WINTER MEETING, 1882. 7 



information and store away new ideas. "We believe it pays, and I counsel you 

 here to go and do likewise. 



Upon this subject of buildings we are yet at work, and hope to improve our 

 structures and methods as we acquire experience. 



Porter Beal, Geneva: How much will sucli a house as you describe hold? 



Mr. Dorr: It has a capacity of about 5,000 bushels. 



Mr. Beal : At what expense was yours erected? 



Mr. Dorr: About six hundred dollars. 



S. B. Mann, Adrian : Have you any secret in its construction or any pat- 

 ents on your method ? 



Mr. Dorr : No ; I apprehend the method of preserving fruit by uniform 

 low temperature is too old to be patented, and what I have learned is free for 

 others. A great many people have visited my building and I shall be glad to 

 give you all the "freedom of the house." 



Secretary Garfield : How does your fruit stand up when exposed to the air 

 on the market? 



Mr. Dorr: I can only answer by saying that last May my fruit sold over 

 fifty per cent better to the dealers in Chicago than refrigerator fruit, simply 

 because it would resist decav longer. 



B. W. Steere : How much waste is there in the fruit you store, bv rotting 

 or specking? 



Mr. Dorr: This depends entirely on the variety. In 1,500 bushels of 

 Baldwins there was not a hat full wasted in a barrel, while of Black Gilliflowers 

 nearly a fifth was unmarketable. 



Secretary Garfield : How about the Spy? 



Mr. Dorr : That variety does not keep well in my house ; the same is true 

 of the Khode Island Greening; both of these varieties should be shipped in 

 February, and then the percentage of loss will be very much less. If apples 

 are kept until May, there will be with most varieties a considerable loss; I do 

 not pretend the house will keep fruit perfectly. 



Mr. Carson : When would you advise picking fruit for your building? 



Mr. Dorr: When the seeds turn brown. 



President Lyon : Certainly when apples begin to fall they should be gath- 

 ered. How much sooner is a question of importance. 



The general subject was continued in a short paper by Mr. S. B. Mann of 

 Adrian, on 



MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN HORTICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



The primitive condition of the soil in early ages required, no doubt, far less 

 labor and tillage to produce a crop than we find necessary to-day, especially in 

 this climate. Ever since the edict went forth that "man should earn his 

 bread by the sweat of his brow," there has continued a struggle between stern 

 necessity and human intellect for supremacy ; the effort being by the latter 

 to render as near as possible inoperative the divine command — to prove it possi- 

 ble to reduce said sweating process to a very low ebb. 



Whether this has been the one grand object of modern invention and im- 

 provement, is hard to say, but we may safely conclude it was from their uni- 

 versal claim of being "labor saving" in their character. But whatever may 

 have been the object the result has seen not so much to save labor as to render 

 that labor more effective and complete. 



