242 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Mr. Robiiisou replied that country fruits, etc., ought to be put 

 up in such sorts of baskets and boxes as would answer to bring 

 them neat into our markets, and of suitable sizes for buyers, and 

 delivered as brought — baskets and boxes unbroken. That such 

 baskets and boxes are made and can b:;; multiplied indefinitely 

 out of shavings obtained by machinery from blocks of our worth- 

 less timbers, such as cotton wood, bass wood, aspen and others, 

 the cost of which would be, considering the benefit, nothing at 

 all, if not less ! These blocks when steamed give off shavings 

 as flexible as paper nearly. 



Dr. Smith was pleased with the project of the cheap baskets 

 and boxes. Hats have been extensively made of like shavings 

 and then covered with silk — they were light and clever. I like 

 this plan of the boxes very nuich; conveyance by our roads and 

 rivers of articles in such form will be easy and economical on 

 account of this form. 



Mons. Charles Louis Lezare Olivier Marie, of Paris, intro- 

 duced to the Club by Mr. Mitchell, is patentee (in France,) of 

 his new mode of preserving meat fresh. He has legs of mutton, 

 of pork, and pieces of beef put up in Constautine, in Northern 

 Africa, which were carried to England, and are now here. 



Captain Lines of the U. S. mail steamer Arago, has given him 

 a certificate that on the last passage from Europe he treated his 

 passengers to a leg of Mons. Marie's fresh Constautine mutton, 

 which they pronounced to be in excellent condition. 



Mons. Marie says he puts them up in saw dust or tan in boxes. 

 The nature of his preservative he does not state. He will place 

 one before the next meeting of the Club on the first Tuesday of 

 August, for trial. Mons. Marie's process includes fish, butter, 

 eggs, all keeping their natural flavor. 



Solon Robinson said that inventors were apt to be very san- 

 guine, but this matter really did look as though there was some- 

 thing more than an inventor's mere assertion that it had been or 

 would be successful; and if it accomplished one half only of 

 what it promised, the result would be among the most important 

 of any invention of this remarkable age. It would not only give 

 the dwellers in cities cheaper and healthier food, but it would 

 allow the animals to be slaughtered where they grew, and where 

 all their oflal is wanted to keep up the fertility of the soil. It 

 would not only cheapen food, but enable us to preserve meat 

 without salt, which is not food, nor of any benefit to those who 

 consume it, particularly in salted meats. 



