§ LIX.
Practical Remarks.
The bottles and other vessels of every kind fit for the preservation of alimentary substances will occasion but a very slight expence at one time. They may be always used again, if care be taken to rince them as soon as they are empty; good corks, string and wire are not expensive. As soon as the method is known, proper bottles and jars will be met with at the manufacturers, corks of every size and properly prepared for use will be furnished by the cork-cutters, as well as iron-wire fit for use.
It will be always adviseable to procure corks before bottles, and in that case no other bottles need be purchased than such as may have necks suited to the size of the corks, for I have been often unable to procure corks of such a size as I could wish.
The glass-houses of la Garre, Sèves, and des Prémontrés near Courcy-le-Château, are already accustomed to the manufactory of corks and jars necessary for the preserving process. I am most satisfied with the latter, which has served me for the last four years.
Good corking depends only on a little practice. It will suffice to cork a dozen bottles with care and exactness, in order to familiarize a person with the method. Every day, wine and liquors are bottled and transported by land and water to the remotest places. Even glass vessels containing from forty to eighty litres in measure have been sent to a great distance full of oil of vitriol and other liquids. It will be the same with animal and vegetable productions, preserved in glass bottles or jars, when sufficient care and attention shall be given them. This is the principal thing required. How many rich liquors and other substances would be better preserved which are either lost or spoiled for want of being well corked!
No one will doubt, after all the experiments I have detailed, that the adoption of this new method, which, as may be seen, unites the greatest economy to a perfection unlooked for till the present time, will secure the following advantages.
1. That of considerably diminishing the consumption of sugar, the produce of the cane, and of giving the greatest extension to the manufactories of grape syrup.
2. That of preserving for use in all countries and all seasons, a number of alimentary and medicinal productions, which being very abundant in some places at certain seasons, are therefore wasted, being considered as of no value; while the same substances, under other circumstances, being much wanted, become of double and even four-fold value; and sometimes cannot be procured at any price, such as butter and eggs.