Notes and Gleanings. 45 



Keeping Fruit : Prof. Nyce's. System. — Experiments in the preserva- 

 tion of fruit by chemical means were made by Dr. Henry in 1776, and are de- 

 scribed in Dr. Priestly's " Essays on Air." In these experiments, the fruit, in- 

 stead of being kept in an atmosphere containing free oxygen, was suspended in 

 carbonic-acid gas. A buncli of grapes thus treated remained fresh and plump 

 for six weelcs ; while a corresponding bunch placed near it in a similar vessel con- 

 taining common air, was quite mouldy in half that time. Another experiment 

 was made with some stravvberries, which were ripe and rather stale, having been 

 gathered the day previous. The next day, those exposed to the air had lost their 

 flavor; while those kept in carbonic acid had become more dry, but were fragrant 

 and well flavored. On the fourth day, those in the air became quite musty and 

 mouldy ; whilst those in carbonic acid were, some of them, firm, and retained some 

 flavor at the end of eight days. In this experiment there were two unfavorable 

 points ; namely, that the fruit was stale at the commencement of the trial, and 

 that the carbonic acid used was not pure, but mixed with common air. Various 

 experiments of a similar character have since been made ; but, although 

 these trials may be considered as having demonstrated the principle, no attempt 

 to preserve fruit on a large scale, by this means, has met with practical success, 

 until the erection, in this country, of fruit-houses upon the plan patented by Prof. 

 Nyce of Ohio. 



The largest of these houses in this vicinity, indeed the only one, with a single 

 small exception, is that of the Massachusetts Fruit-Preserving Company at Cam- 

 bridge. This is about a hundred and ten by forty feet, sufficiently large to 

 store from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand bushels of fruit. Without noti- 

 cing the various prophecies of success or failure made before the house was 

 tested, we give some of the results as stated by the gentlemen who had stored 

 their fruit in it. 



Mr. Hervey Davis of Cambridge exhibited, Feb. 3, at the meeting of the 

 Cambridge Horticultural Society, twenty varieties of autumn and winter pears, 

 which were taken iVom the house Jan. 30, of which only five or six kinds were 

 ripe enough to eat. The others were hard and sound, and would require from 

 three to five weeks to ripen. He had eaten Surpasse Virgalieu and Dana's 

 Hovey as perfect in quality as when fresh from the trees. Urbaniste, also, he 

 thought as fine as ever eaten, although some considered them not quite so good. 

 From what little experience he had had, he thought it important that all fruit 

 should be in perfect order when put into the house. It should also be gathered 

 directly from the tree, though he had put some Sheldons in the house that had 

 been exhibited in Boston, Cambridge, and Concord ; and they kept well. Beurre 

 Superfin rotted soon after it was taken from the tree. He had Bartletts gath- 

 ered Sept. 20 ; kept them in the fruit-house till Oct. i ; then exhibited them in 

 Cambridge three days ; carried them to Concord, and exhibited them three days ; 

 brought them home ; and they were as fine as any he had ever tasted. 



Mr. J. V. Wellington of Cambridge, who had stored a large quantity of fruit in 

 the house, exhibited at the same time beautiful specimens of Lawrence, Duchess, 

 Beurre Diel, Winter Nelis, and Beurre Clairgeau, which had all been taken from 

 the house theyfrj/ week in January. He began to take out his Bartletts in Oc- 



