air, unless well painted after having become cold.
Wide-mouthed glass bottles are excellent. But, in using glass or stone
ware, the corks must be put in and tied at the commencement, leaving a
small aperture for the escape of steam, and the process of raising the
water to a boiling heat must be gradual, requiring three or four hours,
or the bottles will be broken by sudden expansion. Make the corks
air-tight by covering with sealing-wax on taking from the boiling water.
Some vegetables, as peas, beans, cauliflowers, &c., need considerable
boiling, in order to perfect preservation. Tin cans may stand in the
water and boil an hour or two, if you choose, and then be sealed. The
bottles should be corked tight, have the cork tied in, and then be
immersed and boil for an hour: take them out, and dip the cork and mouth
of the bottles in sealing-wax, and all will be safe.

By one of these processes, exclusion of the atmosphere and thorough
boiling, we may preserve any fruit or vegetable, so as to have an
abundance, nearly as good as the fresh in its season, the whole year,
and that at a trifling expense. All fruits and vegetables may also be
preserved by drying. By being properly dried, the original aroma can be
mostly retained. The essentials in properly drying are artificial heat
and free circulation of the air about the drying articles. Fruit dried
in the sun is not nearly so fine as that dried by artificial heat. An
oven from which bread has just been taken is suitable for this purpose;
but a dry-house is better. A tight room, with a stove in the bottom, and
the fruit in shallow drawers, put in from the outside, serves a good
purpose. Construct the room so as to give a draft, the heated air
passing out at the top, and the process of drying will be greatly
facilitated, and the more rapid the process, without cooking the fruit,
the better will be its quality. This process is applicable to all kinds
of vegetables. Roots, as beets, carrots, parsnips, or potatoes, should
be sliced before drying. The object in drying the latter articles would
be to afford the luxury of good vegetables for armies and ships' crews,
in distant regions, and in climates where they are not grown. Milk can
be condensed and preserved for a long time, and, being greatly reduced
in quantity, it is easily transported. It is not generally known in the
country that Mr. Gail Borden, of New York, has invented a method of
condensing milk, fresh from the cow, so