306 " [Assembly 



zero, Fah., that they would keep for a long time. In praf^tice, 

 however, we found that most kinds of West India fruits would not 

 be preserved at that temperature. The pine apples tunred black 

 in a very short time. We also found that those fruits, meats, and 

 vegetables which- were preserved, would, when brought out of 

 the preserver, decay and decompose with great rapidity. It 

 would seem that, when nature's course is arrested in its opera- 

 tion, she is simply gathering strength to carry out her purposes 

 with increased power, when the restraint shall have given way. 



Messrs. Coleman & Stetson, of the Astor House, in this city, 

 haX^e in use a fruit preserver of Kephart's patent. It is a large 

 room, or ice house, with the ice resting on the top_, and the cool 

 water from i^the melting ice running down the sides. The 

 thermometer will range in it from 35 to 37, Fah. The ice has 

 only to be applied once a year, a sufficient quantity being put on 

 in one winter to last till the next. 



I regret that I shall be unable to "attend the Club to-morrow, 

 but I must be at the State Fair. 



Very respectfully, 



JOHN BULLOCK. 



H. Meigs J Esq., Secretary Foyner^s Club. 



The secretary adverted to the numerous methods tried to pre- 

 serve fruit and vegetables — such as the sweating of apples, and 

 then putting them in single layers on shelves of the fruit room; 

 2d, in the same way, but covered with canvas of a light kind, 

 which should be dried occasionally when moistened by the fruit; 

 3d, in close drawers, one or several layers deep; 4th, in dry 

 casks, without anything, but they must be picked over in a few. 

 weeks carefully, the casks made perfectly dry, re-filled, and 

 headed up, and not disturbed till wanted for use; 5th, in garden 

 pots of large size, boxes, casks, or jars, with pure and dry sand 

 between the layers ; 6th, in jars, in which no sand or other thing 

 is put, the mouths of the jars covered with pieces of slate, and 

 the whole buried in dry sand some inches below the air ; 7th, in 

 a dry, airy loft, with a covering of straw suflicient to keep oft' the 

 frost ; 8th, in baskets lined with straw ; 9th, in close cellars, 

 light excluded, for it is very injurious ; 10th, in dark but airy 



