'^ GROW PAPAWS 239 



or tree papaw (Carica papaya). This last-named fruit 

 is being grown in Florida and California. 



The American papaw is native to probably all of the 

 states east of the Mississippi River, except, perhaps, 

 Wisconsin, and it is also found in the Middle Western 

 states as far west as Kansas. The only attempt to 

 propagate and improve papaw so far as I know has been 

 made in Indiana. Several very fine papaws have been 

 found in southern Indiana, and one of these was named 

 a few years ago, but I think was never propagated by 

 budding or grafting. I obtained seeds several years 

 ago from southern Indiana, and grew a number of 

 plants from them. When these plants fruited they 

 produced rather small and inferior fruits. I have seen 

 papaw trees in southern Indiana growing in back yards 

 and producing fruits of very fine quality. There has 

 been no systematic attempt to improve this fruit. A 

 great difficulty is that the seeds are so large. If we could 

 find fruits with small seeds it would certainly be worth 

 while propagating. The best papaw that I ever sampled 

 grew in western Maryland. This fruit does not have the 

 digestive power which is attributed to the leaves of the 

 tropical papaya. 



THINKING IT OVER SIX MONTHS 



Knowing what the writer of this letter evi- 

 dently did not know, that a systematic attempt 

 to improve the American papaw has been made 

 by Luther Burbank, I wrote to him for further 

 information. Under date of July 12, 1921, he 

 replied : 



The papaw has always been taken as a matter of 

 course, apparently, by Americans. It is really the most 

 unique fruit that America has ever produced, and seems 

 to be one of nature's partial misfits in some respects. 



