WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 433 



It follows from what I have said that fruit which has been exposed to the air, as is, 

 indeed, the case with all fruit, will be liable to have bacteria on its surface. Both for 

 proof of this, and to satisfy my curiosity as to the number of this little people likely 

 to be found on fruit as usually exposed, I asked one of my students who is engaged in 

 this line of study to find out for me how many bacteria there were on an apple, about 

 as big as my fist, which I took from a basket of the fruit that had recently been left 

 in my cellar by the grocer. He did the work very carefully, and reported 115,000 —quite 

 a good sized ciiy on a very small piece of land one would say, and yet not much more 

 thickly settled than a Western prairie, since it would take 400,000.000 of these beings to 

 cover one square inch of surface. But they were there, nevertheless, scattered over the 

 surface of this apple; some of them very probably of the kind that starts the rotting 

 of fruit, and ready for work whenever a place should be opened, or weakened in the 

 skin where they may begin. Beset, then, as the ripe fruit is from within, in such a 

 manner that it cannot grow better, but must grow poorer, if it changes at all; and beset 

 with worse enemies from without, is it any wonder that the soft, ripe strawberry or 

 blackberry or peach, or the mellow apple or pear, is hard to keep? There is but one 

 really effectual and practicable way to meet this double evil tendency, so that it shall 

 be entirely suppressed, and that is to heat the fruit up to the temperature of boiling 

 water. Thus all power for evil of the ferments working within, and of the bacteria 

 that stand ready to work from without is permanently taken from them, and we have 

 only to prevent exposui-e to air, completely, so that no fresh bacteria duet can come in 

 contact with the fruit. This is the familiar process of canning fruit. Complete drying 

 also stops the action of these ferments and bacteria as effectually as heat does; but 

 really complete drying, leaving no moisture at all in the fruit, would yield a product so 

 far removed from the original fruit that it would have little value; and if the drying is 

 not complete, as in the evaporated apple, we must resort to other and additional means, 

 such as cold storage, if it is desired to carry the fruit through the warm weather of the 

 following season. This low temperature of the cold storage is of itself a means of 

 checking the tendency to decay; for ferments and bacteria do not work well in the cold, 

 and the latter not at all at very low temperature. But as there are limits to which the 

 temperature must not be allowed to fall, if we would not spoil the fruit by the cold itself, 

 this is but a partial and imperfect means of preservation. Finally, there are certain 

 chemical substances, like borax, boracic acid, salicylic acid, sulphurous acid, which act 

 as poisoason bacteria; but as they can be applied to fresh fruits only in such a way that 

 harm would come to those who eat the fruits, their use is out of the question in such 

 cases. 



Therefore it is that, if we want to enjoy all the lusciousness of the ripe fruit, we must 

 usually eat that fruit just then when it is ripe. Canned or dried, it may be good still, 

 but it is quite another thing. Cold storage may preserve the lusciousness for a while, 

 but not for long. Especially is this true of the berry fruits, which have only a very 

 thin protecting skin to defend them from the attack of bacteria and consequent decay. 



In the canning process we have, as already stated, the only way of preserving these 

 tender fruits in a condition at all approaching that when they were picked; so that we 

 are at least reminded of what they were when fresh and of the pleasant summer days 

 when we picked them, as they come upon our tables in the midst of winter. And this 

 is a perfectly wholesome way of preserving fruit, when honestly done, as well as an 

 entirely successful way, so far as keeping the fruit in an eatable condition for an indefi- 

 nite length of time is concerned. But there are temptations not to do it honestly, which 

 are sametimes yielded to, and the product so obtained cannot receive unstinted praise 

 and may sometimes even deserve severe condemnation. 



The complete success of canning fruit as to the mere matter of preserving it from 

 any further alteration, which would mean moulding and decay, requires that the con- 

 tents of the can or glass jar shall be heated throughout to a temperature at least nearly 

 as high as that of boiling water; to do this takes time and care. If a little salicylic acid 

 is added to the contents of the can, it will so far assist the action of heat in killing all 

 germs, that the heating need not be quite so thorough; and we find mention made in 

 the horticultural journals of the possible usefulness of such an addition. But its use 

 is not honest. The addition of salicylic acid to wine has been prohibited, as well as of 

 all other preservatives, in European countries; because, while small quantities added 

 may do no harm, there is no guarantee that if any at all is allowed, it may not be used 

 to excess. It is not harmless when taken into the system. Fruit properly canned 

 without it win keep perfectly; fruit improperly canned, or poor fruit canned in any way, 

 may keep with its aid and not without; and the more careless and slovenly the selection 

 and preparation of the fruit, and the heating and sealing of it, the more freely must 

 the preservative be added in order that it shall not spoil. Salicylic acid is widely used 

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