THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 20 
136 
A TALK ABOUT PERSIMMONS . 
Valuable Facts About the Fruit. 
While in this country the apple is justly 
called the “king of fruits” and the straw¬ 
berry the “queen of berries,” there are 
many other fruits, as grapes, peaches, 
pears, etc., that deserve to receive much 
attention. But another class seems much 
lower in the public estimation and notice 
of the members of this class is seldom 
seen in any of our horticultural journals. 
In this class I place the native persim¬ 
mon, mulberry and papaw. All are valu¬ 
able in their place, and deserve more at¬ 
tention. For the past few years I have 
endeavored to gather in the most promis¬ 
ing named and unnamed varieties of these 
fruits, so that they might be fruited side 
by side and a fair estimate made of their 
comparative worth. Although I have 30 
or 40 varieties gathered in I think quite 
likely that there are still better flsh in 
the deep sea outside, and that my labors 
are only just begun, yet some things have 
been learned, and 1 give in The R. N.-Y. a 
few of the ups and downs of the persim¬ 
mon inquiry. 
The late genial, enthusiastic, untiring 
and much-missed Samuel Miller, of Bluff- 
ton, Mo., was a pioneer in this work and 
has done as much as anyone in searching 
out the best varieties, bringing them be¬ 
fore the public and popularizing the fruit. 
One of the varieties which he discovered 
was sent to T. Y. Munson, the grape 
hybridizer of Texas, who has made the 
variety (Honey) the basis of future ex¬ 
periment, and has even crossed it with 
one of the Japanese type, with the result 
that we now have a persimmon that is 
hardy and yet much larger than any now 
known native variety. This, Mr. Munson 
calls the Ivawakami, named after one of 
Mr. Munson’s Japanese friends. Why I 
say “hardy” is because the tree has en¬ 
dured 20 degrees below zero without in¬ 
jury here; how much more it can stand I 
do not not yet know. 
Honey itself is a persimmon of the 
highest quality, large, often larger than 
a silver dollar, oblate and quite productive. 
It has some drawbacks; the color is a 
watery yellow' and the fruit must be 
picked a little before maturity, else it 
parts from the calyx. The season is long; 
a few usually ripen before frost, while 
many mature fully a month later. When 
the astringency has passed away it be¬ 
comes soft and separatee easily from the 
calyx, and has a flavor that fully justifies 
its. name. The Josephine, sent out by Judge 
Miller, is so nearly like it in both tree 
and fruit that it is possible they may be 
found to be synonymous. 
Silkyfine is one of the many seedlings 
of the Honey raised by Mr. Munson, who 
considers it as having even higher quality 
than its parent. Those first ripening here 
justified his opinion, but the later ones 
lacked in the very fine flavor that distin¬ 
guished the first to mature and I conclude 
that a warmer climate than this is needed 
to show the Silkyfine at its best. It Is of 
only medium size, not attractive in color, 
shrivels on the tree, but is very productive 
so far, and will be probably fine for home 
use farther south. Callaway, a medium¬ 
sized Illinois variety, which was nearly 
seedless W'here it originated in Morgan 
County, has plenty of seed w'hen planted 
with other kinds, and has no special value, 
while a small variety from Kentucky 
continues nearly seedless under all cir¬ 
cumstances. Stout, from W. C. Stout, of 
Indiana, has the beautiful rich-looking 
reddish yellow' or orange yellow flesh that 
I have seen nowhere else, except in the 
case of Saxe, w'hich is a favorite with 
Prof. Hays, former pomologist. Stout is 
most beautifully blushed and of fair size 
and quality. Saxe is large or about 1% 
inch in diameter and very showy inside 
and out. This variety I am judging only 
from specimens sent, as it has not fruited 
here. Date seems a popular name for per¬ 
simmons which cure and dry readily with¬ 
out rotting. I have lately received speci¬ 
mens of one of that name from Indiana 
that resembles in flesh color a fine mam¬ 
moth raisin. There is one of that name 
in Virginia, and Missouri furnishes a late 
one that really resembles a date in flavor. 
Indiana seems the home of the persim¬ 
mon and papaw, and I think that fully 
one-fourth of the named varieties hail 
from the Hoosier State, Missouri, Ken¬ 
tucky, Illinois, Ohio and Virginia also 
furnishing a fair quota. 
Kansas is a fair-sized oblate persimmon 
of good color and fair quality that is firm 
enough to handle well. Golden Gem, an 
Indiana product, is said to be planted con¬ 
siderably in that State for market. It is 
not large, but very productive and of good 
quality; there are but few seeds and the 
fruit keeps remarkably well. This is 
partly owing to the fact that the flesh is 
not of a mushy texture, or as we would 
say with grapes, with but little free juice. 
This is very important to the commercial 
grower, who cannot afford to plant of a 
variety that flattens out to a misshapen 
mass when it falls from the tree, nor ean 
he afford to plant of a variety that owes 
its firmness to an overabundance of seeds, 
for this is a heavy pull-back on quality. 
Apple Seed is a diminutive variety from 
Indiana that has no merit except as a 
curiosity, the seeds being of about the size 
and shape of a large apple seed. The 
seed seems to be a distinguishing mark in 
persimmons and is remarkably constant in 
each variety as grown here, both as to 
shape and color. Daniel Boone and St. 
Thomas are old varieties of no especial 
merit. The former is of fair size, round¬ 
ed-oblate in shape, dullish yellow in color; 
seeds large and quality only moderate. 
The latter is only of medium size, oval to 
oblong-pointed, color light yellow', quality 
average. Big, from eastern Illinois, from 
B. O. Curtis and reported to him as “big 
as a Jenneting apple,” turned out with me 
much reduced in size and apparently of 
no great value. Everything considered, 
the Early Golden is the best of the earlies. 
Half the crop is ready for market before 
most of the other varieties ripen. It Is of 
fair size, fine yellow color with often a 
red blush, dry and firm, yet of very good 
quality, and may be shaken from the tree 
on the ordinary leaf-carpet without bruis¬ 
ing, and keeps well for an early kind. 
The tree is a vigorous spreading grower, 
with a very large thick leaf, and is one of 
the most productive varieties I have yet 
seen. Of course this variety supplies only 
one season, and the season too in which 
vinegar gnats work for the destruction of 
all fruits with a never-slacking energy, so 
varieties that ripen later may have a much 
greater general value. 
Kawakami before mentioned, is late, 
but just how late I will not venture to 
guess from the few specimens growm this 
year. Burt's Date, as sent me fresh 
from the tree during the holidays two 
years ago, seemed quite promising for a 
late kind for home use, but the color w r as 
dark, like maple sugar, besides, here on 
first fruiting the fruit has not yet com© 
up to expectations in size, quality and 
lateness. When the best varieties exist¬ 
ing are finally sorted out and when the 
probable improvements by hybridizing are 
well on tow'ard completion I see no reason 
W'hy the persimmon may not be as popu¬ 
lar at least as the native plum. This is 
not great praise. Although a native here 
fully half of the people have never tasted 
a persimmon. Some consider it as among 
the best of fruits; many only tolerate it; 
a few can only remember the puckeriness 
of the unripe ones. 
Some nurserymen fail in the propagation 
of the persimmon, and this is one reason 
w r hy the grafted trees can scarcely be 
bought on the market, but I have not 
found it especially difficult to graft in the 
Spring before the buds swell. After this 
success is doubtful. While perhaps the 
best results are obtained by grafting one 
and tw'o-year seedlings even with, or a 
little below the surface of the ground, yet 
it is practicable to top-graft larger trees, 
putting in plenty of grafts to insure a 
properly balanced head and afterw'ard 
cutting out if necessary. However, I 
have always tightly wrapped the cleft 
with w'axed cotton yarn or cloth and cov¬ 
ered all the cut parts with hot wax ap¬ 
plied w'ith a small brush, cutting the 
string as in peach budding before strangu¬ 
lation takes place. Seed for raising stock 
for grafting may be treated the same as 
peach, but often many of the seedlings will 
be too small to graft until the second 
Spring. As to transplanting, the trees 
should not be large, and from IS inches to 
tw'o feet of the roots should be saved. If 
this is done and the trees are planted 
early in the Spring in very deep holes 
with the soil well firmed around the root 
(there is often only one straight root), 
most of the trees wall live. Some propa¬ 
gate by budding, but I consider grafting 
the better method. No borers injure the 
trees here. May beetles often prune the 
foliage badly at blooming time, to the in¬ 
jury of the crop, and there is a small 
larva, name to me unknown, that occa¬ 
sionally works beneath the hull, but the 
persimmon here (tree and fruit) is less 
damaged by insects than any fruit I know 
of unless it be the black currant. The 
native persimmon is reasonably hardy, as 
hardy as the average apple. In my opinion 
it is a tree to be headed back something 
like the peach, but further experiments 
are necessary on this point. 
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