^ GROW PAPAWS 241 



No doubt the papaw's habit as Mr. Burbank 

 humorously puts it of "thinking it over" six 

 months in the greenhouse before it begins to 

 sprout has a good deal to do with the neglect of 

 this grand fruit. Now that he has shown how 

 to overcome its apparent objection to being 

 born, others can follow his example; and as his 

 plants are not available in the Eastern states, I 

 hope that some of our enterprising and ambitious 

 greenhouse men will adopt the papaw and push 

 it into the popularity which it deserves. The 

 more of them who follow in the footsteps of this 

 great gardener in doing in ten years of selection 

 and hybridizing what nature might (or might 

 not) have achieved in a thousand years, the 

 better for everybody from the business point of 

 view as well as the epicurean or gastronomic. 



One of the questions I asked the U. S. Bureau 

 of Plant Industry was whether the American 

 papaw is at all like the tropical papaya in having 

 in the juice of its fruit or in its leaves the chem- 

 ical papain to which such wonderful digestive 

 powers are attributed. Mr. Close answered this 

 question in the negative. To get further expert 

 testimony on this point I wrote to the great 

 Battle Creek dietician, Dr. J. H. Kellogg; his 

 answer was: 



I have not forgotten to mention the American papaw 

 in my new food book now in the press. I notice the 

 Agricultural Department spells the name of the American 

 fruit with one "w," papaw, while the tropical fruit is 



