SMALL FRUITS IN MAINE. 



389 



for a long time, it is only comparatively recently that it 

 has taken rank as a vegetable. It is rapidly growing in 

 favor both in England and France ; but in this country 

 it is scarcely more than a novelty in the experimental 

 stage. 



The Chorogi is a native of Japan, and the edible nature 

 of its tubers has been known to the Japanese for cen- 

 turies. They gather the tubers from wild plants where 

 these are abundant, and they also occasionally cultivate 

 the plant, but it is not one of their common vegetables. 

 It is partial to moist places and occurs most frequently 

 in the north. The plant as it has come under my ob- 

 servation grows in thick clumps, the stems reaching a 

 height of between two and three feet ; foliage light green, 

 rough, hairy ; stems square ; the plant having the char- 

 acteristics of the mint family, to which it belongs. In 

 the fall of the year the tubers are abundant ; small (about 

 the size of large filberts) ; and they appear curly from 

 several sharp contractions which encircle each tuber- 

 The Japanese usually boil the tubers as we boil potatoes' 

 and eat them with shoycr. 



Trichosanthes cucumeroides, Ter a T.qiiidn'cirrha, 

 Miq., Pla/ygonia Kicmpfcri, Nandin); Jap., Karasii- 

 uri. The Japanese name means literally crow-cucum- 

 ber. A slender, herbaceous vine attaining at times a 

 great height. Usually it is found in hedgerows, and 

 rambling over bushes and small trees in the outskirts of 

 forests. It climbs by tendrils which spring from the 

 coils of the leaves. These leaves are dark green, dull or 

 even velvety in appearance, cordate, obscurely three- 

 lobed, dentate and much resembling a cucumber-leaf. 

 The foliage is dense, varying much in size, and very orna- 



mental. Flowers white; three to four inches long; 

 margin of petals fimbriated. Its fruit is like small, 

 oval cucumbers, red, about three inches long, and ripens 

 in the fall just before frost. The whole plant is very or- 

 namental and its profuse growth makes it a suitable cov- 

 ering for piazzas, summer-houses and trellises. 



Its value as an economic plant lies in the root. The 

 plant is perennial, the root is rich in starch and attains 

 a great size with age. At ten years of age the starchy 

 portion of the root will often measure three feet in length 

 and eight to ten inches in diameter. The fine white 

 starch made from these roots, besides being used as an 

 article of food, is a favorite cosmetic among the Japanese 

 ladies, and is called 'fcnkioafun (powder of heavenly 

 flower). With it they powder freely their faces, necks 

 and arms on feast-days and whenever there is occasion 

 to dress unusually well. The seed of thr crow-curnm- 

 ber is also used as a cosmetic. It is ground or crushed, 

 stirred in water snd wrung through a cloth. It is 

 claimed for it that it softens the skin and clears the com- 

 plexion. 



Trichosanthes Japonica. Kegel ( Gymnopetaium 

 Japouicum, Miq.); Jap., ICi-karasui-!. In habit of 

 growth and leading characteristics this plant resembles 

 the preceding one. It is, however, smooth; the leaves 

 are shining green and more decidedly lobed ; the tendrils 

 in the axils are five-parted, one finger being longer than 

 the others. The flowers are white and also fimbriated 

 like the last, but they are shorter and broader and the 

 fruit is larger. Some idea of it is given in the illustra- 

 tion (page 388). 



A'ioisas. C. C. Georgeson. , 



SMALL FRUITS IN MAINE. 



OLD VARIETIES STILL TAKE THE LEAD. 



OME writer not long ago ad\ ised hor- 

 , ticulturists to discard the Crescent 

 strawberry. That may be good 

 advise for some sections, but in 

 Maine the Crescent is the most 

 popular market variety grown, and 

 the most productive one. I can 

 grow three quarts of this berry as easily as two of any 

 other sort that I have yet tested. It begins to ripen 

 early and lingers late. I know it to be perfectly hardy, 

 as I have never given it winter protection. The snow in 

 this latitude usually remains on the ground from the 

 middle of December until some time in April. The only 

 precaution necessary to observe in growing Crescent 

 berries is to select ground inclined to the east or south, 

 where the snow is more likely to blow on than off. But 

 in spots where the snow has blown off and the vines 

 have been much exposed, I have never known them to 

 winter-kill. In fact the Crescent seems to bear the same 

 relation to strawberries that the Baldwin does to apples, 

 and the Lombard to plums. The local markets in this 

 state, as a rule, prefer moderate size and quality, at 



moderate prices, to large size or better quality at higher 

 prices. 



Next to the Crescent the Haverland strawberry is the 

 most productive, and it is of rather better quality than most 

 berries. The Bubach will give two or three fair pickings 

 of very large but quite soft berries in mid-season. The 

 Belmont is very hardy, and fairly productive of berries 

 of good quality. I think the strawberry must be more 

 capricious in this section than elsewhere. Many varieties 

 that succeed elsewhere are entirely worthless with me. 

 The Jewel and Jessie on my grounds will produce neither 

 fruit nor runners. The Sharpless and Charles Downing 

 make runners but no fruit. Of new varieties set last 

 spring the Yale made no runners whatever. The War- 

 field No. 2, Shuster and Saunders seemed fairly vigorous, 

 but Michel Early made more runners than the Crescent 

 or any other variety on my ground. 



When I first raised strawberries for market I got my 

 plants from between the rows where I cut my paths in 

 the spring. The plants grew late in the season and were 

 not so strong as those that set earlier. I think it of great 

 importance to set strong plants ; and now I grow my 



