88 CHYMFSTRY APPLIEB TO AGRICtJLTURET. 



Cherries, currants, prunes, peaches, &c,, analyzed, both 

 when green and when ripe, presented the same results^ 

 with some slight difference in the products. 



By the process of ripening the animal matter, woody 

 substances, malic acid, and water are diminished, whilst 

 the sugar is considerably increased. This last substance^ 

 when extracted from grapes, figs, and peaches, fully ripe, 

 may be partially crystallized; whilst that from apples, 

 pears, currants, cherries, apricots, and prunes, remains 

 liquid and uncrystallizable. 



When green fruits, fully grown and ready for ripening, 

 are placed in an atmosphere deprived of oxygen, the pro- 

 cess of ripening does not go on ; it is,^ however, only sus- 

 pended, and will commence when the fruit is replaced in 

 a situation where it can obtain oxygen ; unless it has been 

 kept too long in the dis-oxygenated air. 



After ripening, fruit undergoes another alteration, which 

 changes its nature ; it becomes mouldy or rotten, and in 

 this state gives out great quantities of carbonic acid. The 

 carbon is principally furnished by the woody portion, which, 

 turns brown, and by the sugar, the proportion of which is 

 gradually diminished till it finally disappears ; whilst the; 

 oxygen can reasonably be attributed only to the decompo- 

 sition of the water. I am the more inclined to believe this 

 assertion, because it may be observed every day,, that when 

 fruits are fermenting', or decaying in heaps, a peculiar odor 

 may easily be distinguished in the surrounding atmosphere, 

 approaching to that of some gaseous combinations, es- 

 pecially that of hydrogen with carbon. 



M. de Saussure, who repeated the experiments of M. 

 Berard upon fruits, has deduced from them consequences 

 somewhat different ; he believes this to arise from M. 

 Berard's having enclosed his fruits in jars containing only 

 six or eight times their volume of air; the almost imme-^ 

 diate contact of the sides of the receivers, heated by the 

 sun, must necessarily have produced a change in the fruits, 

 by occasioning the commencement of decomposition. 



The result of the experiments of M. de Saussure leads 

 to the conclusion, that green fruits exercise the same ac- 

 tion upon the air as the leaves do, though with less in- 

 tensity. Like the leaves, green fruits absorb oxygen 

 during the night, and give out carbonic acid, of which 

 they again absorb a part. Fruits transpire oxygen in the 

 sun ; when very green they consume more oxygen in the 

 dark, than when they approach to maturity. 



