174 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



or not they differ in any way from the typical less fecund form 

 in manner of pollination. 



The crop. 



Seedling cherimoyas, when grown under favorable cultural 

 conditions, begin to bear the third or fourth year after planting. 

 Most of them, even at fifteen or twenty years of age, do not 

 produce annually more than a dozen good fruits. Occasional 

 trees are more satisfactory in this respect, and it is such trees 

 which should be propagated by budding. The writer has 

 observed one small tree in Guatemala which bore eighty-five 

 fruits in a single season, and C. H. Gable found a tree in Madeira 

 which bore three hundred. 



In California the main season for cherimoyas is spring, usu- 

 ally March and April ; but sometimes a few fruits mature in late 

 autumn. In Argentina the season is February to July. Felix 

 Foex states that there are ripe cherimoyas in Mexico through- 

 out the year, owing to the presence of trees at different eleva- 

 tions. From personal observation the writer ventures to 

 doubt whether this all-year season is a fact ; in any event, they 

 are not abundant during the entire year. In Madeira the fruit 

 begins to ripen about the end of November and continues in 

 season until early in February. 



When fully mature or "tree-ripe," the fruits are picked and 

 laid away to soften. If, however, they are to be shipped to 

 distant markets they are packed as soon as removed from the 

 tree, and dispatched at once so that they will reach their desti- 

 nation before they have become soft. When fully mature and 

 ready to pick, they usually have a yellowish tinge. In Mexico 

 they are packed for shipment in baskets, using hay or straw as 

 a cushion. According to H. F. Schultz, the same method is 

 used in Argentina, where twelve to fifteen dozen fruits are 

 packed in a basket. Good ventilation should be insured, and 

 the fruits should not be wrapped in paper. Cherimoyas ex- 



