxygen to the substance, possesses mainly the negative quality of inertness. It does not act upon animal fibre either to conserve or destroy, neither the chlorine nor sodium uniting with the substance. Having, however, a great affinity for water, it absorbs and draws out from all substances with which it is in contact a large proportion of its fluid.  The strength of this affinity is well illustrated in the common experiment of mixing salt with pounded ice, the salt thawing the ice in order to unite with it, though by so doing the temperature is carried down to — 40°, (or more than 70° below the freezing point) a temperature sufficiently low to freeze the fingers in a few seconds if placed within it even before a fire. This powerful affinity of salt for water enables it, when placed upon meat, to extract the fluids, which, combining with the salt, are prevented from acting again upon the substance. But not only are the fluids principally extracted and rendered inert, leaving the particles of the meat, so to say, dry, but the brine itself, if completely covering the substance, constitutes an impenetrable shield against the admission of air. The action of salt, simple as it appears, is thus twofold— first, that of extracting the moisture actually present in the fibre, and ready to initiate chemical combinations, and consequently decomposition; and secondly, of preventing, by the brine thus made, the re-absorption of moisture from the air.

This method of preserving animal substances, one of the most common and important, simple and yet effective, demands further examination, inasmuch as in ordinary practice it frequently fails to effect its purpose, or, in other words, the meat fails “to keep.” There are three principal causes of this failure in preservation by salt:
        First. Impurity of the salt.
        Second. Impurities, or foreign substances in the water used for brine.
        Third. Change of temperature.

The subject of temperature will be treated hereafter.

But the great point of importance in the preservation of animal substances by salt is the purity of the salt itself.

The chief sources of salt in the United States are the West India Islands, the Atlantic coast, the salt springs of New York and of the Ohio basin.  The very material difference in the quality of the salt produced at these various localities arises both from the difference in the water used and from the manner of manufacture.

When sea water is entirely evaporated there will remain as a residuum all the materials which were held in solution. Many of these take a crystalline form so nearly resembling table salt, and so minute and intermixed, as to render separation impossible.

A hundred pounds of this mixed material contains about 75 pounds table salt, 5 pounds carbonate of lime, 2 pounds carbonate of magnesia, 3 pounds sulphate of lime, 7 pounds sulphate of magnesia, 8 pounds chlorate of magnesia.

Such a mixed salt is valuable only for agricultural purposes. For table use, and especially as a preservative, it is desirable that the chloride of sodium be nearly or quite pure. If all these various salts had an equal degree of solubility or affinity for water, then upon evaporation equal quantities of each would be thrown down; but if there be different degrees of solubility, then that which has least affinity for water will be deposited first, and so on successively, till there will be left only that which has strongest affinity. As this is the case with these several salts, proceeding upon this basis, sea water is carried through a succession of vats or shallow tanks, remaining in the first until a certain degree of evaporation has been attained, whence being carried to a second, a certain higher degree is reached, and so on, one salt after another being precipitated in the different vats. By this means the chloride of sodium is crystallized nearly free from all other substances. In this mode of manufacture, which prevails along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida, and which produces a salt of the finest quality, the water is carried in the vats in some instances a distance of twelve or fifteen miles. “One unacquainted with the business would be astonished at the quantity of impurities deposited from sea water by this plan. In strengthening from 6° to 12° Beaumé, the brine precipitates a gray, slimy mass, mixed with organic matter, and gives forth sulphuretted hydrogen. Further strengthening from 12° to 22° it precipitates crystalline sulphate of lime chiefly, and during this period bromine shows itself, especially if a little rain falls in the brine. This brings out the color to such a degree as to tinge various substances which come in contact with it. At 25° the brine stands at saturation.”

In the West India Islands there is very little care in the manufacture; indeed, it may be said there is the greatest carelessness, so that the product of these works is always of very questionable purity. It is never to be relied upon for the purposes of preservation. Turk’s Island gained its reputation half a century ago before these improved methods were in use on our seashore, and, with the proverbial slowness of tropical climates, follows still in the steps of the fathers.

   “The fact is noteworthy that salt made from water of the Gulf Stream, which is used here, [Turk’s Island,] is held to be of superior quality, though it is certain that in many places this salt is manufactured with the greatest carelessness.
   “In Spain, Portugal, and their dependencies; the process for making salt is still very imperfect.  The water is lét directly into the paus or ponds from whence salt is raked without attempting to precipitate the impurities from the brine, or to hasten the period of raking by concentrating the evaporation of: the whole works on a few of the last pans, in a series as above described, the superior dryness of the climate rendering this not absolutely necessary. In consequence of this, the common salt cry[s]tallizes in a half floating mass of impurities and brine, impregnated with iodine and bromine, which last substances give a disagreeable sharpness and acridness to the salt, so much complained of in England.  Even the St. Ubes, which is somewhat better in quality, is manufactured with much the same carelessness.    “These countries are extensive but variable sources of supply of solar-made salt to the United States, we having imported from Spain, Portugal, and their islands, in 1856, 1,614,456 bushels.”

At, Turk’s Island, some of the Bahamas, St. Kitts, and St. Martin’s, with a few of the British West India Islands, excellent salt is made at works where the French plan is carried out in part or in whole; but at many (probably a majority of the works on those islands) the same carelessness prevails as with the Spanish and Portuguese.

These examinations of sea salt render it apparent that little reliance is to be placed on the ordinary articles of importation. That made upon our own coast being in a less torrid climate, necessitates greater care, and hence furnishes a much superior article.

Let us now examine the salt of the springs. Of these the most important are the Onondaga, of New York.

Referring to the paragraph above, we see that, according to the salinometer of Beaumé, 6° to 12° saturation throws down “a gray, slimy mass,” with sulphuretted hydrogen; from 12° to 22°, sulphate of lime. But while it requires 350 gallons of sea water to yield a bushel of salt, the Onondaga water yields a bushel from thirty to forty gallons; thus giving the Onondaga water, before any evaporation, a saturation of nearly or quite 20° Beaumé. This water has, therefore, already passed the point beyond which it can hold in solution the greatest amount of impurities. Indeed, it can hold little else than chloride of sodium. Thus we have in this water the basis of nearly a pure salt, and it is probable that from it is manufactured one of the purest salts at present in use in this country. It is certain that only the greatest care in extraction can produce from sea water a salt of equal excellence.

This brief review of the subject of salt will fully explain the requisites for salting down any animal substance which is to be preserved for any considerable time, or to be exported to any warm climate.

The action of the sugar, though used mainly for the preservation of vegetable instead of animal products, is very similar to that just explained. Sugar in its crystalline state, like salt, has an affinity for water, but the affinity being considerably less, its preservative qualities are much less decided. Brought into contact with either meat or fruits, the moisture is drawn out to unite with the sugar, but while thus securing the material against decomposition, if it has absorbed considerable fluid, it may itself go into fermentation. If, however, the quantity of water is proportionally small, the sugar, holding it firmly, becomes like the brine, the impervious coating around the substance to be preserved.

This rationale suggests the cautions necessary in this mode of preservation.  First. As the sugar can hold with permanency but a limited quantity of water, the sugar itself should be as exempt as possible from moisture, and as crystalline sugar has no capacity for water, while vegetable and animal substances always have water in composition, the sugar should not only possess the highest degree of crystallization, but be exempt from all extraneous matters.  The harder, firmer, whiter, and cleaner, the greater the power of sugar to absorb water, and consequently to preserve.

Secondly. As sugar is not a very stable chemical element, having, when united with a portion of water, a tendency toward the vinous fermentation, especially when acted upon by heat, it is necessary that the preserve be kept at a uniform and low temperature.

Chemical action, when once commenced, can never be recovered. It may for a time be checked so as to be harmless, but the process of decomposition, once commenced, like that of revolutions, “never goes backward.” To bring the sugar more thoroughly in contact with its object, and to assist it in penetrating the inner parts of the vegetable fibre, and to drive off some portion of the water, ebullition is usually resorted to, the substance being boiled in sugar.

The quantity of sugar used, and the amount of boiling necessary to a thorough preservation, will, of course, vary with the juiciness of the fruit.  There should be sugar enough and boiling enough to produce a thick, honey-like sirup, entirely covering the fruit.

Few subjects of investigation have been attended with more interesting results within the few past years than that of heat. And as it underlies a great a portion of chemical changes it will repay us for one or two primary considerations.

Sound has long been known to be a vibration of the atmosphere transmitted from particle to particle, and thus borne abroad a certain distance. Now, in a manner similar to the universal diffusion of air around the earth, there is an exceedingly minute, subtile substance or medium called æther or ætheria pervading universal space as far as our knowledge of it extends, and in a similar manner does it transmit vibrations or oscillations. One of these vibrations produces, or is, what we denominate light. So long as this vibration continues, and we are cognizant of it, we say it is light, and when it ceases, that it is dark. Sound and light are, therefore, motion of air and ætheria.

It is a further well-known fact of philosophy, that if the atmosphere be put into motion by the vibration of a tightened string. as a harp or piano string, it will transmit the vibrations or oscillations to any other string near. The analogy of this transmission through and by means of the particles of the atmosphere holds good in ætheria. A warm body being in a state of vibration transmits the vibration to all bodies within its influence. From this it results, that the sun, the great source of all light and heat, acting as a central energy, diffuses to the entire mass of matter within its influence a constant vibratory motion greater or less; and, secondly, that as heat is the disturbing cause in all chemical affinities, all chemical action is due to the variations, accumulations, or transmissions of this force.

But does this great comprehensive power cease its influence at chemical affinity?  Or do we not find traces of it still higher in the scale of terrestrial development?  Let us examine further.

A bottle of water placed beyond the influence of all disturbing causes and kept at an absolutely unvarying temperature is, so far as we know, perfectly motionless.  Let now a ray of the sun or a ray of heat impinge upon it, and the particles are instantly put in motion. From a dead and immovable substance, without order or parts, it has become a moving body, and so far organized that it has position with the relations of above and below, with a vertical circulation established. Shall we say this is life in its most elementary exhibition?

Take a grain of wheat, removed from moisture and heat, and it will lie motionless for years. So far as we may know, it is dead. If it be moistened at the freezing point it will slowly decompose. No signs of life manifest themselves.  Let now a ray of the sun or of heat fall upon it, and a new power is instantly apparent. The fluids within are put in motion and the wheat begins to grow, and we say it has life. The seed had within the principle of vegetable life, but it was motionless till the vibration of ætheria struck it and imparted to it its own motion and force.

Again, an egg, cold and still, is, philosophically, absolutely lifeless, dead.  It has, within itself, not the slightest capability of motion. It is a germ, having, not the power of moving, but that power of directing an impulse when received; and this impulse, without which no motion could ever have occurred, is transmitted to it through this subtile agency, ætheria, and thus life is inaugurated. But whence this power by which life manifests itself? The force by which the motion was produced in the bottle of water is clearly nothing more than the force transmitted to the water by the heat, or that imparted to it by the vibrations of ætheria. Is the force of the grain of wheat or of the egg anything more? It would appear that the force of these vibrations received into the living body, being retained and put under the control of the will and mind, becomes what we denominate the animal powers or vital force.

Hence the imperative necessity of food. The animal is constantly exerting, that is, exhausting force, which must be met by an unfailing supply of calorific vibrations. Hence, also, why death occurs immediately, though there be no disease or lack of nutrition, if the body becomes cold, i.e., if the vibrations that give it all its force once cease.  Chemical action, vegetable and animal power appear, therefore, nothing more than the original vibratory force of heat acting under different controlling agencies: in the first, in connexion with only chemical affinity; in the second, with chemical affinity controlled by vegetable life; and in animal existence, superadded to both, there is the law of animal life.

Nor is it probable that this great all-pervading force of the universe stops here. There is good reason for believing that every manifestation of physical force with which we are acquainted, every motion, every germination, every decay, every decomposition, every attraction and repulsion, whether in the silent laboratories of nature or in the hum of multitudinous enjoyment at summer evening, whether in the gambols of the myriad life that tenants a drop of water, or in the measureless wanderings of the comets—all are but parts of that great one, universal, omnipresent power, whose manifestations we call light and heat.

Returning from these general considerations to the question directly before us—from this constitution of matter, it is apparent that any substance held in composition either by chemical or vital forces, will remain fixed till the particles of ætheria, being thrown into vibration, strike the particles of matter with a superior force, tending to carry them away from their present combination.  In the case of the animal, as the composing force is chemical affinity and animal vital force united, both being opposed to the antagonistic vibrations of heat till equilibrium is produced, it follows that as soon as the vital force is removed or death occurs, the remaining composing force is overcome and decomposition must instantly follow.

If this preponderating force be proportionately diminished, the decay will be retarded, and if sufficiently diminished, wholly arrested. Thus, meat placed upon ice or wholly surrounded by ice, will, in summer, change slowly; if carried down several degrees below the freezing point, as in northern winters, it suffers no appreciable change. The preservation is attained in these cases by the abstraction of heat—the disturbing cause.

Upon this principle, also, are based nearly all our attempts at preservation, with whatever other aids conjoined.  If the vibratory force of heat be continued, every effort at retention- will fail. No substances gathered into combination against the disturbing influence of heat by the united power of chemical affinity and vital force, can retain its composition on the cessation of one of the forces, unless the opposing force be equally diminished. This general principle must be considered in every attempt at preservation.

But, contradictory as at the first glance it would appear, preservation is also accomplished by direct and energetic application of heat in excess. It might be inferred from the preceding exposition that this would induce and facilitate decomposition rather than effect preservation; and it would, indeed, were it not for the intervention of a mere accidental circumstance. Decomposition is carried on by means of the fluids in the substance. Dry solids seldom decompose with rapidity. If heat be applied to a vegetable or animal substance not having a large amount of fluids in composition, the moisture may be all rapidly dried away before any material change of constitution can have time to be wrought, and thus the body will become fixed by being dried to a solid. If the substance be too juicy or of too great thickness, while the outside is drying, the inside, not having its moisture reduced but its heat increased, will decompose—a condition often occurring in attempting to dry heavy pieces of beef and pork.  The remedy here is very apparent: either to make the thickness less, to increase the evaporating surface by deep gashes, or fo aid in the abstraction of moisture by salt.

But this means of preservation is more generally taken in connexion with some of the others, as an aid rather than as a sole reliance. In a few cases, where the substance is small, as berries, or can be reduced to pieces of considerable thinness, as apples, peaches, &c., it is sufficient for perfect preservation. But in many of these cases, even, it is the sugar in the fruit that is the final preservative—the water not being wholly removed, but only so reduced as to leave the sugar of sufficient strength to act as previously mentioned.

In the case of fruits, whether as a preserve or in sealed cans, the heat acts both to reduce the moisture and to permeate the substance with the sugar, and is therefore highly advantageous. In the case of dried meats, salt is first used to extract the moisture from within; then, being placed in a warm, dry atmosphere, it is sufficiently desiccated to render it inert to ordinary fluctuations of temperature and moisture.

Besides these three more important agencies, there are certain active chemical substances which possess greater or less preservative power, particularly upon animal substances. The most of these, however, are too noxious to serve any useful purpose, or to be used without danger. The only one employed to any extent is creosote, a chemical substance obtained by the distillation of various vegetable substances, particularly wood, and which constitutes the active principle of smoke. Its action upon animal life is not well understood further than it serves to-fix the particles in their present combination, and thus serves as a preservative. It is supposed that it acts through the nitrogen.

In respect to their sanitary qualities, preservatives may be classed as beneficial, inert, or injurious: salt and sugar being in the first class, heat in the second, and creosote, nitre, arsenic, &c., in the third. Of course, in using the substances of this third class, we must be guided not only by the consideration of preserving, but also of the reception of the preservative into the human system.

Arsenic, though possessing highly preservative qualities, is too active a poison, and attended with too much danger to permit its use in quantities that would serve any valuable purpose. Nitre is possessed of too little preservative power, and too active in the animal system to make its use valuable or desirable only as an occasional aid in other processes.

Creosote, since it is found in every household, and in a state of dilution, in smoke, that renders it harmless, has, from earliest times, been a favorite means of preserving animal substances. Care is necessary that the substance be not over-smoked. Salt and sugar are frequently both used in the preparatory pickle, thus combining three methods. There is little or no difference in the qualities of the creosote found in different kinds of smoke, but there are many additional gases in the smoke produced from different materials, all of which are liable to be absorbed to some extent, and thus injure the qualities and taste of the food. As bark contains the essential oils of the tree, its smoke is not so desirable as that of the wood. That of corncobs is, by many, esteemed very highly; but perhaps the sweetest and purest smoke is obtained from dry hickory sapwood without the bark.

If the process of smoking be too much hurried, the creosote will not have sufficient time to penetrate the entire substance. The outside will present every appearance of a perfect cure; but as warm weather approaches, decay will commence within.  A thorough preservation by smoke can only be accomplished by ample time.

The purpose in this method is to avoid the peculiar chemical changes wrought in food by the other methods, either that of salt, sugar, or creosote—i. e., to preserve it in its natural state, or fresh. Too great a proportion of salt food results in a scorbutic tendency of the system; of sugar food, in a tendency to dyspepsia; of smoked, to both. To aveid these results, the effort has been made to secure freedom from change without the use of these agencies. If, as has been stated above, the chemical change wrought in vegetable and animal substances arises chiefly from the union of oxygen with the substance, and the oxygen is supplied from the air or water, then it scems a fair conclusion that entire exclusion of both air and water, together with a low temperature, would affect the preservation. This general statement would be true were it not the case that the substances will absorb, in the brief time of putting up, sufficient moisture to inaugurate the process of decay. It will proceed slowly; but the rapidity is of no consequence, as the substance is valueless as a food as soon as decay has commenced.

It has been found that grape-juice, expressed under mercury, will remain permanent at moderate temperatures, no change taking place; but if it is once exposed to the atmosphere, even if it be but an instant, it gradually yields to chemical action. To counteract this absorption of oxygen, and to still further guard against these tendencies to decompose, it is necessary to remove some portion of the moisture naturally present in the body.  This is done by heat.  The boiling must be continued sufficiently to reduce very materially the water in combination. A small amount of salt—merely enough to season meats, and of sugar to render fruits agreeable, added—aid in the process by further absorption of water. While in the heated condition, it is placed in the vessel, also heated, and immediately sealed. If the process has been properly executed, the substances will remain unchanged at all usual temperatures of cellars or cool closets in the northern and middle United States. The points of failure in these processes are usually want of boiling and imperfect sealing, or closing of the cans or bottles. The vessels should be first placed in boiling water, and the sealing take place at once.  Not a particle of air should be left within.  The retention of a small amount of air in improperly made cans or stoppers is doubtless one of the great causes of frequent failure.

Tin vessels or cans are open to two objections: fiust, they are liable to corrosion by many of the acids in fruits; and, secondly, from their opacity it is impossible to ascertain by inspection whether the sealing has been perfect, so that it may be resealed, or, if not detected till some days after, selected for use as being less likely to keep.

Earthen or stone vessels are exempt from the first liability, but not from the latter. Glass, on the other hand, is free from both, but is more liable to fracture in filling. It is doubtful, however, if the cost of breakage is equal to the loss in the use of tin vessels. In view of all these considerations, glass seems the most desirable. The next important, and perhaps the most important, question is as to the stopper. Stoppers or covers made with rubber fittings, while having the advantage of dispensing with the sealing gum or wax, and being always in readiness, frequently impart an unpleasant taste and odor. This kind of stopper is popular just at the present time, from its great convenience; and in that quality is entitled to all the consideration that convenience can merit at the expense of excellence. A more objectionable cover still is that having its edges turned down, generally made to screw on, and to be sealed. This possesses a prime fault—that of holding a quantity of air under the cover, which it is nearly impossible to remove. Though put up properly in every respect, the air taken into the can under the cover is sufficient to warrant decay of eight cans in ten. The cover should always have the middle lower than the edge, and the under face smooth, so that when pressed down upon the contents of the jar, the middle will touch first, and thus leave it impossible for any air to remain within. If the edge is the lowest, or if there be any wrinkle or groove in the under face, small quantities of air will remain, despite every precaution. But perhaps one of the most economical and satisfactory of all the multitudes of jars and cans is the old, wide-mouthed glass bottle and cork. It has the requisites of cheapness, simplicity, durability, purity, of being as good a preserver as any other, and of allowing a constant inspection of the contents. Its chief drawback is, that wax in sealing the bottles is more troublesome than the patent rubber stopper.

Whatever stopper may be used, two points must be accomplished, and if they are successfully gained, the means employed are unimportant; these are, first, entire expulsion of air, and, second, its permanent exclusion. In the case of the glass jar and cork, the mouth should be from one to one and a half inches in diameter, the jar being heated slowly in water, and filled nearly to the top with the preserve; two pieces of strong wrapping twine are placed at right angles across the mouth, when the cork is inserted with the twine across its lower surface.  Force the cork down upon the preserve-till all the air is out and the fluid comes out beside the twine. Every particle of air must be driven out. Let another strong twine be tied over the cork and around the neck of the bottle, and trimming the ends closely, invert it and plunge the cork and neck completely beyond the twine into the melted wax, removing it quickly. Two or three insertions at intervals of half a minute will finish the work.  It has been objected to this that the cork is not held in its place with sufficient force; that it is liable to be driven out by the force of the gases.  It is sufficient answer to this, that when such a result ensues, it is quite time that the cork was driven out.

In concluding our observations upon the general nature of preservation, we cannot omit a passing remark upon one or two points in connexion. First. The difference in price of a large share of farm products between the best and poorer qualities arises in most cases more from the manner of preparation than it does from any original difference in the articles. A Mr. Gordon, of Boston, obtained for Bartlett pears ten dollars per bushel, while the same pear was selling by other dealers beside him at three-dollars; this difference in price being due solely to Mr. Gordon’s care in preparing for the market. So great & per cent. of improvement as this may be rare, but it will illustrate the point that it is not the simple material that gives it value, but its condition.

Second. The additional labor required to produce an article of first quality is little or no more than that required to produce an indifferent or low-priced one.  Fruit must be gathered and packed ang transported, whether it sells for much or little. Slight additional care in handling, packing, or ripening, effects the change in market value.

Third. This increase in price is the particular point of profit. By the natural laws of competition, of demand and supply, the great mass of market staples will always be salable at a small per cent. above the actual cost. To sell at the lowest general rates is simply to recover cost and allow no profit.  To sell at fair prices is to make a small actual gain upon the actual outlay of time and strength.  It is evident that a change of labor into fruit, merely to receive back just the value of the labor, is to accomplish nothing. To expend twelve cents in producing a pound of butter only to sell it for twelve cents is to make a sacrifice of strength and life. To sell it for thirteen cents is to gain one cent. In this exchange it is not the twelve cents, but the one we are laboring to receive. In that transaction we gain eight per cent. on the capital invested. To sell it at fourteen cents is to make a gain of sixteen per cent.; at fifteen, twenty-four per cent. This is but a common case. It is within the observation of every one that while the general rate for a common article of butter may be twelve or fifteen cents, there are always certain dairies or brands of butter selling at sixteen to twenty-five cents. Now; as twenty-five cent butter costs the producer little or no more than the twelve cent does, here is a clear profit of fifty to one hundred per cent., at the same time that others are realizing but eight or ten per cent. in advance.

Fourth. Neatness and niceness are among the best investments food producers can make. Good qualities, slovenly arranged, must always pass at second rates; while second qualities, if but neatly and invitingly displayed, usually go up to the higher figures; and this, it should be recollected, is clear profit.

It hardly need be stated that fruit intended to be kept for a time should be primarily sound. Apples should not, therefore, be shaken off the tree, nor be permitted to fall naturally, but be carefully plucked by the hand.  The bruises they receive in falling against the limbs of the tree, or upon the ground, induce early decay. For the same reason they should not be allowed to drop heavily into barrels or bins. Careful handling is a material element in keeping fruit of all kinds. Barrels are not the best receptacles for apples for the winter. They are apt to “sweat,” and, pressing heavily one upon another, decay is readily communicated; at the same time it is inconvenient ascertaining whether they are keeping well or not. It diminishes the chances of decay by contact to separate each layer by a layer of leaves or oat chaff; but the best means of preservation is believed to be placing them upon open shelves at a distance of one to three feet from the cellar floor, or as near the floor as possible without dampness. They decay less, are not liable to “sweat,” and can easily be inspected for the purpose of removing the imperfect ones.

There is frequently a great per cent. loss by decay in apples sent forward to market. The manner of packing is of comparatively little consequence when the fruit has to he transported but a few miles, but when a distance of some hundreds intervenes the durability of the fruit is the great consideration.  First, as to the fruit itself, it should be picked from the tree by hand, and carefully placed in the barrels, (not poured in,) being packed closely and tightly.  The barrel should be clean, and, particularly if a flour barrel, thoroughly washed and scrubbed with a broom till not only the loose flour is removed, but all the flour. If any remains, in the:jostling of carts or cars it scatters among the apples, and, adhering to the moist surface, soon moulds and decays, setting up general decomposition throughout. A flour barrel, unless thoroughly free from flour, is one of the most undesirable receptacles for fruit or vegetables of any kind. The barrels and the apples should both be perfectly dry when packed; afterwards the barrel should be left open till the immediate time of removal. It should be so completely filled and tightly packed that, when the head is pressed in, there shall be no motion of the apples on one another as the barrel is rolled along or turned upon end.

As success in this case depends solely upon evaporation, nothing more is requisite than to secure the greatest amount of sunlight upon the greatest extent of surface. To secure the first, the table or scaffold upon which the apple is to be spread should not be level, but inclined toward the south at an angle of 100 or 15°, so as to present more fully to the sun. The second point is gained by removing the skin and cutting into slices, the thinner the more expeditious the result. The drying is facilitated by moving the pieces about several times during the day, so as to expose them more freely to the air and sun. They should be taken in some time before sunset, as at that season the dews fall early.

The preservation here is concentrated cider. Unfermented or new cider boiled down six gallons to one becomes unsusceptible to fermentation at ordinary temperature, and, as it now parts with its water only with difficulty, it becomes a good preservative at low temperatures. Apple and a small proportion of quince, boiled sufficiently to discharge its finest moisture, placed in the sirup, keep well till late spring, making one of our most substantial fruit sauces.

This valuable crop has few superiors in durability. Having a small per cent. of water in the body of the grain, and being covered with a hard glazed pellicle, it absorbs little or no moisture, and decays very slightly with the lapse of months. But the original drying must be thorough and complete.  The very hardness and imperviousness of the pellicle preventing ready transmission, the process of drying will not be rapid. Exposure to a current of air for some days, even after they are housed, serves to continue the evaporation and complete the drying and hardening. When once they are thoroughly dried, placed in an airy upper room, they remain almost unchanged many months or years.

At moderate temperatures exposure to a dry current of cool air will preserve fresh beef quite as long as it can be kept in an ice chest. The dry air carrying off the moisture from the surface, and thus cooling the meat from both these causes, checks decay. The most convenient arrangement is to suspend the meat in a north, open window, another window or door being open so as to create a draught of air. It should not lie in a dish, as the under side will be be prevented from drying. When meat is placed in an ice chest, as from the nature of the case abundant moisture is afforded, reliance is placed solely upon the low temperature. If moisture is present, no temperature greater than the freezing point can wholly prevent decomposition. Meat, therefore, once placed upon ice prepares itself to decay at that temperature, and, if removed, spoils quickly.  This fact should be understood by those who purchase fresh meat in market. If the meat has once been in the marketman’s ice chest, after being carried home on a hot summer morning, it will hardly keep sweet three hours, whether it be on ice or not. It is a serious error to suppose ice-kept meat, because no odor from it can be detected is the same as fresh-killed meat.  Chemical action has been hindered by the temperature, but it is so prepared that it only needs an elevation of a few degrees to run into rapid decay.

In the dry, cooler latitudes of the northern United States this mode may be successfully practiced in almost any season, but usually only in the cooler.  For jerking, if the weather be fine and the exposure to wind favorable, little salt may be required; but for large and heavy rounds, as is usual, other means are needed to assist. One of the most common is to rub the meat thoroughly with hot salt. It is thought the heat enables the salt to strike in more readily.  To meet, with success great care is necessary that the salt be rubbed over every part of the surface, and into every crevice where air may penetrate.  This should be repeated once or twice daily for three or four days. Unless the weather is quite cool success will not be certain with heavy pieces.  A surer and less inconvenient method is to place the meat in an ordinary beef pickle until it has had time to become thoroughly salted through, say from ten to fifteen days, according to size. It is then hung where dry air may have free access. Care is to be used that it be kept cool, or but moderately warm, while it is drying, otherwise decomposition may commence in the interior.

There is little difficulty in keeping salt beef in an ordinary farm cellar through the summer, but it is quite otherwise when prepared for market or transportation. If salted sufficiently to secure if against changes of temperature, it becomes so salt and hard as to be comparatively unpalatable and worthless. Of this nature must necessarily be “army beef,” flatteringly designated by “the boys” “salt horse!”  Army beef must be guaranteed against spoiling in all places and under all circumstances and temperatures, while farmers’ beef is to be kept out of the sun at a cool, even temperature. The question with the farmer is not whether he can keep beef by salting, but how to salt it so as not to cause the loss of its qualities. In the first place, the cask itself should be perfectly sweet. If meat has ever once “taken hurt,” it is quite impossible ever to render it safe again. Secondly, the winter pickle should never be retained for summer. As warm weather comes on, a new, clean brine should be substituted.

The materials and proportion for the pickle vary much in different localities, and according to the tastes of individuals. The following fs substantially good.  Make the pickle of strength to bear a fresh egg above the surface to the size of a quarter of a dollar; add one ounce of saltpetre to fifteen to twenty pounds of meat; one pound of sugar, or one and a half pints molasses in same proportion, if desired.  After the meat is packed in the barrel, the pickle is turned on boiling hot. The spring pickle is of similar proportions, except being without saltpetre and without being heated.

For preserving in cans, good sound berries that have not been wet nor soured should be selected. Boil gently ten or fifteen minutes, with sugar sufficient to sweeten. This berry, being small and juicy, may be put up in any ordinary mouthed bottle, and sealed as before mentioned.

For drying, the berries should be mixed four pounds to one of sugar, boiled gently a few minutes, then spread thin on plates and dried around the fire or in a slow oven.

There is not within the whole range of agriculture so large a product liable to so large a per cent. of depreciation as butter. The amount of the butter crop of the United States is estimated at $65,000,000. Of this it may be said one-half might be sold for three cents.more per pound. At the present time scarcely one firkin in four opens perfectly sweet. This deterioration arises not from any real chemical or practical difficulty, but solely from want of knowledge or want of care in its manufacture.

Butter is mostly an oil so well fixed that it is quite unsusceptible of chemical change. Cream is a peculiar mixture of this oil and certain watery fluids found in the milk. Churning consists in so agitating the cream as to cause the butter globules to adhere to each other. Now, as the principal part of the butter is not exposed to decay, it becomes a fair subject of inquiry, what is the cause of so large a per cent. of butter losing its sweetness so soon.

   1. Milk being of itself one of the most perishable of animal products, its decomposition may have gone so far before the removal of the cream as to contaminate the fluids of the cream; and if so, then the butter, when first made, has already within it putrescent material which will soon infect the whole.

   2. Even if the cream were entirely sweet, the milk remaining in the butter will soon decay, and if not removed will, of course, deteriorate the butter. The practical questions, then, are, when to remove the cream and how to free the butter from the butter-milk.

As the milk is warm in the process of churning, the first requisite of the butter on being removed is to be cooled. A small amount of salt may be worked in with as little stirring as possible, and then it should be placed where it will cool rapidly. After a few hours it is worked, adding as much salt as, may be needed to prepare it for market. Care should be taken that the salt is pure and good. A little more than an ounce per pound is sufficient.  Five or six hours after, the butter is to be worked again; the manner of working being to press with a ladle or butter scoop, not to cut it through nor spat it, the most common method and the poorest of all.

For keeping for family use, stone jars are unquestionably the best. For packing for market, a new tub should never be used till it has been thoroughly saturated with a strong brine. Cover the bottom of the tub with a thin sprinkling of salt, and pack solid; and, placing a cloth over the top, sprinkle on a thick layer of salt, pouring on a gill [8 tablespoons or 118 ml -ASC] of water to form an air-tight covering of brine.  When it is to be sent forward to market, the brine should be poured off and a new coating of salt laid on.

The process of preserving cheese is so simple and so effectual that it scarcely demands attention here. Casein or curd being chemically quite passive, if the water be forced from it by strong pressure, and it is permitted to dry thoroughly, will become unsusceptible to ordinary atmospheric influences. When it has become quite dry it is protected both from moisture and insects by being enclosed in a tight-fitting covering of muslin rubbed over with oil or fat.

In butter, the value depends upon the manner of its manufacture; in cheese, upon the material also. Good butter more especially commends the housewife; good cheese, the cow.

Cabbage is easily kept, though liable to wilt and to imbibe a disagreeable taste if the air of the cellar be impure. For home use, keeping it in the ground has the advantage of preserving its freshness and purity. The most convenient mode of doing this is to make a trench the width of a spade and a foot in depth, into which, inverting the plant and wrapping the leaves closely, the heads are to be placed, leaving the stalks above ground.  A little straw being thrown over, they are covered to the depth of four to six inches. For market they should not be packed in close barrels. Apertures should be made sufficient fo allow circulation of air.

sprinkled upon it, and then it is beaten with a heavy stamper until it becomes juicy or nearly a pulp. Each layer is to be treated in the same manner. When the vessel is full, some leaves of cabbage are first put on the top, then a board fitting not too closely, and weights placed upon it so that it may be well pressed. In the course of a week the scum that rises to the top should be removed. Remaining from four to six weeks undisturbed, it is fit for use. The vessel should not be used for any other purpose, and each year thoroughly cleaned, so as to be free from any odor.  The best place for keeping it is a cool cellar, but not so cold as to freeze.

The analysis of corn, showing a per cent. of water from twelve to twenty, readily indicates its most salient point. So large a per cent. of water in its composition renders it peculiarly liable to fermentation. The hard, silicious, or glassy pellicle, however, affords the kernel very complete protection while on the cob. The most exposed portion of the kernel being the eye, or where it is affixed, we should infer that it is better not to remove it from the cob till it i required for use. The great point in the preservation of corn is its complete dryness and its constant exposure to the free air. The out-door granary is one of the best means that can be devised for affording a constant admission of air, but is open to the objection of not securing sufficient protection against dampness. Spreading upon a floor in a room that may-be closed secures the latter point, but does not allow equal freedom of air. Abundance of air is the great guarantee of corn.

Cherries having in composition an abundance of juice, decay arises not so much from external moisture as from air and heat. They are, therefore, best kept as a fresh fruit by being placed in an ice chest with little exposure to air.  If the skin is not broken, and particularly if the stem is firmly set, they may be kept for several days. Cherries may be dried either in the sun or in a slow oven, having first been boiled a few minutes with one-fourth weight of sugar.  In this, as in the following method, the stones should be removed.  For preserving in cans, add half weight of sugar, heat slowly till it is melted, then boil briskly for fifteen minutes. In the mean time heat the cans in water up to boiling, and put the fruit into the cans while in the heated water and seal immediately.

This fruit, from the large size of its seeds, compared with the berry, is not so desirable as a can preserve or as a jam. It is, however, one of the most valuable of garden products for jelly and wine, which, in addition to their edible excellence, hold a high place in the materia medica. Currants, to be dried in the sun, should, like apples, have a good southern exposure, with free access of air. The only care needed is that the drying be thorough. Another method of drying is to boil with one-fourth weight of sugar for about half an hour to an hour, then spread on plates, and dry in the sun or in a slow oven.  For cans the flavor is improved by adding one-half weight of raisins. The strength of the acids in currants renders the use of tin cans objectionable.

The causes which operate to the disadvantage of this fruit are peculiar to it alone.  Being of a cold and aqueous nature and growth, the early frosts of the higher latitudes come close upon the ripening. Indeed, every few years the entire crop is cut off by frost.  This liability necessitates the gathering of them at the earliest allowable moment. When the harvest is effected, some consequently will be found unripe, while others are frost bitten. The frost does not seriously injure the fruit for immediate use, but renders the berry soft and pulpy, and so both unfits it for packing and prepares it for speedy decay. For home use, spread upon a floor in a cool, but not freezing, temperature, they will remain many weeks. For shipping they are put in barrels, which are afterwards filled with water. They thus make the voyage to Europe, the south, and even to the West Indies, in good condition.  Cranberries may be preserved perfect for several years merely by drying them a little in the sun, and then packing them closely in clean bottles. These berries are of great value and importance for different well-known culinary purposes. They are of an astringent quality, and are esteemed good to restore the appetite.

Cider is deteriorated, both from want of care of the fruit, and from impurity of the cask.  If the apples are permitted to remain till there is considerable decay, the taste of decay will be transmitted through all the fermentations of the juice. A pure, sweet taste can only be derived from sound fruit; secondly, sufficient care is seldom used as to the cask. Fresh liquor casks are the most desirable. A good mode of treatment for other casks is the following: Soak for one or two days, then rinsing thoroughly, put in one or two buckets of water with a couple of tablespoonfuls of saleratus. Cork tight, and let remain, with occasional shaking, for twenty-four hours; turn off the saleratus water, and fill immediately with cider. As the fermentation takes place, the object is to cork the cask tightly as soon as the pressure will not endanger it. This is a nice point of observation with each barrel. If it be strongly iron-bound, it will bear closing much earlier, thus keeping the cider sweeter and more lively through its entire drawing. The preservation of cider in this condition consists in checking by pressure the first fermentation before it is fully complete, and thus preventing the second. The cask should be completely air-tight, as any leakage will allow the change to proceed. If bottled at this stage, it will remain indefinitely without change.

The boiling should be conducted with care over a slow fire, to prevent burning and giving an unpleasant taste, and be continued till six gallons are reduced to one. The sirup thus made, being inert at ordinary temperatures, becomes an important preservative aid.

The changes which eggs undergo, arising chiefly, if not wholly, from absorption of air through the shell, the means of preservation must be similar to those we have seen necessary in so many other instances. To accomplish exclusion of air, some pack the eggs in corn meal, others in lime water, others in brine.  These last two methods are effectual for a considerable time, but the most successful means is to cover the egg with fat or oil or butter. Thus prepared, a newly-laid egg will remain six months without perceptible change.

In reference to this most important of all our agricultural products—a subject which, in itself, demands more space than we shall claim for our entire article— we could say nothing more to the purpose, nor in less space, than is communicated to us in the following letter from the proprietors of the Brandywine Mills, Wilmington, Delaware, long known as producing one of the first grades of flour in the American market:

   “In reply to your circular respecting the best methods of preserving wheat flour, we may remark that it is very difficult to have any general rule for keeping flour sweet, though there may be several plans adopted that will assist in doing so. The only certain plan that we know of is a Tyson’s patent,” which was used in Baltimore many years ago. This extracted all the moisture by kiln-drying the flour, after which it kept sweet in hot climates for one or more years. The process, however, is too expensive for general use. A great deal depends on the care bestowed on the wheat before reaching the hands of the miller. It is frequently left out in the fields for weeks after harvest, subject to drenching rains; it is also frequently housed or stacked in a damp state.  Either of these causes is injurious to the keeping properties of flour. And we believe if farmers were more careful to keep their wheat dry, not only at the time of harvest, but subsequently, until it reaches the miller’s hands, the flour would keep sweet much longer. It seems to be pretty well ascertained that the bran or hull of the wheat sours first. High grades of flour that have all the bran or nearly all extracted keep best.
   "If the wheat is perfectly dry when put into a bin or garner, it will keep a long while without heating; it will, however, keep much longer in a bin where a current of fresh air is admitted than where it is perfectly close.
   “Second.  As to the vessel used for flour, we have had no experience, except with the ordinary flour barrel. The best are made of oak, either white or red, made in the usual way «of perfectly seasoned stuff. The moisture from green wood has a very injurious effect on the keeping properties of flour.
   “Third.  Of the building or room used for storing.” We believe from our experience that flour keeps better in a cool, dry, airy room than anywhere else. During the heat of summer, flour should not be stored either in a cellar or garret, but in central stories of a building, kept open so as to have a free circulation of fresh air among the flour.
   “Fourth.  Of any other special requirements, precautions, or peculiarities, necessary to perfect preservation.” We may observe that it is very important to, keep the flour from exposure to hot sun or to wet.  If shipped to distant ports, even in the United States, great care should be observed with regard to the vessel and other kinds of cargo; the hold should be dry and well ventilated during the voyage. If stowed with corn or oats that become heated, the flour will also heat and sour. any other articlés have this effect on flour.  We have had flour soured on a voyage to Boston by being stowed in contact with some deleterious article.
   "This is a very important subject—one that has claimed our attention for many years, and we regret we cannot give you more valuable information.

The general properties of these, as compared with wheat, are a larger amount of water in composition, and a greater quantity of bran, and hence a greater tendency to decay. The cautions are, therefore, the same as those for wheat flour; only with this difference: that while the latter may, with care; be kept some months, the former, except under the most favorable circumstances of cold and dryness, lose some of their excellence in a few weeks.

Taken as a class, fish possess preservative qualities peculiarly their own, and require, in consequence, a corresponding treatment. The flesh of fish seems to be less compacted and less firmly held together than that of land animals in general, and is, as a result, less able to resist chemical action.  Exclusion from the air being their natural condition, a more rapid action ensues upon exposure at ordinary temperatures, while upon ice decay is much less rapid.  Many kinds of fish, as cod and halibut, are preserved by the fisherman, so that there is no occasion for a practical knowledge among the community at large; while, on the other hand, the extensive use of shad and herring along our large Atlantic streams, and of lake fish along the great lakes and their tributaries, taken fresh from the streams to the country, renders it desirable that the general principles of preserving this excellent article of food should be somewhat understood.

“If dressed immediately after being caught, herring can be preserved from November to April by being packed edgewise into tight casks with a half bushel of coarse salt, and pickled. If to be kept through the warm season, the pickle should be drawn off by perforating the cask and letting it thus remain. The store-room should be cool-and dry, and protected from the sun and warm air.”

If immediately dressed and packed in ice, these and many other kinds of fish, as halibut, mackerel, haddock, and salmon, will remain from six to fifteen days entirely sweet. The preservation by salt is simple, as all fish require a saturated solution of salt, i. e., such a quantity as always to have a quart or two of salt remaining in the vessel. The fish should be kept entirely under the brine, and in a cool room.

As the cultivation and use of the grape is becoming daily of greater interest to the people of this country, the modes of retaining as long as possible this excellent fruit in its freshness possess a corresponding interest. So much has been said, however, in former reports, that we shall merely advert to some of the most important points. In gathering grapes care should be taken that they are perfectly dry. They should be taken off in clusters, handled tenderly, and all unripe, immature, decayed, or injured berries removed, as well as projecting and surplus portions of the stem.

They are packed in layers in boxes, having a paper over the bottom of the box, a paper between each layer, and one over the top. The bunches are not to be crowded, nor left so loose as to slide about the box when being moved.  For market the boxes contain about fifty pounds; for keeping for future use about ten pounds. The boxes should be put in a cool, dry place, free from the sun, and at as even a temperature as possible, and kept closed until opened for use. Cotton has been used instead of paper for packing, but paper is found to answer every requisite. Thus treated, grapes may be kept till the approach of the warm influences of spring.

Put up in sealed cans, with half weight of sugar, grapes keep well throughout the year. Considerable boiling renders the preservation more secure.

This fruit is so nearly allied to the currant in size and qualities that it may be subjected to the same treatment.

In the curing of hams we have a new element against which attention is particularly to be directed—insects. Care has to be taken in all fresh meats against this annoyance, but there is no species of food for which insects seem to have so decided a preference as hams. The pickle for hams may be made in the same manner and of the same proportions as that for beef, only that it should not be used hot, as in the case of beef. Sugar or molasses may be added to this pickle as fancy indicates. The time of remaining in the pickle will depend upon the size of the ham—from one to two months—when it is to be smoked until the curative process is complete. This can only be determined by the amount of pickling it has received.  As the preservation is accomplished by the joint effect of two processes one must respond to the other; if one has been deficient, the other must make good the loss. After the preservation is supposed to be complete, the usual, perhaps the most effectual, guarantee against insects is to sew the hams up in close sacks and cover them with a solution of lime or whitewash. This also serves as a covering to exclude the air.

The more gelatinous portions of the slaughtered pork, such as the head, ears, and feet, being boiled until reduced to the consistence of a jelly, and being seasoned highly with salt, pepper, and spices, and pressed into a solid mass, will remain during the cool weather without change. This is, perhaps, one of the most satisfactory modes of disposing of the odds and ends.

This very excellent little berry cannot be long kept in its fresh condition. In an ice chest it may be preserved a few days. The smallness of the berry renders it favorable for sun drying—a process so simple in these small berries as to need no remark. They are not much used as a preserve otherwise.

The preserve made from raspberries, huckleberries, blackberries, and other similar berries and fruits, which passes under the name of jam, differs from the common sugar preserve more in name than in fact. The berries are mixed with about an equal weight of sugar, and boiled or stewed, and jammed or mashed at the same time till the whole has the consistence of thick sirup.  As so large a per cent. of sugar is used in the preparation, absolute exclusion of air is not requisite; and hence a paper cut the size of the mouth of the jar, and wet with brandy, laid directly upon the jam, and another piece of paper pasted over the mouth, are found to answer every purpose.

If, instead of stewing the entire fruit, as in making jam, the juices be pressed out through a strong piece of coarse muslin, we shall have the pulp without the seed or woody fibre. For this reason jellies are much more valuable for the household than jams, as being among the choicest stores for the sick chamber that can be secured. The preparation and mode of preservation are the same as those of jams. Apple, currant, grape, blackberry, and raspberry, are among the most valuable jellies.

Being almost a pure oil, and the oils having a quite permanent composition, its preservation is very simple. Water having no affinity for oil, moisture has little or no effect, while air is nearly as powerless. In the reduction of lard from the tissues in which it is contained some particles of animal fibre are intermixed, which would, if exposed to air, yield to decay; but being surrounded by the oil and wholly enclosed they are kept inactive. Yet, after some time, if abundant, they may give an odor and taste of decay. This suggests that care should be exercised as to the purity of lard designed to be kept, as well as to the exclusion of the air from the vessel. Stone jars (not earthen) are the most desirable vessels. The room should be cool and dry.

The subject of milk, and the best mode of its preservation, will be found fully discussed in the article upon milk in last year’s Agricultural Report, from which we take the following, both from its importance and for the benefit of those who may not have that volume at hand:

This process indicates the method of preserving milk for home uses.

A most excellent mode of preservation is by pickling. Taken from the shell, they are simmered in their own liquor until they are white and plump. Being removed and cooled, they are carefully packed in the jar in layers, with a large sprinkling of pepper, spice, &c. The jar is then filled with equal parts of the oyster liquor and good cider vinegar; common merchantable vinegar will often consume the oysters. Sealed tight, they keep for months.

Having so large a per cent. of fat, and holding in combination so little water that it does not, by absorption, become oversalt, pork presents the readiest facilities for preservation. It should not be put down till the animal heat has fully passed off, and it is cold throughout. “When packed, with from forty to fifty pounds of salt to the hundred of pork, interspersed between the layers, and the barrel filled with soft water so as to fully ¢over the meat, and left in a cool place, no further care need be taken, except that it must be kept covered with brine. In the colder latitudes it may be kept fresh all winter by being packed in a barrel with snow, or suspended on the north side of a building.  Freezing results in no material injury to its qualities.

Decay naturally takes place in the pumpkin soon after the coming of cold weather. Placed on a shelf where they will be exposed to the cool air, but not, exposed to frost, they remain some weeks without material change. Boiled until reduced to a pulp, and the moisture mostly evaporated, and dried in a slow oven until it is quite hard, it keeps well in a closely covered jar. Pared and cut into thin slips, it may be dried in the sun. The strips must be quite thin, the sun clear, and the atmosphere quite dry, to prevent moulding or souring in the process.  Pumpkin may also be put up in cans, but success requires more care than in fruits. There being a very limited amount of sugar in pumpkin, it is deprived of the preservative influence of that substance, as occurs in fruits. The boiling must be continued until the moisture is mostly driven off, and the pulp is quite dry. As much sugar added as the taste will allow greatly promotes security.

The first requisite of pickling is a pure vinegar. Success with the common market vinegars, made of oil of vitriol, acetic acid, or similar chemical materials, is out of the question. Having a good vinegar, almost any tasteless, tender vegetable or fruit may be used for pickling. Thus we have green or unripe grapes, apples, butternuts, tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, melons, and, in fact, a nameless multitude of others. In all these cases the general principle is the same, i. e., if the substance possesses any bitter or acrid principle, soak or boil it in water or brine until it is removed. After this nothing remains but to immerse it in a pure cider vinegar with condiments to suit. The ordinary mode of greening pickles by the use of copperas is highly pernicious, from the irritative and poisonous effects of the copperas in the stomach.

Pears may be dried in the same manner as apples, either by solar heat or in a slow oven.  For preserving in cans or in sirup, pears are one of our best and most manageable garden products. The large amount of sugar in its composition renders its drying or preservation very certain. Perhaps the best method for common use is to remove the rind, cut into thin slices, and dry in the sun in the same manner as apples.

Being pared and cut into pieces of moderate size, say quarters, they are boiled, with about half weight of sugar, fifteen minutes or so, not enough to reduce the pieces to pulp at all, but sufficiently to cook thoroughly and put into heated cans and sealed quickly, as previously mentioned. If to be kept as a preserve in sirup, a little more sugar may be required.

The peach in its general qualities so nearly resembles the pear that the same methods of preservation answer for both.  Slight allowance in the time of boiling may be made for the superior juiciness of the peach.

Remove the skins by pouring on boiling water. Make a sirup of half a pint of water and half a pound of sugar to one pound of peaches. When boiling put in the prepared peaches and boil till tender. Removing the peaches to cool, continue the boiling of the sirup until it becomes quite thick, and add an equal amount of brandy. Having placed the cooled peaches in a jar, put in sufficient of the brandy sirup to completely cover the fruit. When cold secure the mouth of the jar as for jams.

This fruit possesses the excellences of the two foregoing, and from its similarity in juiciness and saccharine matter preserves equally well in all the various modes by the same treatment.

Though a hard, firm fruit, with a glazed and somewhat oily skin, the quince has but feeble powers of endurance. Kept dry and cool, it remains a few weeks or perhaps, under very favorable circumstances, months without decay.  It dries well in the sun in the same manner as apples, but is most generally used when preserved with sugar as peaches and other fruit.

The constantly increasing attention this superb berry is each year receiving from the American people would seem to indicate that the modes of preservation should be correspondingly enlarged and varied; but the simple fact that this fruit does not permit its peculiarly rich taste to be transmitted to the preserved berry by any means yet tried, satisfactorily explains why its preservation is so unfrequently attempted. For preserving in all the various modes, it may be treated in the same manner as cherries.

This extensively used and highly valuable fruit differs in its general composition, and consequently in its preservative qualities, from the most of our field and garden products. It has very little of either starch, sugar, or cellulose.  Being protected only by a thin skin, and having for its largest element water, it is eminently one of the most perishable of vegetable products. The skin being dense and glazed, affords a good protection so long as it remains unbroken; but unfortunately it is frequently unable to resist the pressure of rapid growth, giving way and exposing the body of the fruit to the direct action of the air. Paradoxical as it may seem, the absence of sugar acts adversely towards both decay and preservation; that substance being wanting which, in its diluted state, is most ready of fermentation, and which, in its concentrated condition, is an important preservative. From their aqueous composition, moisture exercises no specially adverse influence, and hence they are best kept fresh upon ice or in a cool, damp room. Cold alone is their preservative. The absence of sugar renders much more boiling necessary, to prepare them for air-tight preservation, than is required in most fruits. The time taken will depend altogether upon the juiciness; three or four hours will probably be requisite to concentrate the juice sufficiently; add as much sugar as the taste requires a few minutes before the boiling ceases.  Sealed tight they keep unchanged through the season. For preserving, prepare and treat the fruit precisely as brandy peaches, with the exception of using double the amount of sugar, and omitting the brandy and water.  For catsup, to a gallon add four table spoonsful of salt and an equal amount of pepper in kernel, and also of mustard and a little allspice. Boil an hour or more, then strain through a sieve, and put in any ordinary bottle, corking tight. For pickling, green tomatos, they having a bitter, acrid taste, should be scalded in salt water, afterwards cut in two crosswise, washed in cold water, and allowed to drain well. They are then treated as any other material for pickling.

All reference to vinegar as a preservative must be understood as being made to a pure cider vinegar.  Chemical vinegars, such as are most commonly found in market, having various chemical properties, may either entirely fail to effect a preservation, or wholly consume the substance. For a good vinegar, to three gallons of pure apple cider add one gallon of soft water well sweetened with molasses, and expose to the sun or warm air till the acetic fermentation is nearly complete, then remove to a cool dry apartment. The cask should always be left uncorked.

It has been previously remarked that starch readily passes into the saccharine fermentation, and sugar into the vinous; thus wheat, corn, rye, barley, &c,, put in warm water a certain portion of the starch within is changed into sugar, and if the fermentation is permitted to proceed till it passes on into the vinous or alcoholic, the sugar is changed into alcohol. The fluid now contains a portion of alcohol which is removed by distillation. As alcohol boils at a much less temperature than water, if the mixed fluid be gradually heated up to the alcoholic boiling point, the alcohol, being converted into vapor, will pass over into the receptacle, while the water will remain unaffected. In ripe apples, peaches, currants, blackberries, grapes, and similar fruits, there is a small per cent. of sugar with little or no starch.  The juice is, therefore, so to say, already past the saccharine fermentation, and ready for the vinous. Left to the action of the atmosphere, all these juices in a few days ferment, i. e., change whatever sugar there may be into alcohol, the amount of which will depend entirely upon the amount of sugar before fermentation. Such a juice is, in general terms, a cider; if its percentage of alcohol is increased by adding sugar before the fermentation, it is a wine. “The process of checking the fermentation is similar in both, only that in the case of wine great caution is to be exercised not to cork too soon, as the energy of the fermentation, being much greater than that of cider, the safety of the corking may be exposed by too early closing. Mashing the fruit, but not so as to bruise the seeds, the juice on being pressed out is mixed with an equal amount of water, and from two to five pounds of sugar to a gallon of the mixture. Grapes usually require about three and a quarter pounds; currants, four pounds; blackberry and raspberry, three and a half pounds; peach and cherry, the same as grape; orange wine, the juice of a dozen oranges and three pounds of sugar to a gallon of pure water; the sugar in all cases should be the best white lump or crystalized. After the fermentation has nearly ceased it must be stoutly corked, and four or five months later bottled tightly. Sealed well it keeps for years without change. From the invaluable medicinal qualities of grape, currant, and blackberry wines, the certainty of their purity, connected with the fact that nearly every wine of commerce is drugged and utterly unfit for the sick chamber, their manufacture for home use is daily becoming more extensive.  No port, sherry, or madeira, as commonly found in our market, js at all comparable to these wines in medicinal excellence.