250 TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 



TIME OF PICKING WINTER APPLES. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — Winter apples never should be picked as 

 long as the leaves remain green. This year the late picked 

 apples, particularly Newtown pippins, are about one-fourth larger 

 than those picked early. 



INSECTS THIS YEAR. 



Several members expressed the opinion that there has been a 

 very much less number of insects this year than formerly — par- 

 ticularly curculio and rose bugs, Grapes have been heretofore 

 destroyed by rose bugs to a great extent. 



ISABELLA GRAPES. 



Dr. Trimble asked the opinion of members about the Isabella 

 grapes this year. He thought them better this year than ever 

 before. 



Solon Robinson, R. G. Pardee, Andrew S. Fuller, and others, 

 asserted that they had never known the Isabella poorer than this 

 year. Mr. Fuller, however, thought that part of the objection to 

 the Isabella this year, is because we have acquired a taste for 

 other better sorts. No one who has eaten the Catawba and 

 Delaware in perfection can relish the Isabella. 



Mr. Carpenter said that the Isabella had ripened with him this 

 year for the first time. 



The Chairman thought the Isabella very valuable because it 

 could be grown where others could not. He also advocated the 

 Northern Muscadine. 



Mr. Fuller contended that the Northern Muscadine is almost 

 worthless. He spoke highly of the Diana, the Concord, and 

 Delaware, as far superior, and as easily grown as the Isabella, 

 Muscadine, and other almost worthless sorts. 



FRUIT HOUSES. 



The question of fruit houses was now called up, and Mr. Car- 

 penter said that the same principle adopted for ice houses was the 

 right one for fruit houses, so as to preserve an even temperature. 

 The best thing to pack fruit in for transportation is wheat bran. 

 It is better than charcoal. Fruit rooms have been constructed 

 in ice houses, by which fruit has been kept a long time, but the 

 quality of some sorts are injured by this mode of keeping, 



Mr. Fuller said that Columella recommended cut chaff about 

 1,800 years ago. 



R. G. Pardee. — The French method of preserving fruit is to 



