374 [Assembly 



Resolved — That the thanks of this Club be tendered to Mr. and 

 Mrs. Smith, of Macedon, Wayne county, New-York, for their pre- 

 sentation of preserved fruits 3 and the members having eaten the 

 different varieties, consisting of peaches, cherries, tomatoes, 

 quinces, raspberrias, &c., unite in expressing their high approba- 

 tion of the excellent flavor of such fruit. 



The resolution was seconded by Gen. Chandler, and passed 

 tmanimously. 



The Secretary said, that recently, when this subject was before 

 the Club, he remarked, that in gathering fruit, they should be 

 treated as tenderly as so many eggs ; but even that hardly meets 

 the truth. The delicate bloom upon their skins must not be rub- 

 bed off; for it is now ascertained that this bloom, on some fruits, 

 •when it dries, forms a sort of varnish over it, shutting up the 

 pores of the skin, so that the juices of the fruit cannot evaporate. 



Besides extreme care in handling fruit, it is necessary that they 

 should be kept in places in which the temperature is always the 

 game, and that below the line at which vegetation goes on — or, in 

 other terms, just not frozen; probably at 36" of Fahrenheit, by the 

 average of our thermometer, would be about right. If fruit would 

 retasn its qualities after freezing, we should then be able to keep 

 it any lengtli of time ; but thawing alters the constitution of it 

 too much. • 



We do not despair yet of finding methods by which the first 

 fruits can be preserved in all their natural excellence, from one 

 year to the next, at least. And considering the enormous amount 

 of peaches lost for want of such means, how important would be 

 the discovery. As the matter now stands, the peach harvest be- 

 gins and entirely ends between July and October — the grape be- 

 tween September and January. These play a great part in hu- 

 man health as well as pleasLre. They would be blessings to our 

 lives for the whole year, as well as for two or three months only. 



It is probable that we have to handle about as many eggs in a 

 year as we do of the finest fruits ; and the loss is beyond meas- 

 ure in the fruits, but everybody is nice in the egg handling. 



