STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 63* 



fruit contains of a nutritive character. And my other reason was, to 

 provide myself with a breastwork of defence, if perchance I appear 

 to oppose any preconceived opinions any one may have upon the 

 question of fruit as a food. The great value of fruit as an article 

 ofdiei is quite another question, and one which I hope I may be 

 able to approach, and leave, with the commendation of those whose 

 experience as specialists in rearing and developing fruit, surely 

 entitles their opinions to the most ready attention and acceptance. 

 Repeated experiment has demonstrated the fact that no one article 

 of food, or class of foods, will suffice to keep the body up to the 

 best standard of nutrition, unless the demands of climate have some 

 modifying influence, as in the case of the Esquimaux, who live 

 almost entirely upon fat, which is essential to maintaining their 

 bodily heat. Perhaps we cannot rightly estimate what an incon- 

 venience the deprivation of all fruit would become, having always 

 been accustomed to it. To the rich it would mean the loss of one 

 luxury ; to the poor, parting with an abundant and cheap variation 

 of a necessarily economical, dietary, and a substitute for expensive 

 green vegetables ; and to the sick, the loss of a grateful, delicious 

 and refreshing comfort. Botanically considered, we know fruit to 

 be the ovary of the parent tree, containing in the seed concealed 

 within, the germs intended b}^ nature to reproduce its kind. It is 

 probable that this perpetuation of kind was only the original design, 

 the type of all fruit being usually of a simple character, destined 

 only to produce the seed ; size, flavor and other qualities which 

 combine to render it agreeable to man, are the results of careful and 

 intelligent effort to make the most of nature's proffered possibilities. 

 A proof of this lies in the fact that the choicest varieties and forms 

 of cultivated fruits, when left alone, invariably revert to the natural 

 type. Fruit of all kinds consists chemically of water, sugar, free 

 acids, albuminous substances and salts, arranged about propor- 

 tionately in the apple, for example, as follows: Water, 88.0 per 

 cent; sugar, 7.58; free acid, 1.04; albuminous substances, 2.94; 

 salts, 0.44. If you will for a moment allow your attention to revert 

 to the table or compounds in nutritious foods, essential to the repair 

 of waste, to the making of new tissue, and the origin and preserva- 

 tion of animal heat and energy, you will see that the proteins, which 

 include albumen, '-the tissue builders," are in a very small propor- 

 tion. There is no fat to help build normal tissue, or act as fuel to 

 keep the body warm. There is plenty of water ; most of the solid 



