897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Tropical Fruit Notes. 
Bulletin No. 104 of the Office of For¬ 
eign Seed and Plant Introduction, sa.Vs 
that the fruit of the sugar apple (Annona 
squamosa), known in Brazil as Fruta de 
Condessa and Pinha, is a tropical fruit of 
more than ordinary merit. It is cultivat¬ 
ed to a limited extent in Florida, but 
should be certainly planted much more 
widely than it is at the present time. In 
some of the interior regions of Brazil it 
ranks as one of the most important fruits. 
The white creamy flesh breaks apart into 
small segments whose outer extremities 
are marked by the earpollary divisions on 
the surface of the fruit. The flavor is 
sweet, melting, somewhat suggestive of 
employed by the natives for keeping man¬ 
gos six months. It is as follows: A 
kerosene tin which holds five gallons is 
used as the receptacle. An equal amount 
of second-grade molasses and sawdust is 
mixed, or as much molasses as the saw¬ 
dust will absorb is used. The quantity of 
the above material used depends upon the 
amount of mangos placed in the tin. It 
is, however, necessary to have the mangos 
completely immersed. The tin is then 
made airtight by soldering. The second 
grade molasses is cheap here, due to the 
large number of sugar mills. 
Removing Suckers from Sweet Corn. 
Is it either beneficial or injurious to re¬ 
move the suckers growing from the sides 
of the roots of young, thrifty sweet corn? 
Catskill, N. Y. c. c. c. 
I have always made a practice of re¬ 
moving the suckers from sweet corn at 
each cultivation, terminating the sucker- 
ing at the time the crop was laid by, or 
Bahia Sugar Apples. Fig. 335. 
the pineapple and the banana. The spec¬ 
imens shown, which were purchased in 
the markets of Bahia, Brazil, are of ex¬ 
ceptionally fine size, the biggest ones 
measuring nearly four inches in diame¬ 
ter. The picture, Fig. 335, is reproduced 
from the above bulletin. 
Mr. Henry II. Boyle of Manila, P. I., 
gives in this bulletin an interesting ac¬ 
count of a method used by the Filipinos 
which, they believe, ensures a good crop 
of mangos: 
A fire is built under the tree, then a 
bamboo shield is placed so that the smoke 
from the fire is directed upward through 
the branches of the tree. In some cases a 
smoke stack is made out of bamboo and 
placed under the tree. The fire is built 
under the hood. This is by far the most 
efficient method of having the smoke 
spread through the branches of the tree. 
The natives of Cavite province start to 
smoke the mango trees the first part of 
August and continue until the flowers 
have been pollinated and the fruit sets. 
The time consumed in smoking is about 
one month. Weeds, leaves and rubbish 
are used for fuel. Care should be taken 
not to let the materials blaze. This can 
he prevented by placing rice chaff, banana 
leaves or sawdust upon the pile to be 
burned. The smoking is performed upon 
trees that have and have not been nicked, 
“taga” or they say in Tagalog. The nicked 
or slashed trees after smoking will pro¬ 
duce fruits three months earlier than 
those that have not been nicked or 
smoked. The object of the smoking is, ac¬ 
cording to the natives, to cause the tree 
to produce flowers earlier and to have the 
fruit ripen earlier. It also helps to dry 
the flowers which have become wet from 
the dew and materially helps to keep 
down the harmful insects and fungus. The 
smoking is stopped when the fruit is the 
size of a marble. Nicking is performed 
when the tree reaches the age of six or 
seven years. The time selected is about 
the first part of November, which is the 
dry period in the province of Cavite. The 
tree is first nicked from the ground up¬ 
ward as far on the trunk as it is possible 
to reach or to the first branch. Care 
should be taken not to injure the cambium 
layer to too great an extent. This nick¬ 
ing is done by a sharp bolo. When I first 
saw the nicking and smoking stunt used 
on mango trees, I was of the opinion that 
it was more injurious than beneficial, but 
now after three years of observation I can 
readily see that it is a wonderful help to 
trees raised from seeds. They fruit and 
fruit earlier than those not treated in the 
manner described, and I have never seen 
any bad results caused by the nicking or 
smoking. This is saying a good deal as I 
have seo'h mango trees in every large 
island of the Philippines, treated in the 
manner described. There is another mat¬ 
ter regarding mangos, namely, the method 
in other words at the last cultivation. I 
believe this practice is followed by most 
glowers, and all agree that to do so is 
very beneficial to the coming crop, as all 
the strength of the growth is then cen¬ 
tered in the main stalk, and to the per¬ 
fecting of the ear. I regard the suckers 
on corn in the same light as suckers on a 
fruit tree; the less of them that are per¬ 
mitted to grow the better it will be for 
the main stalk. The removal of the suck¬ 
ers cannot do any possible harm to the 
main stalk, but in my opinion does a groat 
amount of good. Larger stalk growth, 
and larger and better ears, have always 
resulted for me by the removal of the 
suckers. rr 
Chinese Trumpet Vine. 
On page S03 W. F. Massey of Mary¬ 
land writes about Teeoma grandi flora as 
being such a beautiful porch plant. Can 
you tell me where I can procure seeds 
of same? It is a new flower to me. 
Strodes Mills, Pa. a. m. s. 
Teeoma grandi flora, also known as Big- 
nonia grandiflora, is a Chinese variety of 
the trumper-flower. Nurserymen do not 
grow it from seed, though it can be grown 
in that way, but you could hardly find 
the seed on the market. It is propagated 
by grafting on roots of our common na¬ 
tive trumpet flower, Bignonia radieans. 
Most of the large nurserymen have it. It 
makes a very beautiful object 'when 
trained to a tall stake and then allowed 
to fall over like a weeping tree. ITow far i 
north it is hardy I do not know, but it is ! 
certainly hardy at Philadelphia, and prob- j 
ably farther north. w. f. massey. 
Clairgeau Pear in New Jersey. 
Is there anything objectionable about | 
the Clairgeau pear either in tree or fruit? 
I have about 100 of them one year old. 
If they are not good as a market pear I 
want to work them over to something bet¬ 
ter. Wo are located (it) miles west of New 
York City, 000 feet above sea level on a 
clay loam soil, well drained. s. j. 
I’ittstown, N. J. 
The Clairgeau pear is a large, late 
ripening variety of fair to medium qual¬ 
ity, but is not grown in as large a quan¬ 
tity in New Jersey as Bartlett, Seckel, 
Kieffer or Duchess, yet I think it would 
be better to continue to grow them as they 
are without top-working to some other va¬ 
riety. If they are well grown they should 
bear and sell well. If you should in¬ 
crease your pear planting in the future, 
however, it would be well to consider such 
varieties as Bartlett and Seckel. 
M. A. B. 
An Unknown Apple. 
What was that apple that I used to 
see in lower Orange County, N. Y., and 
in Rockland as well, 20 years ago? It 
was two-thirds the size of the Baldwin, 
and streaked in Northern Spy style, with 
a distinct sassafras flavor. I have never 
tasted any like them since, and have 
never been able to know their origin or 
if they are now entirely gone. 
Kingston, N. Y. w. n .b. 
Can any Hudson River man name the 
apple? There are many sorts with a 
more or less aromatic taste, but none 
that quite recalls sassasfras. There are 
many unnamed seedlings or local varie¬ 
ties in the Hudson Valley. This sassa¬ 
fras apple may be one of them. 
Farm Storage for Apples. 
The Vermont Experiment Station at 
Burlington prints in Bulletin No. 1S6 a 
very good discussion of “Farm Apple 
Storage.” Of course, this is not the time 
to store farm apples, it is a better time 
to eat- those that have been properly 
stored. The failure to have such apples, 
however, on hand makes this the best 
time to talk about the proposition. This 
bulletin does not discuss the building of 
cold storage houses, but does tell of ex¬ 
periments made in keeping family sup¬ 
plies of apples in the farm cellar. 
A number of substances were used in 
storing these apples, such as sawdust, 
both from soft and hard wood, and also 
from cork, forest leaves, chopped hay, 
paper wrappers and sand. In addition 
to this four kinds of protective dips were 
used. These were Bordeaux mixture, 
sulphate of copper, lime water, and par¬ 
affin Summed up as tne result of all 
these experiments, the apples kept best 
when they were first dipped in Bordeaux 
mixture, and then packed in hardwood 
sawdust. The sawdust from pine and 
other soft wood kept the apples fairly 
well but gave them a rather bad taste. 
Lime water and paraffin were not as use¬ 
ful as the Bordeaux. Such substances 
as chopped hay, sand and paper kept the 
apples fairly well, but not as well as 
hardwood sawdust. We shall refer to 
this matter again in the early Fall when 
the time comes for packing the Winter 
supply of apples. Briefly stated the 
proposition is to make a strong Bordeaux 
mixture of the ordinary strength, that is 
50 gallons of water and five pounds each ! 
of lime and sulphate of copper. The ap- I 
pies are put into a sack and dipped down ! 
into this mixture, whore they remain for 
10 minutes. Then they are allowed to 
dry, and are cooled to as low a tempera¬ 
ture as possible, so that they do not 
freeze. Then these dipped apples are 
packed firmly Li hardwood sawdust. 
This sawdust is put all around them so 
that the apples do not touch. The bar¬ 
rel or box in which they are thus packed 
in put away in cool clean places, and 
left alone until Winter. Apples handled 
in this way kept their flavor and texture 
remarkably well and were in fine condi¬ 
tion for eating 2G7 days after storing 
or on August 5th. When we can have 
Baldwin and Northern Spy apples about 
as they were taken from the tree in Au¬ 
gust, the baked apple question is pretty 
well settled. 
We are told that there need be no trou¬ 
ble or apprehension regarding the use of 
Bordeaux for this purpose. Chemical 
analysis were made late in the storage 
period and hardly a trace of copper could 
be found; when the apples were washed 
or pared there can be no danger. This 
is very interesting and important work, 
and when the time comes for storing ap¬ 
ples we shall refer to it again and give 
fuller particulars. 
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