27() STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



this way while retaining all their sweetness and color, the demand for them would 

 be greater than the supply. Already our foreign friends are beginning to ap- 

 preciate tiie value of American dried fruits. The Country Gentleman of Nov. 

 29th, 1877, says: "American dried fruits to the value of 82,500,000, were sold 

 in the last twelve months in Europe. An English correspondent of one of the 

 American i)apers says that our dried fruits, especially our dried apples, are com- 

 ing into use among the lower classes, such as the artisans, in the large manu- 

 facturing towns ; that dried apples would come into more general use if they 

 were more abundant and of better quality. Fresh fruit is too costly for their 

 use: almost the onlv fresh fruit that comes on the artisan's table is the <roose- 

 berry, Avhich is especially cultivated by weavers, who have made this short-lived 

 fruit their favorite for cultivation and competition. If dried apples of supe- 

 rior quality could be supplied in quantity so prepared tliat they would keep like 

 raisins, they would become an article almost as staple as wheat for exporta- 

 tion to northern and central Europe. The vast artisan class would buy them 

 as regularly as they now buy their "penny-worth o'tea." The enormous crop 

 of apples that as lasb year glutted the markets of this country, and were a bur- 

 den to the producer, might become a blessing to half the globe. The perisha- 

 ble nature of apples and the large amount of water they contain, makes them 

 both a risky and expensive article to export. They nuiy be so dried as to re- 

 move all risks, the expense largely reduced, and Avhen cooked be as palatable 

 as fresh fruit. Such fruit will yet make for itself a market in all parts of the 

 civilized world ouside the tropics." 



But much of our dried apples as ^een iu tlio market are "lly-specked," 

 ■wormy, of a deep brown color, and wlien made into sauce an exceedingly poor 

 article of food ; and although the Aldcn and other processes have done much 

 to improve the quality of dried fruit, there is still room for improvement. 



The brown color of dried apples is undoubtedly owing to the action of ozone 

 present in the air ; for if pared apples be exposed in an atmosphere charged 

 ■with ozone, they speedily acquire a deep brown color. Air may be deprived of 

 ozone by heating it to the temperature of 450° F. Could not apples be dried in 

 an atmosphere freed from ozone by passing the air over a hot tire, and then cool- 

 ing it to a certain extent before reaching the fruit? I have not worked out the 

 details of this process, but have no doubt that the fruit drying process of the 

 future will guard against the influence of ozone, and furnish us with dried fruity 

 as sweet and wholesome as fresh fruit, and differing from it only in containing 

 less moisture. 



After some further explanation of tables and figures., iu answer to questions- 

 by Mr. Kedzie, the audience listened to the following 



llEPORT OF THE SECEETARY FOR 1877. 



Gentlemen of the Michigan State Foinological Society : 



At this annual meeting, when so many of the members are gathered in 

 council, it seems natural that some account of the operations of the Society 

 should be considered, that we should halt a little and allow tlie work accom- 

 plished to pass in review, and judge whether for the time, labor, and money 

 expended there is value received in results. As the operations of the (Society 

 throughout tiie year largely hinge upon the work of the Secretary, I shall make 

 this principally an account of my own work, giving here and there the results 

 as they become apparent in the history. 



