62 



becoming yearly of more importance to us all. He is so well known all over the conti- 

 nent as an authority on the subject that not a word more need be said. I would add to 

 the motion, "and that the paper be referred to the Executive Committee for publication." 



Mr. Arnold seconded the motion, and in doing so remarked that if the recommen- 

 dations of the Doctor were acted upon he would receive the thanks of the next genera- 

 tion. 



The motion was carried. 



Mr. Dbmpsey. — I have been a few years acquainted with Dr. Warder — have had the 

 pleasure of meeting him a few times on occasions something like this ; and I do not 

 know — to use what may seem rather extravagant language — how any person who knew 

 him could fail to fall in love with him. He is open-hearted ; he is a man filled with infor- 

 mation — on pomology especially ; and he is willing, under all circumstances, to impart 

 his knowledcre for the benefit of others. 



Mr. Gott here read the following paper : — 



FRUIT ON THE TABLE. 



*' Quite a good many farmers have come to feel that they were not doing their family 

 justice without placing upon their tables a bountiful dish of fruits such as the various 

 seasons of the year afford, beginning with strawberries, and following into cherries, cur- 

 rants, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, apples, peaches, plums, and pears. Farmers of 

 this class are not so numerous as they should be, nor as they will be, in our opinion, ten 

 or twenty years hence." — American Rural Home, June 10, 1882. 



" While there has been a marked improvement at the table of many of our farmers 

 within the last few years there is yet much to learn. One of the greatest faults in this 

 direction, and one which is the cause of very much illness, is the comparatively small 

 quantity of fruit they use. It is a mistake to consider that fruit, like confectionary, is to 

 be taken only between meals, and not to be counted in the work of sustaining life." — 

 London Farmer's Advocate, June, 1882. 



Such are some of the profounder utterances of the late agricultural press upon the 

 subject of fruit as food upon the table of our country peasantry and more wealthy farmers. 

 It is unquestionably a subject of great importance and influence in the economy and hygiene 

 of our people. Fruit on the table in this connection is not merely a question of fruit 

 for show or exhibition purposes, but rather is it to be understood that fruit is to be sup- 

 plied our dining-halls and refreshment tables, not merely to beautify and decorate, or to 

 please our fancy, but more substantially for food, for the full and perfect gratification of 

 an inbred appetite and taste, for the sustenance and support of our exhausted physical 

 forces, for medication and health, for the furthering and promoting of pure animal en- 

 joyment and pleasures, as well as to defend us against the many dangerous and obnoxious 

 influences to which flesh is heir. Fruit in this connection is one of those many merciful 

 provisions of nature designed for the highest and purest enjoyments of the needy creature, 

 man, one of those safeguards that the Creator of all has thrown around the frail human 

 life, and one of those fertile sources of many high and noble physical pleasures. Fruit 

 is further a fine example of the strict economies of the Designing Author of nature in 

 His infinitely wise and merciful provisions for the furtherance and accomplishment of 

 the supreme uses of the plant itself in its future life and continuance in being, and also 

 in furnishing food and pleasure to the many depending sensitive creatures who daily 

 wait upon it. In its very nature it is health-giving and pleasurable. Fruit is, in short, 

 condensed sunshine, and just what is needed for the best uses of refined and refining as 

 well as vulgar animalism. It is mainly composed of diluted sugars and acids, in delightful 

 admixture held together by fine vegetable tissue, and in this diluted form is found not only 

 to be pleasureable, but essentially necessary for the well being of the animal economy. 

 It will be well for us to understand here that, whenever fruit is mentioned in this 

 connection, matured and well ripened fruit must be understood. Fruit in that beautiful 



