360 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



others; to the arupaceous group — those containing hard stones, surrounded by 

 a meaty pulp — comprising plums, peaches, cherries, dates, olives, etc.; to those 

 of the berry kind, proper, including grapes, currants, gooseberries, cranberries 

 and their like, as well as the so-called berries, strawberries, raspberries, black- 

 berries and others. Let us consider these only. 



During the early stages of development the constituents and chemical 

 changes of the fruit do not differ essentially from those of the leaf from 

 which it is metamorphosed. It is like the leaf, green, and with the rest of the 

 plant, absorbs, in the main, carbonic acid, which, with water, is decomposed 

 into carbo-hydrates, and oxygen is thrown off. At this time the fruit contains 

 a great bulk of insoluble constituents, pectose, starch and tannin, with an 

 excess of free acids — malic, tartaric, citric or succinic. As maturity advances, 

 the green color is changed to the typical color of its kind. Starch and tannin 

 are transformed into sugar; the tannin and free acids are in part oxidized 

 and disappear, the fruit growing less acid and less astringent. At this time 

 its function is reversed. It absorbs oxygen and throws off carbonic acid. By 

 the presence of pectose, analogous to diastase, aided by light and heat, the 

 insoluble pectose is changed into soluble pectin, or "vegetable jelly." At this 

 time certain volatile oils, which give each fruit its characteristic aroma, are 

 formed, and the fruit has become physiologically edible. As the process of 

 oxidization continues, alcoholic fermentation takes place, the sugar and remain- 

 ing acids are decomposed, the fruit loses flavor and rapidly decays. Fruits at best 

 have but slight nutritive value, their use is in another way. To gain any bene- 

 fit from their use, they must be eaten when their assimilable constituents are 

 at their maximum, and when their deleterious components are most eliminated. 

 Under-ripe fruit is injurious, because of the excess of vegetable acids it con- 

 tains. Over-ripe fruit is equally injurious because of its liability to fermenta- 

 tion in the alimentary canal and because of the disturbance in consequence 

 thereof. If eaten at the stage known to us by experience as the stage of full 

 maturity, we gain what slight nutriment there is, and avoid injurious con- 

 stituents. 



Fruits vary much in nutritive value, but in most of the fruits of temperate 

 regions this value is very slight. There is too much water and too little of the 

 nitrogenous element to serve as a food. The only exception to this is with 

 many tropical fruits. Nature apportions most wisely for our needs. Food is 

 the heat-producing agent in the animal economy, but foods vary greatly in this 

 power. Fruits are essentially refrigerant in their action. Hence the wisdom 

 of an abundant supply the year around in tropical regions ; hence the greater 

 wisdom of the supply during the hot seasons of temperate zones. Our main 

 diet during the entire year is a heat-producing diet, consisting largely of solid 

 highly nitrogenous and highly hydro-carbonaceous foods. We maintain this 

 diet to a great extent during warm weather, but fortunately for our well being 

 at this time, we crave and are supplied with a light, trashy addition to our 

 ordinarily too concentrated diet. We eat fruit in large quantities, cooked and 

 fresh. We do not want the nutriment, we want the trash. In tropical regions, 

 however, this is not wholly true. There fruit is not an adjunct to diet: it is 

 to a large extent the diet itself. Our native apple contains over 85 per cent, 

 of water, about U per cent of sugar, less than one-fourth per cent, of albumi- 

 nous substances ; while the banana contains nearly five percent, of nitrogenous 

 matter, about 20 per cent, of sugar, over one-half per cent, fatty matter, with 

 but 73 per cent, of water. The plantain, much like the banana, but larger, 



