110 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
orchard, it is well to plant through the 
orchard, or near the plum trees, some 
of the native wild plums, as most of the 
varieties will be found to fruit much 
more abundantly when they have the ad¬ 
ditional pollen of the profuse blooming 
wild plums near at hand. The same gen¬ 
eral method of cultivation, spraying and 
treatment as recommended for the 
peaches, applies to the plums. 
Your committee believes, and in fact 
knows, that if those who desire to grow 
peaches and plums in Florida will select 
the right varieties, fertilize and cultivate 
and care for the peach or plum trees as 
carefully as they do their orange or grape¬ 
fruit trees, spray and care for them dur¬ 
ing the period of fruiting as suggested 
in this report, the results will be entirely 
satisfactory, and the growing of the 
fruit will be highly remunerative. The 
interplanting of peaches and plums in a 
newly set orange or grapefruit orchard is 
highly recommended. Where the orange 
or grapefruit trees are planted a distance 
of thirty feet apart each way, a row of 
peach or plum trees could be planted 
through the orchard each way, midway 
between the rows of grapefruit or or¬ 
anges, making the trees fifteen feet apart 
each way. If the citrus trees are planted 
at a distance of twenty-five feet apart 
each way, a peach tree could be planted 
in the center of each check. The peach 
or plum tree would not prove a detriment 
to the development of the citrus grove, 
and by the time the citrus trees require all 
of the ground, you will have been repaid 
for your trouble many times over, with¬ 
out any additional expense in the use of 
land or cultivation. 
Japanese Persimmons: The Japanese 
persimmon thrives in all portions of Flor¬ 
ida. While many of the varieties of the 
persimmon do not produce perfect flow¬ 
ers, and the fruiting of the trees are urn 
certain, yet the Tana Nashi, Triumph 
and Zengi varieties bear abundantly and 
commence fruiting at a comparatively 
early age. The persimmon commands 
good prices on markets where it has been 
introduced, and its superior quality as a 
fruit is known by the consumer. At this 
point it might be well to mention that the 
experiments in the processing the per¬ 
simmon to render them non-astringent, 
which have been conducted by the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, Bureau of 
Chemistry, H. C. Gore, have demonstrat¬ 
ed that a hard astringent persimmon can 
be rendered as non-astringent and as 
palatable as an apple in from twenty-four 
to forty-eight hours by subjecting them to 
the fumes of carbon dioxide gas. It is thus 
entirely practical to treat this fruit in a 
commercial way, removing the danger of 
the unwary customer biting into an as¬ 
tringent persimmon, causing a most un¬ 
pleasant puckering of the mouth and pal¬ 
ate. With this danger removed, the per¬ 
simmon will rapidly grow in popularity 
on all markets where it is displayed. 
Pears: The pear tree thrives in nearly 
all sections of Florida, but in Florida the 
same as in nearly all sections of the 
South, pear blight renders the produc¬ 
tion of most varieties unprofitable, and 
destroys the orchard and appearance of 
the trees. The old Chinese Sand Pear, 
the parent of the LeConte, and which is 
also supposed to be one of the parents of 
several other very popular pears, is a va- 
