CHAPTER XXIX. 

 CULTURE OF PAW PAWS. 



HE ripe fruit of this tree eaten for dessert with 

 cream and sugar is not only a delicious dish 

 but takes upon itself the responsibility of the 

 digestion of the preceding meal. It is said 

 that the papaya (paw paw) fruit can be eaten 

 every day for two years without any ill effects. 

 One or two experiments in cooking the ripe 

 or unripe fruit with tough meat will soon con- 

 vince anyone that with the aid of the paw paw the toughest meat 

 may be made as soft and tender as you please. 



The paw paw is really a large herb and hence should be grown 

 from seed in the same way as the tomato or melon. Professor 

 P. J. Webster of the United States Sub-tropical Laboratory at 

 Miami states that less than one per cent of a batch of Florida 

 seedlings bear superior fruit and this accounts for the scarcity 

 of the paw paw on the market. There are great numbers of 

 this fruit growing wild throughout the South Florida jungles 

 and hammocks. They are cross-fertilized by the numerous in- 

 sects and moths. Such cross-fertilization can be avoided by ob- 

 taining good varieties of paw paws from tropical localities where 

 they come true from seed, and pollinating one or two flowers 

 by hand, carefully tying them up in paper bags to keep insects 

 from further pollinating them. By this method there is no doubt 

 but what improved strains can be grown. The paw paw, like 

 the willow and the date palm, has two kinds of trees, the barren 

 which bears the staminate flowers, and the fruiting tree which 

 has the pistillate flowers. Rather frequently the former may bear 

 bisexual flowers at the ends of its long flower stalks, which flowers 

 turn into rather small fruits. More rarely the pistillate tree may 

 have some perfect flowers, provided with stamens. 



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