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Sect. XV. 3. 7 



OF FRUITS 



425 



them to lefs danger from froil:, as well as to prevent their irritability 

 ■from being exhauiled by the heat, and thus caiifing the night air to 



be more injurious to them. 



7. Fruits may be fooner ripened by wDimding them, cr by gathering 



them. The wounds inflided by infers on many fruits prom.otes their 

 more fpeedy ripenings as well as thofe inflided b^- caprification, men- 

 'tioned in Seft. XIV. 3. 3. and in No. 3. 4. of this SeOiion. It is faid 

 that cutting the flalk of a bunch of grapes half through, which has 

 acquired its due fize, will expedite the ripening of it ; becaufe it will 

 then be fupplied with a lefs quantity of new juices, and the change 

 of its acerb juices into f^iccharine ones, -which is partly a chemical, 

 and partly a vegetable prbcefs, proceeds more rapidly. See Sedl. X. 

 8. I. On the fame account the pears qw a branch, which has had a 

 circle of its bark cut away, will ripen its fruit fooner ; and thofe an- 

 nual plants, which are fupplied with lefs water than ufual, both' 

 flower fooner, and ripen their feed fooner. 



To which may be added, that gathering pears from the tree before 

 they are ripe, and laying them on heaps covered with blankets, is 

 known confiderably to forward their ripening, by fomething like a 

 chemical fermentation added to the living adion of the fruit, -whidh 

 advances the faccharine procefs with greater rapidity. 



I have feen apricots at table, which I was informed were plucked 

 from the tree, and kept fome days in a hot-houfe, and thus became 

 deliciouflv ripe; in the fame manner as har/h pears ripen almofl into 

 a fyrup during twelve or twenty hours baking in a flow oven; which 

 occafioned the jeft of a French traveller, who on being afked on his 

 return, what good fruit they had in England, anfwered, that the only 

 ripe fruit he happened to talle Was the baked pear. 



IV. The arts of preserving truit, as they depend on the 

 prevention of the chemical procelFes, which produce their diflolution, 

 ought to be here mentioned. 



31 



I. As 



