THE CUBA REVIEW 



27 



AGRICULTURAL MATTERS. 



The Paw-Paw a Valuable Fruit. 



It is propagated from seed and bears 

 ripened fruit in less than eighteen months 

 from planting. It is a food, a medicine 

 and a cosmetic. The tree is a beautiful 

 tree and an ornament to any yard. The male 

 tree does not bear fruit, but blossoms and 

 fertilizes the bloom of the female tree. 



From one tree I have gathered about 250 

 fruits. The fruit ripens one at a time and 

 lasts all the year round. The fruit is con- 

 sidered deUcious, but strang'ers usually 

 have to cuhivate a liking for it. Children 

 are always fond of it. The flavor is some- 

 thing between a cantaloupe and a pump- 

 kin. Some say it tastes like cooked pump- 

 kin with butter on it. The only thing it 

 really tastes like is paw-paw. The sickish, 

 sweet flavor is made palatable by the addi- 

 tion of salt and pepper, or lime or lemon 

 juice. The fruit may be cooked with 

 some kind of acid fruit and makes a nice 

 sauce for dessert. 



A paw-paw pie just simply beats any- 

 thing in the pie line on earth. Recipe for 

 paw-paw pie by a pie expert : Select a 

 medium-sized paw-paw, cut in half and re- 

 move seeds, with a spoon dig out the soft 

 pulp and put through a sieve to make it 

 smooth ; beat three eggs, add a cup of 

 milk, put in ginger, cinnamon and cloves to 

 flavor. Place the contents in the crust, put 

 in oven and bake till set; in other words, 

 make the same as pumpkin pie, only you 

 don't have to cook the paw-paw in ad- 

 vance as you do the pumpkin. Have the 

 good wife make a paw-paw pie and you 

 will boost paw-paws forevermore. 



The green fruit is cooked in tropical 

 countries, being peeled, sliced, soaked in 

 several waters, then dropped into boiling 

 water and boiled, then served as a vege- 

 table. 



The fruit eaten raw is a cure for indi- 

 gestion and is sometimes called vegetable 

 pepsin. 



For old sores there is nothing better to 

 apply than the fruit, for ulcers and all 

 skin diseases. Pimples vanish like magic 

 when the skin or flesh of the fruit is ap- 

 plied. The fruit is laxative when eaten, 

 and a syrup made from the fruit acts as an 

 expectorant, tonic and sedative. 



The seeds are of a peculiar aromatic 

 flavor, resembling nasturtium seed in taste, 

 or the piquancy of water cress, and sug- 

 gestive of mustard. They are of great 

 medicinal value. 



The fruit allays nervousness, tones up 

 the system and cures a cough. 



the methods of making the different washes 

 for this purpose and those of applying them 

 may be known and employed correctly, it is 

 of equal importance, if the work is to be 

 effective, to have a knowledge of the best 

 time to use them. As the scale insect on 

 the plant matures, its waxy shield becomes 

 more and more impervious, and its power 

 to protect the insect beneath it therefore 

 increases. This consideration affords an 

 explanation of the irregularity of the meas- 

 ures of success, with the same wash, which 

 are obtained at different times. 



The obvious way, then, in which to en- 

 sure the best results in attempting to reduce 

 the numbers of any given kind of scale in- 

 sect, is to spray or wash just after the 

 eggs of a new brood have hatched. — Bar- 

 badoes News. 



Peanut Plant as Forage and Fertilizer. 



It has been proven that the stems, even 

 without leaves, are superior as a nourishing 

 food to the stems and leaves of corn and 

 many other forage plants, containing a large 

 proportion of protein — ^being only a little 

 inferior to red clover and alfalfa. 



In regard to the fertilizing constituents 

 which the peanut plant contains, the analy- 

 ses show that its ashes contain large quan- 

 tities of phosphoric acid and potash, as well 

 as nitrogen, which elements are of most 

 value as fertilizers. For this purpose the 

 beans of the peanut are as rich as cotton 

 seeds ; the cake which is left after the oil 

 has been extracted is very good for soils. 



Hog Cholera in Cuba. 



Dr. Emilio A. Luaces, chief of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry at the Cu- 

 ban Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 and Dr. E. Cuervo, recently visited the 

 Iowa State Experimental Station to 

 study the methods of preventing the 

 spread of hog cholera in Cuba. Their 

 recommendations to Secretary Foyo, of 

 the Department of x\griculture, were that 

 the Dorst serum should be prepared by 

 the Government and furnished to raisers 

 of swine. While they do not find this 

 serum a curative, yet it will prevent the 

 disease if injected like ordinary vaccine. 



Spraying for Scale Insects. 



It is pomted out, in the Journal of the 

 Jamaica Agricultural Society, that, although 



Consumption of Cocoa. 



The w^orld's cocoa consumption from 

 official statistics does not keep pace 

 with production, the surplus in the years 

 mentioned being as follows: 



Kilogs. 



1906 52.345,058 



1907 45,204,647 



1908 78,488,009 



