X.] AN APPEAL TO THE CHEMIST. 235 



specimen of Vltis Lahrusca (our common wild grape) 

 was torn apart at its root ; one -half was left in its 

 natural condition, the other transplanted to culti- 

 vated ground and treated with nitrate of potash and 

 bone superphosphate. At the end of three years fruit 

 from the cultivated vine contained 12 per cent more 

 potash and 20 per cent more sugar than that from 

 the wild one." Analysis of wild and cultivated straw- 

 berries showed a great increase in potash in the culti- 

 vated variety : ' ' But the change was not confined 

 to the mineral elements alone, for the same analysis 

 showed that the proportion of sugar to acid in the 

 wild species is as two to one, while in the cultivated 

 varieties it is increased to six to one or more." Dr. 

 Stone further declares that ' ' potash fertilizers have 

 decidedly improved the desirable qualities of fruits. 

 Wherever the pen^entage of this element has been 

 raised, the change is accompanied by an increase of 

 sugar and decrease of acid." Dr. Stone has made a 

 subsequent examination of the chemical composition 

 of strawberries at the Tennessee Experiment Station* 

 and finds that ' ' in the varieties examined , the average 

 proportion of acid to sugar was 1 to 3.5. For the 

 wild strawberry, the only references available, and these 

 very meagre, show a corresponding proportion of 1 to 

 2. This indicates that a change for the better has 

 been made, but it is far from probable that the limit 

 has been reached." Fresenius gives the sugar in culti- 

 vated strawberries as 7.5 per cent and the free acid as 

 1.13, and in the wild berries as 3.2 and 1.6 per cent 

 respectively. Cultivated raspberries, according to the 



*Bull. 4, vol. ii. Tenn. Exp. Sta. 



