202 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



ral branches of knowledge which ought to be studied 

 in a college of this kind. This is a serious obstacle 

 in the way of establishing agricultural schools of a 

 high order ; and the General Government ought to 

 aid in removing the difliculty. 



PRESERVATION OP FROTIT. 



Few operations in domestic economy on a farm are 

 more important than the preservation of fruit. In 

 ono of Ills letters written at Paris, Mr. Greri>f,t ex- 

 presses the opinion that nicely pro])areJ dried poaches 

 would find a ready sale in LonJon and other mar- 

 kets, if due pains were taken to introduce the article 

 to public notice. It has long appeared to us that 

 vastly more money might be realized from apples, 

 peaches, pear?, cherries and plums than is now ob- 

 tained, if a perfect system were adopted in their 

 management. In studying the keeping qualities of 

 apples, MuLEKR discovered that those least liable to 

 ehrivel by the slow evaporation of their fluids, (water,) 

 contained an unusual amount of wax in the cuticle, 

 closing all its pores. This waxy matter performs a 

 similar function on tlie leaves of many plants, partic- 

 ularly in tropical climates, by checking the too rapid 

 escape of water from their surfaces. In keeping 

 apples and pears, it serves to exclude oxygen from 

 the juices and tissues of the fruit, by the presence of 

 which chemical changes are started, unless the tem- 

 perature is quite low, which end in fermentation and 

 rot. Eggs are kept from spoiling by filling the 

 pores in their shells with tallow or lard ; and many 

 large fruits have been long preserved by a thin cov- 

 ering of beeswax. The principle of excluding at- 

 mospheric air, or its oxygen, is the point worthy of 

 attention. In 1848 we put up peaches in Georgia 

 packed in charcoal dust and surrounded with an at- 

 mosphere of carbonic acid. A can of the?e hermet- 

 rically sealed was brought to the fair in Buffalo ; but, 

 although not decayed, the peaches had undergone 

 sueh chemical changes as rendered them worthless, 

 and they were not exhibited. This fruit was ripe 

 when put up in July, and after being kept five weeks 

 ■where the thermometer was from 75 to 88 degrees, it 

 was jolted on a railroad a thousand miles before reach- 

 ing Buffalo. Of course the test, or trial, was not a 

 ftiir one ; but we are satisfied from other experiments 

 that peaches must be kept at a temperature as low as 

 60 degrees not to undergo chemical changes when 

 the air is entirely excluded, sufficient to destroy the 

 fine flavor of choice fruits. Prof. Lindley suggests 

 in a late number of the Gardners Chronicle, the pos- 

 aibility of restoring the flavor or aroma of apples, 

 pears and peaches, by some chemical agents. We 

 have little faith in the success of any attempts of 

 this kind. The preservation of fruits, potatoes and 

 other perishable articles of human food deserves more 

 attention than it has hitherto received in this oonntry. 

 In packing grapes in thoroughly dried saw-dust, care 

 should be taken to procure dust which contains the 

 least volatile matter. Any strongly scented wood, 

 or even feebly scented, will impart more or less of its 

 p««oliar aroma to the fruit, and receive that of the 

 imit in exchange. All gaseous bodies have a natu- 

 raJ tendency to mingle and permeate the spaces be- 

 twe»B the atoms of each. In illustration of this law, 

 » fenlleman whose olfactories were extremely sen- 

 sitive, Biid that he could smell sixty distinct stinks at 

 •oe time. This was in a city. When a dog selects 

 the track of his masters iron shod horse, from that of 



fifty other horses on a stone paved street, as has often 

 been witnessed, proof is exhibited not only of the 

 existence of numerous distinguishable volatile ele- 

 ments, but of the wonderful powers developed in the 

 olfactory nerve of some animals. Fromexj)eriment3 

 which have fallen under our observation, we are in- 

 clined to believe that the mean temperature of the 

 earth in the latitude of Rochester and BulTalo at the 

 depth of four or five feet is low enough to arrest all 

 chemical changes in apples and potatoes, properly 

 buried, lor an extended and indefinite period, reach- 

 ing perhaps to centuries. A potato can be buried so 

 deep in the earth in northern lalitudes, as neither to 

 germinate nor rot — keeping like the mastodon pre- 

 served in a huge cake of ice in the north of Europe. 

 We intend to test this matter in reference to both 

 potatoes and apples in the city of Wasliington, to 

 preserve them sound till the middle of next June. 

 Potatoes were in the market of tiie federal metropolis 

 in June of tliis year at four dollars a bushel ; and 

 good fruit is too high and scarce to name. Grapes, 

 peaches, nectarines, cherries, quinces and pears 

 flourish in this climate ; but it is a little too warm, 

 except in elevated localities for the perfection of 

 apples. However it is proper to state that Mr. Cal- 

 vert, of Prince George county, some 18 miles south- 

 east of Washington, who grows fine figs in open 

 grounds, has given us several kinds of winter apples, 

 which were not only highly flavored, jich and crisp, 

 but more free from that wood-like tissue and tough- 

 ness, peculiar to apples growm at the south. 



(Kiiitonal (HorrcspouLicncc. 



p. BARRY'S LETTERS PROM EUROPE AND THE 

 WORLD'S FAIR. 



Paris, July 1st, 1851. 

 The journey from London to Paris is now perform- 

 ed in 12 hours ; and yet what a change it ogives the 

 traveler in climate, country and people. When I 

 left London I was fairly sickened with dull, cloudy 

 and rainy weather. On my arrival here I was ush- 

 ered into a most delightful American June — the 

 sun bright and warm, and the atmosphere clear and 

 pure. . For 12 days we have scarcely seen a cloud, 

 and the temperature has been about the same as in 

 New York at the same season. To-day it rains, and 

 I am compelled to stay in the house. I am glad of 

 the opportunity it gives me of rendering a short 

 account of myself. I must, first of all, say something 

 about Paris; for you know it is said that " Paris is 

 France." I do not however admit this. Great and 

 comprehensive as is Paris, it is not France. Those 

 who would know the Ffench people correctly, either 

 in a moral, social, or industrial point of view, must 

 get outside the walls into the country and country 

 towns. They must enter the fields and gari'ens, the 

 factories and work shops, and mingle with the fanriily. 

 Foreigners are very apt to come here, take lodgings 

 at a hotel, visit the theatres, restaurants, public 

 promenades, and exihibitions, and after spending a 

 few weeks in that way, they sit down and write to 

 their friends that the French are a people that love 

 luxury and idleness, that they have no energy, no 

 industry, are dissolute in their habits, vain, frivolous, 

 &c., &.C. Now nothing can be more unjust than this, 

 for throe-fourths of all the gay, frivolous, dissipated, • 

 pleasure seeking people we meet in all public 



I 



