AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 357 



are packed. Were it not for the bruises they appear to have re- 

 ceived before put on board, they would arrive much sounder 

 than they do. 



18th. In dried fern leaves. 



19th. Loudon, 2,308, aflBrras that he kept apples at a tempera- 

 ture from 32 to 42, for a whole year. Their flavor was good, and 

 they Avere in perfect order for eating. 



20th. M. Panquet, of Paris, received from the Royal Society 

 of Horticulture, a medal. He produced, on 12th June, one hun- 

 dred apples and pears, fresh and of good flavor. The building 

 used by him consisted of an inner and outer house. This depo- 

 sitory of the fruit was kept at a temperature of 50 degrees (Fahr.) 

 constantly. He says 39 would not be injurious, but 66 to 73 

 proved destructive. Eight parts of sawdust, (not pine) and one 

 of charcoal; this mixture highly dried in an oven. Fruit kept 

 in drawers, with layers of this interspersed with the fruit. He 

 says fruit should be gathered with the greatest care, and not in 

 the least bruised. The fairest and finest specimens should be se- 

 lected, and on no account to be wiped previous to being deposi- 

 ted in the fruit room. What are the circumstances that have 

 been universally found most detrimental to the preservation of 

 fruits, &c. 1 As was remarked when mentioning the sixth mode, 

 atmospheric changes have very great, if not the most powerful of 

 all influences. First, as regards their calorific effects; second, 

 their hygrometical. In the former respect the expansion and 

 condensation, occasioned by the rise and fall of temperature, 

 must work a change in the state of the juices, doubtless often at 

 variance with the gradual chemical change which those juices na- 

 turally undergo. Hence those fruits, &c., that are most exposed 

 to vicissitudes of temperature, are found to be most apt to fail in 

 attaining their full, sugary, mellow perfection. Again, when 

 warm Aveather suddenly succeeds cold, the air in the room is of 

 a higher degree of temperature than the fruit, and until snch 

 time as the latter acquire from the former an equality of tempe- 

 rature; the fruit from its coldness acts as a condenser of the va- 

 por existing in the warmer atmosphere by wliich it is surround- 

 ed. The surface of the fruit consequently becomes covered with 

 a great deposition of moisture, as will be the case Avith a glass 

 filled Avith Avater colder than the atmosphere of the room into 

 AV'hich it is brought. It is a knoAvn fact that fruits and vegeta- 

 bles possess a temperature higher in Avinter than that of the air 

 generally, by which they are surrounded. This, as Avell as other 



