The Best Papaws 



29 



Mooney, of Martinsville, Ohio, says, 

 "I know some trees about here that 

 are 8 or 9 inches in diameter, the owner 

 of which tells me he gathered papaws 

 from them sixty years ago, and they 

 look as though they might live sixty 

 years longer." Mr. Mooney continues : 



"We have several distinct varieties 

 growing about here: the small early 

 yellow, the large oblong yellow and 

 several kinds of large white papaws. 

 The little yellow will be ripe in a few 

 days or about the twentieth or twenty- 

 fifth of August, while others will not 

 be ripe until September, October and 

 as late as the latter part of November — 

 in fact I have found good papaws under 

 the leaves as late as December. 



"We live on one of those beautiful 

 ridges or watersheds that separate the 

 white swamps from the highlands. 

 Papaws will not grow in the swamps 

 with the exception of the foothills of 

 creeks and rivers. It seems to prefer 

 the uplands where grow sugar trees and 

 black ash, and in the kind of soil that 

 supports May apples and ginseng — a 

 rich, brown loam with a good covering 

 of leaf mold. The papaw is one of the 

 slowest growing trees I ever saw and is 

 inclined to be a little cowardly when 

 growing in company with other forest 

 trees that crowd it out or shade it too 

 much. It will thrive better in thin 

 woods where all other underbrush has 

 been cut out, and where the over- 

 hanging boughs do not interlace and 

 cut out the sunlight. I do not know of 

 any insect that destroys the papaw tree 

 and none that attacks the fruit except 

 the little black and yellow beetle that 

 bores into the fruit after it has fallen 

 to the ground; and I believe that I 

 know of no animal except man and the 

 opossum that would eat a papaw — with 

 the exception of a small rat terrier 

 dog that follows me in my rambles in 

 the woods and meadows; I do not 

 believe he eats them because he has 

 any particular love for them but just 



to show his faith in me, as he eats only 

 those I give him. 



"Here are some things to remember 

 when planting papaw seed: that it is 

 one of the most tender and brittle trees 

 and needs a good windbreak to parry 

 off the wind storms that will surely 

 come and strip it of branches and 

 foliage; and that the best papaws grow 

 in the richest soil, the primitive soil — I 

 mean the kind of soil where logs have 

 rotted and where the land slopes suffi- 

 ciently to let the water drain off." 



Miss C. V. Krout, of 218 West 

 College Street, Crawfordsville, Ind., 

 adds the following notes : 



" In our yard are two groups of papaw 

 trees which have been continually 

 grown for about fifty years. Of course 

 they have died out from time to time, 

 but never all at once, and have renewed 

 themselves by sprouts and seeds. We 

 have never cultivated them, and are of 

 the opinion that pruning and ciiltiva- 

 tion are hurtful to them. 



"The papaw sprouts annoyingly, and 

 in three years these sprouts will bloom, 

 if thrifty, but bear sparingly until 

 about five years old. When they are 

 about twenty they are at their best as 

 producers of fruit. They are the only 

 shrub-tree — if I may coin a name — 

 which has a dark brown bloom, so like 

 the Calicanthus it is often mistaken for 

 it ; the bloom of the Indian Arrowwood 

 and the Wake-Robin are of the same 

 color. In the woods about here they 

 grow in deep soil with a carpet of moist 

 leaves around their feet, but ours have a 

 very sunny exposure — in sunlight all 

 the day." 



Most of the correspondents grow 

 them from seed, by planting the entire 

 fruit, and then thinning out the less 

 thrifty seedlings. Under favorable cir- 

 cumstances they are reported to bear in 

 the third or fourth year after planting.* 

 The yield is variable: one tree is de- 

 scribed which was carrying about 400 

 clusters, with 4 to 6 fruits in a cluster. 



^ Actual commercial plantings of the papaw seem to be few. There is, or was, an orchard 

 of thirty-five trees at Danville, Ind., which the late James A. Little planted for the late Judge 

 John V. Hadley of the Indiana Supreme Court; and an orchard of more than 100 trees belonging 

 to L. Swartz at Charleston, W. Va. 



