This important subject cannot be treated here at length. In a hot season with abundant crops, good results may be obtained with some prospect of profit. But the apparatus has been expensive. Mr Udale's Report to the Worcestershire _C.C._ on dried fruits, vegetables and herbs, with the article in _Journal of R.H.S._, vol. xxvi., part ii., should be consulted, and "Fruit Preserving," by R.L.C., in Watson, vol. v. Thick-skinned plums, _e.g._, Czar, Prince Englebert, Diamond and Monarch are best for the purpose. Plums placed on trays, dried in a very slow oven, and allowed to cool several times, are often equal to French prunes. BOTTLING This is a simple and most useful process. Plums well bottled will last for years. Gather clean and dry fruit before it is quite ripe, that the heat may not crack the plums. Remove the stalks and pack closely in bottles not over 11 inches high, without bruising, up to shoulder of bottle. Provide a boiler a foot deep; place hay or canvas at the bottom, then put the bottles in the boiler with hay or canvas around them to prevent fracture. Now fill the boiler up to the necks of the bottles, and place it on a slow fire. Heat very gradually until the water is at boiling point. Then take each bottle out with a cloth, fill with boiling water kept close at hand, and cover _while boiling_ with air-tight stoppers. Another method is to fill the bottles nearly full with cold water or thin syrup, and boil for fifteen minutes. Messrs De Luca have received silver and bronze medals from the R.H.S. for self-closing bottles now sold by Messrs Abbott of Southall, near London. Their method is as follows: "Pour in water or cold thin syrup (one tablespoonful of crystalised cane-sugar to the pint) sufficient to cover the fruit. Adjust the indiarubber in the groove made for it on neck of the bottle, place the disc on it, and _lightly_ screw down the outer ring. (Steam must be allowed to escape.) Boil as before for twenty minutes; take out each bottle, and at once screw the outer ring as tightly as possible. Leave bottles until cold. Next day examine by unscrewing the outer ring, and try whether the disc is firmly fastened down. If so, replace the ring, screw down tightly and store away in a cool place, standing them upright. The bottles by having new discs and indiarubber rings may be frequently used." The Rev. W. Wilks, secretary of the R.H.S., recommends pears, especially Pitmaston D., as suitable for bottling. "Bottled it is delicious." He thinks fifteen minutes from the time the water boils sufficient for plums. Messrs De Luca mention an hour as the time for pears. Messrs Lee & Co. of 19 Knightrider St., Maidstone, have received medals from the R.H.S. and others for their fruit bottling apparatus and bottled fruit. They supply a patent economic fruit bottling apparatus at 21s. A thermometer at the side records the temperature of the bottles and of their contents. The following is the method given in the _Journal of the R.H.S._