ISec relay ij's Badyd. 3?? 



DRYJSTESS IlSr THE FRUIT HOUSE. 



After a low and even temperature is secured, the other essen- 

 tials in preserving fruit are : darkness ; an air-tight room, to retain 

 the carbonic acid given oif by the fruit, and a dry atmosphere. As 

 stated, fruit in ripening gives oS both carbonic acid and water, or 

 moisture. The carbonic acid, by excluding the oxygen of the air, 

 aids in preserving the fruit. Moistnre is undesirable, as it hastens 

 decay. The only effective method of removing it is by exposing in 

 the room some substance that will absorb it. The French use 

 chloride of calcium, which is a very different substance from 

 chloride of lime. This salt has such an avidity for moisture, that 

 it takes it from the air of the room and becomes liquified. The 

 objection to this is its expense. An American experimenter has 

 found a substitute in the ''bittern," or waste material of salt works, 

 which is thrown away. This is mainly a very impure chloride of 

 calcium, and answers the purpose. The bittern, in a large iron 

 pan, is exposed in the fruit room. When it has become liquified 

 by the moisture absorbed, the j)an is set over a fire and the salt 

 dried, by driving off the water it has absorbed, when it is again 

 ready for use. This process may be repeated indefinitely. 



APPAREXT WASTE IX XATURE. 



In his Montreal address Mr. Meehan says : " We discover 

 nothing in the behavior of plants to indicate that they are actuated 

 by individual good further than may be necessary to enable them 

 to fall in with nature's great aim of preparing for the future. 

 Millions of seeds are produced for every one that grows ; millions 

 grow for every one that lives long enough to flower ; millions of 

 flowers open for every one that yields seeds, and millions on mil- 

 lions of grains of pollen are produced for every one grain that is 

 of service in fertilization. But these surplus seeds, surplus plants, 

 surplus pollen are useful, not to the parents which bore them, not 

 in any way to themselves, but as sacrifices to posterity. They serve 

 as food. They die that something else may live. They all work 

 in with nature's grand aim of developing something for the future. 

 At the present time the eyes of science are turned to the past. We 

 compare the dim view with that which is about us, and we perceive 

 that all things have worked together for the good of the whole. 

 We see that nothing has lived in vain. We know that in the 

 general economy of nature there is no waste anywhere." — Journal 

 of Horticulture. 



