SOUTHERN FRUIT. 



449 



nor very abundantly ; while the Alicante 

 grows also slowly, but in conseqence of 

 bearing both very early and abundantly. 

 Both these varieties might, I think, very 

 well h§ raised further north, in tubs and 

 boxes. I imported a number of varieties 

 from Italy, but saved only one, which proved 

 an acquisition. The fruit is a white varie- 

 ty, small, and looks almost as if made of 

 wax. 



The fig is propagated generally by cut- 

 tings, which very seldom fail when set in 

 good ground, and at the proper season. This 

 is either in February or August. Cuttings 

 set in August will frequently bear the next 

 spring. It is a common belief among us, 

 that cuttings will bear fruit quicker than a 

 tree that is transplanted, but I cannot say 

 whether or not this is the case. The cul- 

 tivation of the fig is very simple, and con- 

 sists in merely pruning for shape, and then 

 taking away all suckers, and giving a libe- 

 ral supply of manure every year, to which 

 some salt may very profitably be added. 



I have two trees of the Corosol of the An- 

 tilles, a fruit, said by C. Bailly, in his Man- 

 uel du Jardinier, to be superior to the pine 

 apple. I have had one specimen upon said 

 tree for the past two summers, but unluck- 

 ily my fowls devoured them. 



I have have had, for half a dozen years, 

 the Fig Kaki, or Japan Persimmon, but as 

 the female tree did not appear to thrive 

 where it was, I removed and lost it, but I 

 have sent to Paris for others. I find the 

 Jujube tree getting to be a nuisance in my 

 garden, it suckers so freely. I mean to try 

 hedging with it, as it is more thorny than 

 the Osage orange. 



My orange crop, owing to bad seasons, 

 has almost entirely failed the last two 

 years. 



There is a very rough-skinned, but not 

 acid-juiced, variety of the lemon, very com- 

 voL. II. 57 



mon in Beaufort, being much more hardy 

 than the lemon of commerce, but the fruit 

 is of much less value. The Myrtle-leaved 

 orange is also quite common, and is more 

 hardy than either the sweet or sour oranges. 

 Also, two kinds of "Forbidden Fruit," the 

 one nearly as large as the oldest India Shad 

 dock, its flesh of a greenish yellow ; the 

 other about the size of the sweet orange. 

 The large variety I have, and it has proved 

 more hardy than the common orange, hav- 

 ing, under severe frosts, shed only the 

 leaves proper, and not the winged footstalks. 

 The smaller variety is common in Beaufort. 

 The Shaddock, with pink-colored flesh, 

 grows also here. The rind or peel of thisi 

 and that of the large Forbidden Fruit, is in 

 much demand in Beaufort, where it is pret- 

 tily carved, and then preserved as sweet- 

 meats for presents, [We have seen speci- 

 mens of this — certainly the most delicate 

 and fanciful of all preserves. — Ed.] A clay 

 sub-soil seems to suit the orange much bet- 

 ter than a sandy one. My oranges here, in 

 many seasons, have been of good size, and 

 quite sweet, while those in Beaufort, on a 

 sandy soil, were small, green and quite 

 sour. 



I have three or four hundred olive trees, 

 most of which are bearing, though they are 

 yet small. They were procured from the 

 neighborhood of Florence. They have not 

 been touched by frosts of previous seasons, 

 though in some cases, so cold that the 

 leaves of almost all the orange family were 

 killed. 



The summers of 1846-47, have been un- 

 favorable for fruits of all kinds, especially 

 that of '47, for it began to rain about the 

 middle of May, and continued, with very 

 few intervals, until nearly the middle of 

 September. I did not have a single peach 

 fit for eating, and my apples were imper- 

 fect. Yet some of my pear trees bore abun- 



