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376 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
NEW PROCESS FOR KEEPING FRUITF RESH. 
DIVISION OF POMOLOGY, WASHINGTON, August 10, 1895. 
The result of the experiments made in the latter part of the year 
1894 and lately reported to the Horticultural Society of Soissons by 
Mr. A. Petit, chief of the laboratory of horticultural researches at 
the National Horticultural School of Versailles, deserves the atten- 
tion and consideration all of fruit growers. 
Impressed with the powerful action of alcoholic vapors on the 
mold which generally appears on the surface of fruits in a damp 
atmosphere, Mr. Petit noticed that pears and apples kept for several 
months in a surrounding saturated with vapors of water and al- 
cohol, even were they at the beginning in a state of decay, showed 
no signs of mold, while fruits in every particular identically similar 
to the former, stored under the same conditions but not exposed to 
the action of alcoholic vapors, were entirely covered with it. 
Taking advantage of this observation, Mr. Petit applied the prin- 
ciple to the preservation of fruits in general, and most particularly 
to grapes, because, more than others, the latter are subject to mold. 
It was to be foreseen that grapes kept, from the day they are cut off 
the vines, inan atmosphere saturated with vapors of water and al- 
cohol would, by the retarding of the sweating period, not only re- 
main free from mold, but would even retain their natural aspect. 
Consequently, should the temperature be constant and low, the pre- 
servation could be maintained long and well. 
On the 31st of October, 1894—that is, very late in the season and at 
a very unfavorable time—Mr. Petit placed, with other fruits anda 
bottle filled with 100 cubic centimeters (61 cubic inches) of alcohol 
at 96°, some bunches of grapes known as “Chasselas de Fontaine- 
bleau,” fresh from the vine, in a brick recipient in the form of a par- 
allelopiped, cemented inside and closed as hermetically as possible 
by acommon wooden door. In two similar recipients contiguous 
to the first, one of which was kept open and the other closed, but 
without alcohol, were stored similar fruits from the same trees and 
vines. The fruit were laid on wood shavings. The recipients were 
built in a very damp celler, the temperature of which varied re- 
gularly from 10° to 8° C. (50° to 462° F.) during the whole time the 
experiment lasted. 
On November 20, the grapes placed in the recipient left open, and 
especially so those in the closed recipient without alcohol, were 
mostly rotten and covered with mold and were immediately re- 
moved. In the recipient containing the bottle of alcohol, the grapes 
were beautiful; on one bunch, two grapes had turned brown, but 
were firm, full, and free of mold; they did not taste at all sour, thus 
differing essentially from moldy grapes, especially those subject 
to Penicillium glaucum. The hair hygrometer in the recipient re- 
gistered 98°. On December 7, the bunches of grapes in the recipient 
containing the alcohol had kept their fine aspect; on most of them, 
however, one or two grapes had turned brown and were in the same 
condition as those above referred to. On December 24, same results; 
on most of the bunches could be seen one or two grapes commen- 
cing to decay. At the end of nearly two months, each bunch had 
