PROCEEDINGS. 171 



BUSINESS MEETING. 



Saturday, May 31, 1851. 

 President, Samuel Walker, in the Chair. 



The Chairman of the Fruit Committee presented the following Report, which was 

 accepted and ordered to be printed : — 



The Fruit Committee, to whom a communication from Mr. Daniel T. Curtis, in respect 

 to a method discovered by him for ripening and preserving fruits has been referred, ask 

 leave to report at this time but in part, upon the subject committed to them. 



Specimens of fruit, consisting mainly of pears, have repeatedly, during the past year, 

 been placed upon the tables of the Society, by Mr. Curtis, that had been preserved by him 

 for a long time after their usual period of maturity, that were found on examination to be 

 perfectly sound, and, in some instances, to have retained unimpaired their juice and flavor. 

 Among these pears were specimens of the Seckel, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Duchesse 

 d'Angoul^me, and Easter Beurre. The Seckels, though a kind peculiarly subject to early 

 decay, were perfectly sound, and retained in perfection the peculiar flavor of that variety. 

 Of the other varieties, the specimens exhibited were generally, though sound, insipid and 

 tasteless, arising from the circumstance, as Mr. Curtis stated, and as their appearance indi- 

 cated, that they were, when packed and subjected to his process, immature and imper- 

 fect. 



These pears were exhibited by Mr. Curtis as late as January and February, months after 

 their usual season of ripening, thus proving, as no signs of decay were visible, that their 

 season could be almost indefinitely prolonged. 



Mr. Curtis has sent pears preserved and packed in his peculiar method, to the Havana, to 

 London, and to San Francisco, California, thus subjecting his method to the most severe trials. 



The following extract from a letter from his correspondent at Havana, shows the result of 

 the experiment, so far as the shipment to that city is concerned : — " The Pears arrived in 

 perfect order; they were delicious. I never thought they could be eaten in so perfect a 

 state, except in the conntry where they grow." 



The Gardeners' Chronicle, of April 5th, states, that at the Exhibition of the London 

 Horticultural Society, April 1st, a box of fifteen Easter Beurre Pears, received from Mr. 

 Ctrttis, of Boston, were exhibited ; that cases containing seven of these pears were opened, 

 and of them, four were found to be decayed and three good : and then states, " These pears 

 were stated to have been ripened by a method peculiar to Mr. Curtis, the nature of which 

 was not explained. They were, for the most part, melting, sweet, and perfectly ripe, a 

 condition which this fruit with difficulty attains with us in England." The Society awarded 

 Mr. Curtis its Knightian medal. 



The California Daily Courier, of April 9th, acknowledges the receipt, through Mr. D. H. 

 Haskell, of Adams's Express, of a " magnificent Pear, as sound as when packed at Boston." 

 The Pacific News, Alta Californian, and other San Francisco papers, make similar acknow- 

 ledgments, and all concur in stating that the pears were perfectly sound, and that as they 

 were sent for the purpose of testing the practicability of sending fruit to California, across 

 the Isthmus, speak of the experiment as successful. These pears were shipped at Boston, 

 January 27, and after a detention of seventy days, arrived in California in April. The 

 papers referred to state, that the pears, though sound, were deficient in flavor, a circum- 

 stance to be imputed, as with those exhibited to the Society, perhaps to the immature and 

 imperfect state of the fruit when shipped, and not to the effect of the passage, or a difier- 

 ence of climate. 



From the facts now detailed, as well as from their own observation, your Committee feel 

 justified in expressing a confident opinion, that after many unsuccessful trials of various 

 processes and different methods, Mr. Curtis has succeeded in discovering a method of pre- 



