TAKE your damsons when full grown and coloured, but not soft, have them gathered in dry weather, get your wide-mouth bottles clean washed and very dry before your damsons are got; have them fitted with corks, that your damsons may be done as soon as they are gathered, when they are pricked put them into your bottles as soon as you can; when the bottle is half full put in two table-spoonfuls of Lisbon sugar, then fill the bottles up with damsons, have the corks well beat in and cut close, then have a bladder soaked in cold water and well wiped, which must be tied close over the corks, have the boiler or copper that you intend to do them in ready, and lay a little straw, very thin, at the bottom of your copper, to keep them from breaking, put a little straw between each bottle; you may lay another row of bottles over