SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
143 
for market, make it pay very well, and the business pre- 
sents an inviting field for the investment of capital. 
Could these Creole oranges be put down in New York, 
a week after they were picked, as they easily might be, 
they would sell on the top of they market, and soon 
crowd out Sicily and Hairana. There is no limit to the 
demand that would soon arise for so desirable a fruit. The 
demand, however great, could be easily met in this val- 
ley. The trees come into bearing much sooner than the 
apple, and bear with much more uniformity. A pilot, 
who owns a little place on the river, has an acre planted 
with 800 orange trees. He sold the crop this season on 
the trees for one thousand and twenty dollars As 
nothing v/as to be deducted for the expense of marketing, 
it made a very handsome profit upon an acre of land. A 
sugar plantation must be remarkable well managed to 
bring in a gross return of one hundred dollars an acre. A 
sharp Yankee, with a little skill in fruit growing, and 
capital, would soon make a fortune in raising this fruit for 
market. 
THE BANANA. 
The Banana is, after the orange, the fruit most prized 
and most abundant in this market. This is the extreme 
northern limit where the tree will flourish. Its long plume- 
like leaves are annually touched by the frost, and it stops 
growing fora time, with its flowers and fruit all upon the 
stalk. It sends up from the earth several large trunks 
shooting from a common center, and from the top of each 
one of these trunks, a fruit stalk puts forth. It has a very 
large purple flower, which continues for a long time, and 
the fruit sets on all sides of the stalk, until you have some- 
times a hundrtd bananas or more in a cluster, weighing 
forty or fifty pounds. The fruit is from four to seven 
inches in length, and an inch or more in diameter. It is 
covered with a thin rind which is easily stripped, off with 
the fingers. There are two varieties, the red and yellow, 
both common in the market. They are cultivated in 
many of the yards here, and quite as much for ornament 
as for use. The fruit is brought in extensively from the 
West India Islands, and, in its season, is quite- as abun- 
dant and cheap as the orange. There is another variety 
brought from Ruitan of more delicate form and higher fla 
yor. Bananas in good condition are very palatable, and 
are eaten with impunity at all times of day, and in any 
quantity. 
The Plantain belongs to the same genus, Mu&a^ as the 
banana, and has the same general appearance and charac 
ter. It is about the same size, a third or more longer, 
and the taste is much more acid. This is abundant in the 
market, and is principally used for cooking. Fried, and 
sprinkled with a little sugar, it makes a yery good substi- 
tute tor cranberry sauce. 
THE FIG. 
The Fig flourishes in this climate in the greatest luxuri- 
ance. It is as common as the quince or the apple at the 
North, and when labor is as cheap as it is upon the shores 
of the Mediterranean, there will be nothing to prevent the 
packing of this fruit, and supplying the home market 
with the American grown article. The varieties cultivated 
are the Brown Brunswick, the Brown Turkey, White 
Marseilles, Celeste, and Black Ischia. In the rear yard 
of the house where I write, there is a very large fig tree 
planted some ten years ago. It has attained the height of 
some twenty feet, and covers a large area. It is in bear- 
ing from July to October, and produces several bushels ot 
figs annually. The habit of the tree is to make a broad, 
ragged looking head, which is anything but attractive 
when the foliage falls. The leaf however is beautiful, and 
would redeem anything from positive ugliness. The fruit, 
in its fresh state, is rather insipid to those accustomed to 
the more sprightly fruits of Northern climates. It is 
highly prized by those accustomed to it, and is nutritious 
and wholesome in its season. 
There is perhaps no fruit so easily propagated, and no 
tree that will so readily take care of itself as this. It is 
wonderfully prolific, and the fruit might be produced in 
any desirable quantity. 
VEGETABLES. 
The markets here are as well supplied with these, and 
in as great variety as in our Northern cities. At this sea- 
son, many articles are much more abundant. Cabbage 
and lettuce, beets and turnips, celery, and other articles 
are brought in fresh from the gardens. The sweet potato 
is in great perfection the year round The yam, very 
little used even in our cities, is a common article here, 
generally keeping company with the sweet potato. The 
Irish potato was formerly rather an expensive luxury, and 
found its way hither, principally by way of the sea. It 
was thought that it could not be grown here. But now 
they are raised here early in the season, of good quality, 
and they are brought in steamers in immense quantities 
from up the river, and from our Northern seaports, and 
even from Scotland and Ireland. Nothing is more com- 
mon at this season than barrels of potatoes at the corner 
stores, and in the markets. Many of them are already 
sprouted, showing their long passage in the waters of the 
gulf They do not keep well through the summer, and 
the seed used for planting is invariably brought from a 
cooler climate The great increase in the consumption of 
this article is owing, among other causes, to the large im- 
migration of the Irish population. They come not only 
directly from the British Isle, in the ships that come hither 
for cotton and sugar, but from all our Northern seaports 
that have direct intercourse with New Orleans This 
population is so numerous, that they have gained the con- 
trol of the labor market, and manage things in their own 
way. 
THE PECCAN NUT. 
The Peccan Nut, pronounced with the broad sound of 
a, is the most common nut of this region. The tree flour- 
ishes best in theri h bottom lands along the rivers. There 
are two kinds in market known as the Louisiana and the 
Texas peccans. The nut somewhat resembles the best 
shellbacks, both in shape and in quality. It is longer, the 
shell is thinner, and the meat is covered with a very thin 
astringent skin, which is a drawback to their desirable- 
ness, The Texas nuts are generally larger, and bear a 
higher price. They bring from SlO toSlb a barrel, and 
form a considerable article of export from the Texan ports. 
The tree occupies very much the position of the shellback 
with u«, receives little attention, and is frequently left near 
the dwellings, and upon the meadows for shade. When 
full grown. It forms a magnificent head, and makes a strik- 
ing feature in the landscape of these alluvial regions. 
Agricola. 
New Orleans, Ftb., 10, 1859. 
A Warning! — The Lawrenceburg {Tenn.) Jmrnal of 
the 26th March, says: 
“We are pained to learn that on the 22d inst,, Joseph 
Kidd, second son of our worthy fellow-citizen, John 
Kidd, three miles north-west of Lawrenceburg, met with 
a terrible accident that ended his liie in a fearful manner. 
He WAS riding a mule which had on gear, he was thrown 
off, the chains being fastened to his legs, he was dragged 
near a mile and a half, and kicked to death and horribly 
mangled. His body finally became fastened to a log and 
thus the mule was stopped.” 
It is observed that the moit censorious are gener- 
ally the least judicious; those wno have nothing to recom- 
mend themselves, will be finding fault with others. No 
man envies the merit of another w ho has enough of his 
1 own. 
