166 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



it should be well dried in an oven, making it as hot as it can be 

 held in the hand, cooling it before using it. 



Mr. Pardee. — In some locations moisture will accumulate, if 

 these substances are used, dry them as you will. 



The Chairman. — For keeping potatoes the rule is to keep them 

 cool and moist. Fruits should be kept cool and dry. To secure 

 these conditions the amateur gardener has an ice-house or refrig- 

 erator building. Every man must inquire how, in his own local- 

 ity, he can best secure the conditions of keeping his fruit as near 

 the freezing point as he can without reaching it, and as dry as 

 may be. 



APPLES AND PEARS. 



Mr, Steele exhibited a pear indented by another in growing. • 

 Pears that are apt to cluster should be thinned out to prevent 

 this defect. 



Mr. Carpenter exhibited about forty varieties of apples from 

 the western part of Connecticut, mostly local varieties, having 

 only local names. Some of these he considered worthy of intro- 

 duction, and had made arrangements for that purpose. The 

 favorite apples for orchard culture he found to be the Rhode 

 Island Greening, the Stackyard, the Black apple, the Baldwin, 

 the Roxbury Russett, and the Meadow Sweet. Mr. C. exhibited 

 specimens of the Beurre Clargeau. 



GIRDLING GRAPES SWEET CORN. 



Mr. Hite exhibited a specimen of grapes from a girdled vine. 



Mr. Fuller. — It makes them dropsical. They have more water 

 and less sugar. It hastens their maturity, but certainly does not 

 improve their quality. 



Dr. Trimble. — When the bark grows together again, as it some- 

 times will, the quality is inferior. 



Dr. T. exhibited some flowers, and some sweet corn, ready for 

 the table, planted upon the 8th of July. 



Messrs. Pardee and Carpenter eulogized StowelPs Evergreen 

 sweet corn. 



Prof. Mapes stated that Stowell's Evergreen corn, grown in 

 1855, and that grown in 1856, had been placed together upon 

 the table at the American Institute fair in 1856, and no man 

 coiild tell the difference. 



