332 



Madura Hedge Culture. 



it is of a beautiful yellow color, and is much used for dyeing silk. 

 It shrinks none in drying, and it is so heavy that when thorough 

 ly seasoned it will sink in water. The fruit (which is generally 

 produced in alternate j-ears) is large, round, and of a yellowish 

 green color at maturity. Its surface is knobby and uneven. It 

 abounds in milk, and the flesh is coarse, or stringy and inedible. 

 Each fruit contains several hundred seeds, which arc washed out 

 after the fruit has been bruished or mashed, and partially rotted. 

 If this "mass" is allowed to ferment, the washing is rendered 

 easier, but the vegetating principle will be destroyed. If seed 



OSAGE ORANGE. 



are damaged, the defect is obvious, the germ appearing dark and 

 lifeless, while perfect seed, on being cut or broken, will appear 

 light, lively, and crisp. The weight of a bushel of clean dry seed 

 is about thirty-five pounds, but by keeping several months it will 

 shrink. 



The surest and most efiectual method of sprouting the seed is 

 to soak it forty-eight hours in warm water, about the close of 

 winter, and then expose it to hard freeziHg. Once or twice is 

 sufficient, but care must be taken to spread it out, so that all parts 



