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TlIK PAPAW LN A STATE OF NATLRE 



Most people know the jjapaw, not as an isolated tree, but as a shrub growing; in dense thickets 

 like the small one above. .Sueh a thicket may start with a single seedling, or all the 

 seeds in one fruit may sprout and grow close together. As the trees grow, they send 

 out suckers from the roots, as shown in the preceding illustration, and so gradually 

 extend their area. From time to time the older trees die, but their j^laces are taken 

 by new ones, so that the thicket rarely diminishes in size, but always tends to enlarge. 

 In some of the southern States tracts of many hundreds of acres are covered l)y thickets 

 of this character. Usually the closely crowded trees do not bear such good fruit as 

 those that are isolated and have more light; yet the best fruits received by this associa- 

 tion came from just such a thicket as that shown above. Photograjjh made in Lancaster 

 County, I'a., by Mrs. J< seph P. Draper. (Fig. 14.) 



A ^ood tree appears to bear 50 to 100 

 fruit.s. It is certain that the size of the 

 fruit could be considerably increased if 

 the tree were j^one over in the early 

 summer and all the fruits ])icked off 

 exce]jt one in each cluster. At i)resent 

 the sale is local and a])parently not 

 j.jreat, and the tjrice is low. H. S. 

 Bomberger, of Palmyra. Pa., states. 

 " I always ship the fruit in berry crates 

 in qu'irt boxes and ^ei S5 a bushel for 

 ihem " 

 ^(1 



Occasionally some one is found who 

 is subject to ijoisoning by the papaw. 

 Benjamin Buckman writes, in sendinji; 

 a shipment of fruit. " I had to i:)ack this 

 box in an outhouse, and wash m\' hands 

 and face thorouj^hly in soa])y water, 

 because one or two in my family are 

 affected by a sinjj:le ripe i)ai)aw in the 

 room, as badly as the most virulent 

 case of poison ivy I have ever seen, and 

 suji;ar of lead (often used in i\'y jioison- 

 inj^) has no effect on tlie poison what- 



