Fruit Interests. 



3i 



A score or more of Japanese oranges are now cultivated in 

 this country. One of the first introductions, or perhaps the 

 first, was the Satsuma Mandarin, which has brought to Florida 

 in 1876. Much may be expected of the oriental oranges in 

 this country, when further introductions and adaptations have 

 been. made. They mostly represent a distinct and peculiar 

 type. Professor Georgeson describes them as follows : 



"The Japanese oranges are as different from our idea of an orange as 

 they can well be, separating from the peel almost as easily as a grape, di- 

 viding into sections at the slightest pull, each section like a separate fruit, 

 each piece dissolving in your mouth with the flavor of cherries, leaving no 

 pulp behind." 



Other oriental fruits which are now grown in America are 

 the following : Japanese chestnut, Chinese walnut, kumquat 

 {Citrus Japonica), loquat (PrJ^itrm Japonica), hovenia (Ho- 

 venia dulcis), a jujube {Zizyphus jlijuba), litchi {Nephalium 

 Zitc/ii), and a myrica {Myfi i a rttfa aJT~ The last was intro- 

 duced during 1889 by H. H. Berger & Co., of San Francisco. 

 A recent number of the Pacific Rural Press describes it as 

 follows : 



11 Myrica rubra, Sieb. & Zucc. — This evergreen fruit-bearing tree, indigen- 

 ous to Japan, has only lately attracted the attention of botanists. It is a 

 native of the southern parts of Japan, attains a height of forty to fifty feet, 

 and a diameter of two and one-half to three feet. The foliage, resembles 

 the magnolias and is of a firm leathery texture. The fruit blossom appears 

 early in spring, and the fruit ripens during the month of July. It re- 

 sembles in shape a firm blackberry, an inch long by three-fourths of 

 an inch in diameter. It contains a single seed-stone of light weight. 

 There are two varieties of this fruit. The one is a dark red, almost 

 black, the other a light rose which is superior in flavor to the dark. The 

 fruit is highly flavored, vinous and sweet, and answers all purposes to 

 which our blackberry is put. It is delicious as a dessert fruit, makes a 

 fine preserve, jelly or jam. The juice extracted from it may be tak'en as a 

 refreshing beverage in its fresh state, and after being allowed to ferment 

 produces a fine wine ; set with alcohol, a brandy is gained from it equal to 

 our famous blackberry brandy. The tree itself is highly ornamental, the 

 bark is useful for dyeing a fawn color, and the timber is used in Japan for 

 the most elegant cabinet-ware, having a finer mottled grain than the bird's- 

 eye maple The wood is light, tough and very durable. The tree is per- 

 fectly hardy in all latitudes where the thermometer will not fall below 15 

 above zero. It would succeed admirably throughout California, Texas, 

 Mexico and all the southern states of the Union. The propagation of this 

 useful tree is best carried on from seed, to which it comes true, or by graft- 

 ing scions from a fruit-bearing tree on seedlings, which thus will come in 

 bearing in a couple of years. The seed ought to be sown in leaf-mold and 

 loamy soil with bottom heat if obtainable. The same ought to be kept 



