60 STATE POMOLOG1CAL SOCIETY. 



the world. But the time was coming when the people would demand a better 

 berry than the Wilson, and when we have to send them to Chicago and sell 

 them for five cents a quart, it was time to cultivate a better variety. 



Mr. W. A. Brown, of Stevensville, said that in regard to berries for the 

 western market, no variety was as good as the Wilson. There were several 

 thousand acres in his county in berries, and almost all were the Wilson berry. 

 In regard to the deterioration of the berry late in the season it was due to the 

 continued use of the ground year after year without replanting. 



Mr. Haigh, of South Haven, asked if the Marvin, Shirts and Sharpless had 

 succeeded in Michigan in field culture, and was answered in the affirmative by 

 several gentlemen. 



Mr. Bridgman said that where one man might cultivate a berry in one place 

 successfully some other man would fail in another place. Specimens of the 

 Sharpless grown in Battle Creek were compared to some grown in Berrien 

 county, the latter being much smaller and less perfect, in order to illustrate 

 the fact. 



The second paper of the afternoon was by Mr. F. S. Kedzie, of Lansing, 

 upon the topic, 



SCIENCE IN FRUIT-CANNING AND JELLY-MAKING. 



The science of to-day furnishes reasons for the operations of yesterday. 

 Men plowed, sowed and reaped without the slightest consideration for the con- 

 ditions of nitrification, the chemical reactions taking place in the germination 

 of the seed or the changes which occur during the ripening of the grain. 



Although these reasons as furnished by science may not in every instance or 

 in the majority of instances assist in the successful performance of these 

 various operations, they show why the operation is necessary and answer ques- 

 tions which our ancestor may have puzzled his brain over as he followed the 

 drag or hilled his potatoes. 



In the topic assigned I shall endeavor to keep myself entirely on the 

 scientific side of the question ; leaving the other side in all its practical bear- 

 ings to those whose education and acquirements make them at home over a hot 

 stove ; to whom the snap of a cracking can is music, and who consider the 

 sizzling and smoke of " sugar on the stove" as a proper oblation to the house- 

 hold gods. 



To preserve fruit in a condition fit for the table two things must be secured. 

 First, the aroma or peculiar flowing property must to a certain extent be 

 retained. Second, and still more important, fermentation must be prevented. 

 The aroma or flavor of most fruits is sufficiently retained by the sugar used in 

 canning, and it is upon this that we rely. Many fruits owe their palatability, 

 however, not to their aroma so much as to a certain fresh taste or demulcent 

 property which they possess. This property has never been successfully 

 retained by canning, as the cooking necessary for the preservation of the fruit 

 destroys it, as for instance canned strawberries. 



Fermentation, the friend of the housewife in raising bread and making vin- 

 egar ; her deadliest foe in souring milk and working her tomatoes put away for 

 the winter, has attracted the attention of chemists and microscopists more 

 than any other subject during the past few years. They have discovered that 

 fermentation can only commence in the presence of atmospheric air or the free 

 oxygen which it contains; that a certain degree of heat must be maintained, 

 and lastly and most important, the presence of an organic germ by its growth 



