j yi 4. 
THE RURAU NEW-YOKK.EK 
11«7 
Ruralisms 
DRYING PKRSIMMONS IN CHINA. 
B ULLETIN 95 of the Office of Foreign 
Seed and Plant Introduction reports 
that cuttings of 52 varieties of per¬ 
simmon have been received from the prov¬ 
inces of Shensi, Shansi and Ilonan, 
China. Some of these are seedless, some 
specially desirable for drying, while 
others are used in China for the distilla¬ 
tion of brandy. Regarding the drying, 
Prof. Meyer, the explorer who obtained 
these says: 
In early October sound fruits are 
picked, which although ripe, must still 
be hard, care being taken to have the 
peduncle with a piece of twig attached to 
each fruit. The fruits are peeled by 
means of a small, special knife and an 
average worker can peel 2,000 persim¬ 
mons a day, while an expert brings it up 
to 3,000. The peeled fruits are tied by 
means of their peduncles, on a loosely 
twisted, but strong sort of string, which 
hangs down in pairs vertically over hori¬ 
zontally placed beams which have been 
put up specially for this work. From 200 
to 300 fruits are tied to each string and 
the work of tying starts by putting a 
couple of fruits at the bottom first, so 
as to keep the strings taut, after which 
the work progresses from top to bottom. 
The fruits are now left hanging for about 
twenty days, in a warm, sunny situation 
where if possible the wind can also blow, 
but where there is freedom from dust. 
The persimmons should be squeezed and 
manipulated by hand every four or five 
days, so as to assist them in drying uni¬ 
formly and prevent them from becoming 
hard in spots. After they have been dry¬ 
ing thus for about three weeks, they are 
taken down strings and all and a cool 
place is selected where they are all put 
into a big heap and covered over with 
matting. They are now allowed to sweat 
for ten days, during which process a dry 
white powder of sugar forms itself on the 
surface of the fruits. When sufficiently 
cured they are hung up again for a cou¬ 
ple of days, preferably in the wind, so 
as to let them dry oil'. In the meantime 
the peelings have been carefully dried in 
the sun and kept in airy baskets. The 
fruits are now taken from the strings and 
put in baskets and jars with the dried 
peelings in between and over them and 
they are now ready for the consumer. 
Another method of drying which is prac¬ 
ticed often with the smaller varieties, is 
to run in a spiral or horizontal way a 
knife point through the skin of the fruits, 
and then to put them in the sun on coarse 
matting. After they have dried for sev¬ 
eral weeks, they are thrown into a pile 
and covered up with matting or sacking, 
allowing them to sweat. When through 
with this process they are ready for the 
market. Persimmons treated like this are 
as a rule of much inferior quality to those 
that have been given more care but on 
the other hand they sell so cheaply that 
even coolies and beggars regale themselves 
on them. These dried persimmons are a 
most wholesome and pleasant food, com¬ 
paring very favorably with dried figs, 
and often even preferable to them, being 
less revoltingly sweet and not possessing 
the multitude of objectionable small 
seeds. There are large sections in the 
United States, especially in the South¬ 
west, where no doubt the dried persimmon 
industry could be successfully established 
and with up-to-date methods of artificial 
drying and curing a much cleaner and 
probably superior article could be ob¬ 
tained than the product seen in China 
and the nation would be richer by a new 
and wholesome food product. 
New Citrus Fruits. 
B ulletin No. no of the office oi 
Foreign Seed ami Plant Introduction 
reports a seedless pomelo secured from 
the Philippine Islands. It was stated by 
the grower that the seedlessness was due 
to the salt deposited from the brackish 
water which backs up into the river dur¬ 
ing the dry season ; the planter also said 
that a cocoanut shell of salt was placed 
in the hole at the time of transplanting 
the tree, and that another shellful was 
given the tree each year. 
An orange introduced by the recent 
Brazilian expedition of Profs. Shame], 
Dorsett and Popenoe is known as T.aranja 
selecta. Bulletin 90 says: 
This unusually choice orange is one 
of the two principal varieties grown in 
the Rio de Janeiro district, and has the 
added distinction of having been, as all 
the evidence indicates, tin* parent of the 
Bahia navel orange or “selecta de um- 
higo.” as it is still called, the culture of 
which in California at the present day 
forms so important an industry. The 
origin of tin? “selecta” orange is obscure. 
It has been cultivated in Brazil for more 
than a century, and although it has been 
superseded in Bahia by its offspring, the 
navel orange, it is still cultivated com¬ 
mercially near Rio de Janeiro, particu¬ 
larly in' the Kao Goncalo district at 
Niet horny. The main crop ripens in .Tilly, 
but it commences to come into the market 
in March and continues until October. 
On the fancy fruit stands it brings two 
or three milreis ($.65 to $1.00) per doz¬ 
en, but in the public market it can be 
purchased at a considerably lower price. 
Around Nictheroy the fruit is picked and 
brought to the market in baskets strapped 
across the backs of mules and horses. 
GERANIUMS. 
T IIE double flowering geraniums are 
far superior to singles for outdoor 
bedding, as the loss of a few petals 
in a storm does not spoil their beauty as 
with the singles, but for indoor specimen 
plants I choose the singles. The speci¬ 
men geranium is a Winter bloomer of nec¬ 
essity, for they do best in a moderate 
temperature such as in afforded by fire 
heat. Having chosen the kind you wish, 
root as many slips early in Spring as you 
care to grow. See that these slips are 
short and of new growth, preferably with 
a side branch coming out near the base. 
When nicely rooted put in small pots, 
two-inch to 2%-inch size. When the 
roots have filled these pots put into the 
next size larger and pinch back the 
branches that are growing rapidly. This 
pinching process may be continued till 
the plant is of the desired shape, either 
tall with few branches or dwarf and very 
bushy. The soil should be only moder¬ 
ately rich, and with no new manure in 
it, for that would force a soft sappy 
growth to the great detriment of any 
bloom. Always keep a geranium in a pot 
just large enough to care for its roots and 
when ready to bloom should be nearly pot 
bound. During Spring and Summer keep 
all buds picked off. The first of Septem¬ 
ber stop picking buds and let your plant, 
bloom at will. The plants should have 
been outdoors all Summer, either plunged 
in the earth or on a light sunny porch. 
On bringing them into the house—and 
don’t wait until the weather forces the 
operation—put them near an open door 
for a while till they get used to the 
change. From outdoors to the window 
direct will cause a loss of most of the 
leaves. 
The enemy of the geranium is red 
spider, but red spider hates water and 
can be driven away by washing or spray¬ 
ing the plants. Dust is hard on ger¬ 
aniums. As the florists say, keep a ger¬ 
anium “on the dry side,” that is, never 
water the soil until it is dry. and then 
do it thoroughly. Also never get the 
leaves wet on cloudy days or so late in 
the day that the. sun cannot dry them 
off. This applies to indoor culture of 
course. With the above treatment, which 
is comparatively simple, large plants 
should be produced that will carry during 
most of the Winter four to eight splendid 
trusses of flowers. Keep your plants 
turned daily to prevent their growing one¬ 
sided, and don’t crowd a window with 
too many. An ordinary dwelling win¬ 
dow can care for not over three of those 
specimen plants. It is too late now to 
start new slips for next Winter’s bloom, 
but you can keep the buds off such plants 
as you already have for a period of four 
to six months and then secure the same 
results. For specimen porch plants out 
of door pursue exactly the same treat¬ 
ment, rooting the slips in late September 
and keeping the buds off till May 1. 
For double crimson S. A. Nutt is the 
most grown variety, makes a splendid 
single plant, is an unsurpassed bedding 
sort and will stand heat and sun. Al¬ 
phonse Ricard is a splendid semi-double 
orange scarlet. In white, Mine. Buchner 
is standard. Two of the very finest for 
specimen work are Madame Barney, pure 
double cerise pink, and Mrs. E. G. Hill, 
a great single salmon. Both carry ex¬ 
ceedingly large trusses in the Winter. In 
single scarlet I have a kind called Jum¬ 
bo that is very fine. Poiteviue is the 
standard semi-double salmon and Viaud 
is the standard pink. The list is endless 
and caifitf 'ifddcd trd'at will "and wirlt 
great pleasure. 
The ornamental leaved geraniums are 
very popular. Mine. Salleroi being best 
known, grows but six inches high, green 
and white and is used for edging. A sil¬ 
ver leaved S. A. Nutt is now offered 
which is fine. Many sorts with red and 
yellowish zone in the leaves are offered, 
but the flowers of all are insignificant. 
The ivy geraniums are beautiful plants 
to grow, but bloom infrequently and are 
a little hard to manage. When right the 
bloom is more beautiful than the zonal 
geraniums. p. i,. \y, 
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