10 THE AMERICAN GARDEN. • [January, 



iscollaneous. 



TROPICAL FRUITS. 



This name comprises, in the markets of the 

 United States, Oranges, Lemons, Bananas, 

 and Pineapples. We may also include the 

 Cocoanut, which is imported in large quan- 

 tities, Limes, which are occasionally seen, 

 and Mangoes, of which a few find their way 

 to the New York market. 

 . The Fig and the Grape as imported, — the 

 latter dried as Raisins, and fresh, the former 

 dried, — both come from southern temperate 

 regions; and Dates, the fruit of a Palm, 

 wholly from Northern Africa. 



But the fruits which we have mentioned 

 as "tropical" are but a very few of those 

 which grow in the tropics, but which, from 

 their perishable nature, are never imported ; 

 though a few — as, for instance, the Guava 

 — are found in the form of jelly, marmalade, 

 or sweet-meats. Let it be understood, how- 

 ever, that although we write of tropical 

 fruits as found by us in Brazil, many of 

 those we shall mention are not indigenous 

 to that country, but have been introduced 

 from other tropical countries. Of these the 

 Orange, the. Lime, and the Cocoa Palm are 

 familiar examples. 



And, first, there are in Brazil, as far as we 

 have seen, no edible berries of any kind, 

 either wild or cultivated. What are known 

 in the United States as "small fruits" are 

 entirely wanting, and this lack, to one 

 accustomed to Strawberries, Raspberries, 

 Blackberries, and Blueberries, no other fruit, 

 luscious though it may be, can supply. Any 

 one lost in the Brazilian forest would starve 

 to death in a short time ; if a few species of 

 Palms are excepted, there is nothing to be 

 found that can support life. 



PALM FRUITS. 



First in our enumeration we should men- 

 tion the Palms, many of which have edible 

 fruit ; but, with the exception of the Cocoanut 

 (the Date not being grown in Brazil) and the 

 drink made from the " Assie" and " Bacaba," 

 all are most distasteful to the foreign palate, 

 although the natives are very fond of them. 

 The remark which was once made about the 

 wild Grape applies well to these Palm fruits: 

 They are adapted to develop the generosity 

 of man's nature, because one would rather 

 give them to his neighbor than eat them 

 himself. We have excepted the Cocoanut, 

 the fruit of the Palm Cocos nucifcra ; but in 

 Brazil this fruit is not nearly as good as that 

 found in the United States, and which, we 

 think, is mostly imported from Africa. We 

 have tasted it in all stages, fresh from the 

 tree and almost dry, and both meat and milk 

 are lacking in flavor and sweetness. We 

 had always read of the delicacy of the fresh 

 milk of the Cocoanut : our first trial of it was 

 a great disappointment, although we were 

 thirsty enough on that day to make anything 

 liquid taste good; and subsequent experi- 

 ences have not increased our estimation of 

 Cocoanut milk. The drinks made from the 

 "Assie" (Euterpe edulis) and the "Bacaba" 

 ( (Enocarpus Bacaba and distycha) are some- 

 times agreeable to foreigners at first taste, 

 and one soon becomes very fond of them. 

 They are prepared by turning hot water upon 

 the fruit, which is about the size of a marble, 

 and then rubbing off the thin layer of flesh 



that surrounds the seed. If one knows the 

 woman who makes it, one can enjoy "Assie " ; 

 but, as one sees it made, — a dirty negress, 

 washing her hands in the purple mixture, 

 great beads of perspiration dropping from 

 her brow, — the effect is not appetizing. 



"Assie" is of a dark purple color (rarely 

 reddish or whitish, when made of a different 

 variety of Euterpe ) and tastes like the juice 

 of a Strawberry-pie. " Bacaba " is the color 

 of chocolate and cream, with a Strawberry 

 and cream flavor. Both are drank with 

 sugar, though the natives, with whom these 

 drinks form a chief article of food, eat them 

 unsweetened, with farinha. A drink re- 

 sembling Bacaba is made from the " Patawa" 

 Palm ( (Enocarpus Patawa) ; it is richer and 

 not considered very wholesome. In a simi- 

 lar manner drinks are made from the fruit of j 

 many other Palms, especially the different 

 " Ttieumas" ( Astroearpum ) and the "Miriti" 

 ( Mauritia excelsa) ; they are yellow, and have 

 a sickish taste. There are many Palms of 

 which the fruit is eaten either raw or boiled. 

 Of these the " Pupunha," or Peach Palm 

 (Ginliama apeciosa), is the only one which 

 has a pleasant taste. This tree is not 

 found wild, and when met with in the forest 

 always shows the site of an abandoned house. 

 The fruit is about the size of a Plum, bright 

 red or yellow, and is very beautiful. It is 

 eaten boiled and tastes like a Chestnut, but 

 has a bitter "leave off," and though the 

 natives are very fond of it, a foreigner con- 

 siders it as something which might be eaten 

 if nothing else was obtainable. 



E. S. Rand, Jr. 

 (To be continued.) 



EXPERIENCE WITH TEOSINTE. 



(Beana luxurians.) 



The seeds were planted about the first of 

 April, in rows five feet wide and five feet 

 apart in the drill, and covered three inches 

 deep. As soon as the young plants attained 

 the height of four or five inches I used a one- 

 horse turning plow, with the bar as near to 

 the plants as possible, throwing the dirt from 

 them, and with a hoe scraped all the grass 

 and weeds from the drill. After an interval 

 of eight or ten davs I used the turning plow 

 again, throwing the furrow back to the young 

 plants, using care not to cover any of the 

 young branches, which about this time be- 

 gin to make their appearance immediately 

 from the roots of the first stalk. After an- 

 other interval of about ten days I threw the 

 remaining furrows out to the plants, which 

 was all the work I gave it. Should weeds 

 come up in the middle soon after the last 

 plowing, or the ground become hard and 

 packed from heavy rains, I would run a culti- 

 vator once or twice between the rows. 



The plants soon begin to spread, throwing 

 out from forty to fifty branches or stalks 

 from a single seed, branching out imme- 

 diately from the roots, and after they get 

 well up need no further cultivation. It is 

 truly a wonderful plant, yielding an immense 

 amount of forage, and although the stalks 

 are from one to two inches in diameter, and 

 twelve or fifteen feet high, they are tender 

 and juicy, and all kinds of stock seem to like 

 them better than Corn stalks. If cut early in 

 the summer, or when the plants are six or 

 seven feet high, and the stubs plowed out, it 

 will come out again and make another crop 

 before frost in this latitude (about 32°). 



The specimens that I have left standing for 

 seed are about fifteen feet high, and are as 

 green and luxuriant now as in May or June, 

 showing no disposition whatever to head or"' 

 seed. The only objection that I can see to 

 it as a forage plant is the difficulty in curing 

 the stalk. But for cutting in the spring and 

 summer and feeding green to work stock it 

 i is far superior to anything I have ever tried, 

 as to the yield on the same ground, and the 

 stock seem to like it as well or better than 

 Corn fodder or any other green food. Whether 

 it is more nutritious I have not as yet tested 

 sufficiently to know. Some might object to 

 it on account of the seed not ripening, even 

 as far south as this; but I should hardly 

 make this an objection, as it takes such a 

 small quantity of seed to plant an acre, and 

 it can easily be obtained each year at a 

 trifling cost. Oidy one seed in the package 

 failed to germinate ; however, should any 

 hills fail to come up, they could be replaced 

 from a bed sown for the purpose, as the young 

 plant may easily be transplanted. ' 



I am very much pleased with it so far, and 

 intend to give it a place on the farm next 

 year. Aside from its value as a forage plant, 

 I am of the opinion that it would be invalu- 

 able to many Southern farmers as a means 

 of totally eradicating Cocoa, Bermuda, or 

 any other obnoxious grass or weed ; as, 

 after it gets well up, its shade is so dense 

 that no vegetation could possibly live under 

 it. John F. West, 



Jefferson Co., Miss. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 



The last season has been unusally unfav- 

 orable to the production of best results from 

 fertilizers, natural as well as artificial. The 

 long, severe drought during midsummer, 

 which brought most crops to a stand-still, 

 followed by a late, moist, and warm autumn, 

 causing frequently a second growth, made 

 almost two seasons of the year. 



On Potatoes, the use of special fertilizers 

 produced some surprising results. Four rows 

 in our experimental field were planted with- 

 out manure of any kind, the adjoining four 

 with Mapes's Potato manure, and the next 

 four with ordinary stable manure. All 

 started finely and grew until the dry weather 

 set in, when the tops died down gradually 

 and the crop was considered a loss ; but, to 

 our astonishment, -with the beginning of the 

 fall rains the rows with Mapes's manure 

 started into new life, grew vigorously until 

 frost, and produced a good crop of fine Po- 

 tatoes, while the adjoining rows, on either 

 side, showed but little growth and yielded 

 a very poor crop, hardly worth digging. 



WOMEN'S RIGHTS, 



We firmly believe in women's rights of the 

 right kind — the kind that gave to a Vermont 

 woman a prize for the largest yield of Queen 

 of the Valley Potatoes, offered by the pub- 

 lishers of the American Garden. We hold 

 that when in open, equal competition with 

 men, be it as doctors, lawyers, merchants, 

 manuf acturers, or farmers, a woman achieves 

 the best results, all credit ought to be 

 accorded to her, and she should reap the full 

 benefit of her ability and industry, and 

 neither more nor less on account of her sex. 



Over two hundred dollars are offered as 

 crop premiums the coming season. Who of 

 our lady readers will carry off the prizes ? 



