Vegetables with Edible Fruits 217 



It is decidedly worth growing in all tropical (and some 

 subtropical) gardens, and with proper care in choosing the 

 suckers to be allowed to fruit, a supply may be procured 

 from a small field throughout the year. It is propagated 

 exclusively by suckers, which are produced in abundance. 

 A length of about two feet is usually best for the sucker, 

 which is cut off from the parent plant beneath the soil. 

 Some of the leaves may be removed, and the suckers 

 planted out, 15 feet or more apart. The soil should con- 

 tain much humus. In the trade-wind belts, a wind-break 

 of dense trees, such as mangoes, on the east of the plan- 

 tains, is of use. Irrigation during dry weather is very 

 beneficial. In the absence of irrigation, the beginning 

 of the rainy season is the best time to set out suckers. 

 They will produce their first bunch in a year or less, and 

 then there will be almost continuous fruiting from new 

 suckers. Some of these should be cut out, and by doing 

 this with proper judgment, bunches of plantains may be 

 obtained in quantity at almost any desired season of the 

 year. The field will not need replanting for several years, 

 but will require manuring. 



The plantain can doubtless be grown to advantage in 

 regions where the winter temperature, as a rule, does not 

 go below 32 F., but if cut down by frost every year, it 

 will hardly pay to grow it, though some fruit might be ob- 

 tained. 



PAPAYA 



The papaya, or melon papaw, is a cultivated. plant of 

 the American tropics, which has been spread throughout 

 the tropical belt. Almost wherever it is grown, the young 



