308 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Mr, Cai-penter offered a number of specimens of his fruit, to be tasted 

 by the Club, which were found to have kept perfectly; Bartlett pears 

 almost as good as when in season. 



The Chairman said that he had tested the fruit preserved in Boston by 

 Mr. Curtis, and found that fall pears were fresh and good in spring. He 

 suggested that the preservation was owing to carbonic acid gas. 



Prof. Mapes thought ice would deteriorate pears, but not apples. 



Mr. Carpenter said that so far as he had noticed, the pears did not suffer 

 in any of their natural good qualities, from being kept many weeks beyond 

 their season upon the ice. 



Dr. Percy suggested that sand must be very pure to pack fruit in. If 

 it contains any portion of clay, it will injure the fruit. 



Mr. Fuller said that what was wanted ' was pure silex, in a powdered 

 state. Columella mentions the plan, of keeping grapes in his day, packed 

 in pure sand. 



Prof. Mapes mentioned that grapes packed in dry bran, in large unglazed 

 earthen jars, had often been imported and sold in this city, in very good 

 condition No fine pear can be ripened upon the tree. It must be artifi- 

 cially ripened, and if it can be carried forward beyond its proper time, in 

 the ice-house, it shows another of the uses of such a building upon a farm. 



PORTUGAL ONIONS. 



Mr. Carpenter exhibited a specimen of the almost scentless Portugal 

 onion, that weighed two pounds. It is shaped something like a pear, and 

 stands six inches high. 



APPLE-PIE MELON. 



Mr. Carpenter also exhibited and distributed the seeds of an apple-pie 

 melon, which he said answered as a tolerable substitute for apples. 



FALL PIPPIN APPLES. 



Also exhibited by the same gentleman, that are kept in barrels in his 

 own house, were pronounced as perfect as though just in season. 

 The next meeting will be at noon on Monday, Jan, 10, 1860. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



January 9, 1860. 



Present, 51 members. Kichard G-. Pardee in the chair. 



The Secretary, Meigs, read the following translations and extracts, from 

 the works received by the Institute since the last meeting, from abroad and 

 home, viz : 



THE RAILWAY SMOKE NUISANCE. 



The British Parliament was obliged to pass laws, prohibiting the loco- 

 motives from making smoke, on account of its injurious effects all along the 

 roads. This led to invention, and recently, a man by the name of Clark, 

 has invented a method, which has lately been fully proved successful on 

 the Great Northern Railway, on which for several months it has been 



