PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 137 



shall continue the same kind of culture as long as I can meet with the like 

 results, deep plowing and trenching to the contrary notwithstanding." 



The Strawberry Tree. 



An inquiry was made about this shrub, an account of which was lately 

 published in the Boston Recorder as something new. 



Mr. Wm. Pt. Prince. — It is not new. I have had them growing in my gar- 

 den a long time. One variety is a native of this country, and the species, the 

 Euonymus, is well known to all botanists. It is not generally "grown for 

 its fruit, but as a beautiful shrub when loaded with its beautiful crimson 

 berries. 



Preserving Fruit in Sealed Air-tight Bottles. 



Mr. William T. Parker, of Birmingham, Erie county, Ohio, sends the fol- 

 lowing interesting letter upon this subject, and gives a new way to seal 

 up fruit in bottles: 



"Seeing among the doings of the Farmers' Club, some reference to pre- 

 serving fruit in air-tight cans, I will venture to give you something of my 

 views and experience in that matter. People have learned, probably, by 

 experience, that fruit, flesh, or any other organic material, placed in an air- 

 tight vessel brought to a scalding heat, when sealed so as to prevent the 

 passage of air in or out, will be preserved an indefinite length of time. 

 This is a valuable discovery of modern times. Now, what is the philosophy 

 of this fact? Is the fruit preserved frona fermentation and decay because 

 the air is all driven out by the heat? I think not, because a perfect 

 vacuum is not necessary, neither is it ever obtained in the common process. 

 If a vacuum should be produced it could not prevent fermentation in the 

 fruit, because all the elements necessary for that process exist to some 

 extent in all such substances. It is true the process would be slow, but 

 destruction would eventually result. Mr. Osgood's inquiry, 'whether 

 exhaustion of the air by means of the air pump Avould be equally effectual V 

 may as well be answered at once in the negative. 



" The opinion has long been gaining ground, from the experiments and 

 observations of Liebig and Gosse, that the destructive processes of putre- 

 factive fermentation are produced by the growth and increase of micro- 

 scopic plants and animals. If this theory is true, it is plain that in can- 

 ning fruit the essential point is to thoroughly kill the organic germs, by 

 bringing the whole mass to such a heat as will effectually extinguish all 

 vegetable and animal life. After this is accomplished, all that is necessary 

 is to seal it so no air can get access to the fruit. Atmospheric air is sup- 

 posed to be filled with organic molecules, which are ever ready to spring 

 into life when they fall into a suitable soil. 



" Let me trouble you now with the mode of putting up fruit used by 

 some of us folks in Ohio, and if any member of the Club can give a better 

 or a cheaper mode we shall be glad to improve. 



" A glass jar or bottle, or stone jar or jug, or any tight vessel having an 

 opening large enough to admit the fruit, will answer. No corks, capsules, 

 ground glass stoppers, rubber rings, or steel clamps are necessary. 



