C 467 1 



CHAPTER LXXVIL 



PAPAYA (CARICA PAPAYA). 



A S a heavy yielding fruit and vegetable crop the papaya 

 has hardly its equal and it deserves to be cultivated as 

 a regular crop. The fruit grows plentifully during the mon- 

 soon, but it goes on yielding all the year round. 



742. The seeds should be dried in the sun and after being 

 kept a week, sown in a box or under cover in rich but light soil. 

 The soil should consist of sand and two-year-old manure. 

 When the plants are a few inches high they should be trans- 

 planted to a nursery, and when 2 or 3 ft. high they should 

 be planted out in fields, in holes in which plenty of manure 

 and a few pieces of bones should be put. The trees should 

 be planted in the open and not in shade. The planting should 

 be done 10 ft. apart. When 6 ft. high the central bud should 

 be nipped off and growth of side branches encouraged. The 

 size and quantity of fruits are both enhanced by this 

 operation. Male trees often contain hermaphrodite flowers 

 which go to form fruits. From large sized fruits from male 

 trees (which are best known by their pendulous flowering 

 branches) seed should be taken, as then the tendency will 

 be for both male and female trees to yield fruits, 



743. Apart from the great value of the papaya as a drought* 

 resisting crop yielding a highly nourishing vegetable (when 

 the fruits are green) and ripe fruit, the crop is of great value 

 as the source of Papain or Papayotin. The filtered juice of 

 the papya gives some of the reactions of pepsin, but it is 

 different from pepsin, as it acts more energetically in neutral 

 or alkaline substances than in the presence ot acids. It 

 curdles milk like pepsin. Pure Papain acts on milk in 



