412 Transactions of the American Institute. 



are indebted for the scientific discoveries of determining the ripen- 

 ing process of fruits, and their complete preservation, on principles 

 strictly philosophical. 



Mr. P. T. Quinn. — I regard this discovery as one of great import- 

 ance and value. It will place the most delicious fruits on our tables 

 in January and February as fresh and delicate in flavor as when 

 first plucked. I see here pears of great delicacy of flavor, looking 

 as well and tasting as delightfully this •28th of January as Avhen 

 first plucked from the tree last August. I congratulate these gen- 

 tlemen on their discovery, and think the whole community has 

 reason to be thankful for the prospect of having Bartlett, Seckel 

 and Duchess pears six and seven months out of season. 



FLORroA FRUIT. 



Mr. Pierre Odell, of Westchester county, N. Y., showed two 

 monstrous lemons, two nice oranges, and a banana blossom, which 

 he himself had recently plucked from the trees in Florida. 



Mr. J. B. Ljtnan read the following paper on 



THE PASTURE LANDS OF THE SOUTH. 



I speak to-day of a wide extent of country little known, less 

 developed, yet unsurpassed on .the continent for the pefection of its 

 climate and the beauty of its scenery. It is the region of the 

 southern half of the Appalachian range, commencing in West Vir- 

 ginia, including nearly half of that State, and a fourth of the 

 adjoining State of Kentucky. As the traveler passes south he 

 finds the eastern third of Tennessee of the same general descrip- 

 tion, the western fourth of North Carolina, and a large fraction of 

 the northern half of South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. 



This elevated region supplies the mountain springs that feed the 

 great streams of the southern half of this republic. Amid the 

 wild and lonely hills of Western Virginia, the two Kanawahs rush 

 northward over rocky Ijeds and pour into the Ohio. A few miles 

 south of the head springs of these streams the mountain brooks, 

 confluent in those remote and picturesque valleys, roll southward, 

 those on the western slope of the Cumberland mountain forming 

 the Cumberland river and the streams of the central valley, col- 

 lecting the rainfall of the eastern slope of the Cumberland and 

 the western side of the Allegany ranges, uniting in a stream broad, 

 deep and placid, which, at a distance of two thousand miles from 

 the Gulf of Mexico, has a depth of water enough to float a man-of- 

 war. On the southern and southeastern slope of this high land the 



