184 



California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



of South Florida. Guava jelly has a 

 world-wide reputation, and when the 

 fruit shall have passed into the hands of 

 the manufacturer of jelly its real value 

 will be appreciated. Like the Sicily lem- 

 on, it bears almost every month in the 

 year. Although it is a semi-tropical 

 plant, it has been killed by frost but 

 once on my lot, in Tampa, for fifteen 

 years. 



p:nk-.4.pples 

 Are grown successfully here. I have 

 tried them for several years past upon a 

 small scale, and have found no difliculty 

 in maturing the fruit every year. Like 

 most other fruits, a rich soil is best for 

 their growth, but they grow well upon 

 the sandy soil of Tampa without any 

 manure. If kept well mulched with 

 straw, hay, or moss, they do well with- 

 out culture. The spiny edges of the 

 leaves renders their cultivation very un- 

 comfortable. 



THE PAWPAW 



Is considered by many one of the most 

 pleasant fruits grown in this region. It 

 bears fruit in fifteen months from the 

 planting of the seed. The fruit, grown 

 upon good soil and well cultivated, grows 

 to the size of the head of an adult, and 

 the taste of the fruit bears a very close 

 resemblance to that of the muskmelon. 

 The fruit is attached to the body of the 

 upright trunk by a stem three inches in 

 length, and they grow in such a crowded 

 manner that half-grown fruit is often 

 forced from its position, and falls to the 

 ground. I has no leaves except upon 

 the top of the trunk. This plant has 

 attracted the notice of strangers more 

 than any other in Tampa for years past. 



THE MANGO, 



Although a very tender plant, has been 

 grown successfully in this county. Mr. 

 Matchet, of Clear Water settlement, re- 

 cently sent to this market a quantity of 

 the truit, which was quite delicious. If 

 planted in moist land it is very sure to 

 be injured by winter frosts, but usually 

 survives the frost if grown in tolerably 

 dry soil. 



Trees grow well here. They withstand 

 the frost well, and bear abundantly a 

 fruit of very largy size, not edil)le, but 

 used for making very valuable preserves. 



THE LIME 



Tree flourishes here. It bears the small- 

 est fruit of any of the Citrus family, yet 

 contains more citric acid than any other 

 of the family, and will one day enter 

 largely into the fruit culture of South 

 Florida. 



But what shall I say of the 



SUGAK APPLE? 



I wish I could send a large ripe ajjple to 

 each member of this Association. In 

 this fruit is realized the fullness of the 

 saying, "it is so rich that it melts in the 

 mouth." I have grown the fruit for 

 years. The tree bears the frost well; 

 does not require very rich soil, and but 

 little cultivation, and bears abundantly. 

 I have never seen a person partake of 

 them who was not enamored therewith. 

 Unfortunately for persons who cannot 

 visit South Florida, their mouths will 

 water in vain for sugar apples, for they 

 will not bear transportation. 



THE ALLIGATOK PKAR 



Grows here luxuriantly. Large quanti- 

 ties are now ripening and falling from 

 the trees. The trees are from fifteen to 

 forty feet high. The fruit is pear- 

 shaped — four times larger than a bell 

 |)ear. The edible part is the pulp sur- 

 rounding a very large seed, and is pre- 

 pared by shaving or scraping oft', season- 



ing with salt, pepper, and vinegar, and 

 is very much admired by those who have 

 acquired a taste for it. 



But one of the most useful fruits 

 which grows in South Florida is the 



BANANA. 



In some places it supplies the place of 

 bread. Still it is not the bread-fruit tree 

 so eloquently described by Captain Wil- 

 liam Kendrick, when lecturing in Syra- 

 cuse, New York. This plant i-equires a 

 rich soil — loam, if it can be had. Its 

 numerous small roots do not give it a 

 firm hold upon the soil, therefore deep 

 cultivation is inadmissible. If well 

 mulched very little else is required. The 

 plant is rarely killed by frost in this cli- 

 mate. Its fruit is exceedingly pleasant 

 and very nutritious. 



POSSIBILITIES IN FRUIT CUL- 

 TURE. 



The cultivated fruits of our day have 

 all s^irung from vastly inferior wild fruits. 

 It is not claimed by scientific pomol- 

 ogists that any of them have yet been 

 brought to their greatest perfection. 

 New varieties of each kind may and 

 probably will be produced, that will far 

 excel anything now known in richness 

 of flavor, nutritive excellence, beauty 

 and value. It has taken hundreds of 

 years of careful culture and selection to 

 progress to the condition where we now 

 find our cultivated fruits, and the pro- 

 gi-ess is only begun. In a speculation 

 upon the possible value that the wild 

 fruits of America, under cultivation, may 

 yet attain. Prof. Asa Gray thus talks 

 before the American Pomological Soci- 

 ety; 



It would be curious to speculate as to 

 what our pomology would have been if 

 the civilization from which it and wo 

 ourselves had sprung bad had its birth- 

 place along the southern shores of our 

 great lakes. The northern of the Giilf 

 of Mexico, aud the intervening Missis- 

 sippi, instead of the Levant, Mesopota- 

 mia and the Nile, and our old world had 

 been opened to us a new world less 

 than 400 years ago. 



Seemingly we should not have as gi-eat 

 a variety of choice friiits as we have now 

 and they would mostly have been dift'er- 

 ent, but probably neither scanty nor 

 poor. In grapes, at least, we should 

 have been gainers. Our five or six avail 

 able species, of which we are now just 

 beginning to know the capabilities, 

 would have given us at least as many 

 choice sorts and as wide a diversity as 

 we have now of pears, while pears would 

 be a recent accjuisitiou, somewhat as our 

 American grapes now are. Our apples 

 would have been developed from Pyt as 

 coronaria, aud might have equaled any 

 thing wo actually possess from Fyrus 

 ■iiialus in flavor, though perhaps not in 

 variety, if it be true, as Karl Koch sup 

 poses, that the apples of the orchards 

 are from three or four species; our plums 

 would have been the progeny of the Chi 

 caxa, the Beach plum, and our wild red 

 and yel\o\i I^ruiiuH Americana, which have 

 already shown great capacity for im 

 provement. Our Cheri'ies might have 

 been as well flavored and jirobably not 

 as large as they now are. But instead 

 of Peaches and Figs, we should be dis- 

 cussing manifold and most luscious va- 

 rieties of I'orsimmon and Pawpaw, the 

 former eqiial to the Kaki just acquired 

 from the far east. As to Strawberri('s, 

 Gooseberries and Currants, wo should 

 have lost nothing and gained something, 

 as we possess several species besides the 

 Europeau tyjics Ihemselves; as to Black- 

 berries and Kaspberries, we should have 

 been better oft" than now, by the earlier 



development and diversification of our 

 indigenous species, and we might have 

 had all our finest Stra-vberries a thou- 

 sand or more years ago, these having 

 come from our American types, {Fraga- 

 ria Virginiana,) with its varieties, (which 

 as well as the old world F. vesca, occurs 

 all across the Continent), andF. chiloists, 

 which ascends the Pacific coast to Ore- 

 gon. 



One of the best horticultural authori- 

 ties in the United States, the Gardener's 

 Monthly, upon this subject says: 



There is no doubt but the Huckleberry 

 can be domesticated aud raised so as to 

 pay in a majority of gardens, especially 

 when the fruit cannot be picked ou the 

 wild bushes or bought in the market, 

 which is the case in the Western jjrairies. 

 Mr. Hammond, in the August number 

 of The Hortkxdturid, speaks of the dif- 

 ferent varieties of Huckleberries, that 

 no one had given a description of the 

 difi'erent kinds. Prof. Gray, in his 

 " Field Botany," describes ten varieties 

 of Vacdnimn Coryhosum. The Blueberry 

 of the New England States, growing 

 from three feet to ten feet in height, an- 

 swers the description of the kiiid de- 

 scribed by Mr. Hammond. That there 

 is a great difl'erence in the quality of the 

 berries of this same variety there is no 

 doubt, and if we go into the cultivation 

 of the berry let us begin with the best, 

 aud by a course of reproduction the fruit 

 will be very much improved. Of the 

 different native fruits of our country the 

 grape has the most attention, aud the 

 result has been very satisfactory. The 

 same may be done with the native Plum, 

 Persimmon, and the native berries, all 

 better fruits in their wild state than the 

 Apple or Pear was. All fruits and flow- 

 ers that have been brought into cultiva- 

 tion have been much improved. All 

 flow'ers in their wild stale are single. Cul- 

 tivation and reproduction make them double. 

 Equally as great changes can be made in 

 the quality of our wild fruits. 



Killing Tree-Borers. 



Cutting them out with a knife and 

 plastering the wound over with clay, 

 binding it on with sacking and strong 

 twine, is the common efl'ectual way; but 

 a writer in an exchange gives his method 

 as follows, and it looks reasonable as 

 well as less injurious to the tree than the 

 digging out method : 



" My way of getting at this 'worm of 

 the dust' is an easier one and more ef- 

 fectual. I cut a sumac, or elder, one 

 foot more or less long, punch out the 

 pith, cut one end with a slope, hunt the 

 borer's hole, clean it out at the entrance 

 with a wire, place the beveled end of my 

 tube against it, take some putty-like clay 

 and plaster it water tight around the end 

 next to the tree, fill with very strong 

 soapsuds, and the thing is done. No 

 matter how crooked the hole is, or 

 whether it goes up or down, the suds in 

 the tube will force itself to the end. I 

 have tried it two years and have not 

 failed once. Of course any kind of 

 small, hollow tube will do, anything that 

 will make it water-tight will do to plaster 

 it with." 



An exchange, speaking about new 

 fruit, says: 



The Persimmon tree of Japan is re- 

 commended by an Eastern agricultural 

 society for general adoption. Members 

 state that the fruit is much larger than 

 the Southern fruit; that it makes a 

 sweet and delicious preserve, treated in 

 any of the oi'dinary ways. We have 

 tasted them put \\\> like figs, aud wo can 

 speak of their excellence. The peculiar- 

 ity is greater sweetness and some aroma, 



which require time to accommodate all 

 tastes. Our nurserymen have the trees 

 and we believe they thrive well. 



The Paw-Paw is also recommended. 

 It is indigenous South. The fruit is a 

 a sort of apple, and the taste is of a 

 kind well suited to the table. Its leaves 

 are valuable for one ijeculiarity: meat, 

 however tough, is rendered tender by 

 being wrapped in them for four to six 

 hours. The seeds are a capital vermi- 

 fuge. In California we need additions 

 to our list of fruits. Mexico has many. 



The Zapote is as large as our apple 

 tree : its leaves are of a richer green, and 

 its apjjle-like fruit is rich and mellow as 

 a pear. Santa Barbara has a lone lady 

 Zapote, eighty years old, and a great 

 bearer. Like the ailanthus, the male tree 

 fertilizes but does not fruit. The lady 

 fruit is imperfect because no male at- 

 tends. 



Something About Oranges. 



Califoenia's Oeange Cbop and Mae- 

 KET. — The average crop of Oranges in 

 this Slate is about 5,000,000, while the 

 average consumption is about 10,000,000. 

 In other words, we have a home market 

 for double the number we produce. In 

 the face of this fact, it has been fre- 

 quently proven that orange culture is by 

 far more profitable than the culture of 

 any other fruit produced in the State. 

 While our fruit-growers are exercising 

 their brains to discover a channel through 

 which to place their surplus apples, 

 pears, peaches, plums, etc., into a good 

 and paying market, would it not be well 

 for them to turn their attention to the 

 production in greater quantities of those 

 kinds of fruit for which there is a good 

 market at home? Again, of the thirty- 

 six States now in the Union there are 

 but two or three in which oranges have 

 been produced to any extent, while Cali- 

 fornia is undoubtedly the best orange- 

 growing State in the Union. Allowing 

 the average consumption of all the 

 States to be 10,000,000 or.anges annually 

 — and it certainly is much greater — the 

 United States presents a market for that 

 fruit equal to .^00,000, 000. Here, then, 

 is a fruit market that it is worth the 

 while for our fruit-growers to look after 

 aud sujjply. .'i.nother consideration in 

 this connection: it needs no Alden pro- 

 cess or any other to jirepare the orange 

 for market. Another is, that the tree 

 once in bearing and well taken care of 

 will continue to bear in increased quan- 

 tities aud of improved quality for a life- 

 time. Another is, that the foothills, 

 where land can be had in abundance for 

 $2.50 per acre, is the best place in the 

 State for orange culture as well as for 

 the culture of most other varieties of 

 fruit. — Record- Union. 



Inferior vs. Good Fruit. 



The sure result of careless culture is 

 poor fruit. Trees are likclj- to produce 

 more fruit sets than will come to the 

 highest iierfection of pulp growth, in 

 our prolific climate. The following from 

 the San Francisco Chronicle is sound 

 upon this subject : 



A large amount of fruit rotted under 

 the trees this year for want of a market 

 — not the best fruit, of course, but 

 where there is such a crop as the present 

 only the fiuest can be sold. Even the 

 fruit cauuers and dryers will not pur- 

 chase small and inferior fruit, and as the 

 San Francisco market is supplied, (his 

 class of fruit must either rot or be fed to 

 the hogs, aud as there are generally no 

 hogs to feed it to, it rots. This is thi' 

 result of carelessness. Wo have seen 

 trees loaded down with apples that looked 



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