236 



Annals of Horticulture. 



may be raised here, but such poor culture is given them that 

 they are generally of an inferior character. In cultivation the 

 people throw the joints of the vines into plowed furrows or 

 dibbled beds, and then leave them to come up and live as they 

 can. In table use they are either roasted in hot ashes or stewed 

 or fried in slices. 



Pea-nuts (Arachis hypo gad) are another garden product very 

 common in Paraguay. The soil and climate are well calcu- 

 lated to produce first-rate qualities, but like everything else 

 here, they surfer for want of generous treatment. The farmers 

 of North Carolina would hardly be willing to father such 

 starving pea-nuts as are found in the markets of Asuncion. 

 Strangely enough, too, nobody in Paraguay seems to have 

 caught the idea of roasting the nuts , and they are eaten by the 

 people in the raw state. Occasionally I meet a family from 

 the United States who have taught their servants how to roast 

 the pea-nut, but they cannot induce the natives to eat it. Evi- 

 dently the Paraguayan gustatory organs need to be educated ! 



Melons thrive well here, although little attention is paid to 

 them. The water-melon might be raised in quantities, and of 

 the finest quality, but those actually raised by the people are 

 small and somewhat musty in flavor. One of the chief faults 

 in gardening among Paraguayans is that they will pluck their 

 produce long before it is ripe. They do this even in the case 

 of the orange, and were it not that the orange tree yields such 

 an abundance of fruit and for many months in succession, we 

 should never be able to obtain it well ripened. The water- 

 melon, of course, stands no chance under such a practice. I 

 have occasionally, in the way of experiment, bought samples 

 in the market, and though the melons were pronounced by the 

 vendors 6 ' linda, linda " (beautiful, beautiful), I have always 

 been obliged, after tasting, to toss them into the street. The 

 muskmelon receives a better treatment, and one may obtain in 

 its season fine examples of this fruit, as good as any grown in 

 the United States. The little green cantaloupe so common in 

 Maryland has, apparently, not found its way to Paraguay. The 

 watermelons, muskmelons, pumpkins and squashes are all, evi- 

 dently, the European and North American forms. The cu- 

 cumber is the same, but it is not common. There are some 

 gourds, out of which the people make mate and drinking vessels. 



66 Green garden sauce," as they call it in New England, of 



