IV | Fruit-Bearing Shrubs and Plants
The trees previously mentioned are woody plants with only one stem, which begin to form branches at some distance from the ground. The shrubs, on the contrary, are woody plants in which the stem forms branches close to the ground, or even underground.
Banana (Musa sapientium), a handsome plant, long cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical countries for its fruit. The sheathing bases of the large, oblong leaves form a false stem twenty to thirty feet high. The spikes of irregular flowers are succeeded by a branch of one hundred to two hundred fruits, weighing together from fifty to eighty pounds. The long, berry-like fruits, as they ripen, convert nearly all their starch into sugar and pectose, and form a valuable [143] article of food, the staple food in many tropical countries, producing forty-four times the weight of food per acre yielded by the potato. It is produced in enormous quantities in the West Indies and Brazil, and shipped in constantly increasing volume to the United States and Europe. Beginning with a few hundred bunches in 1870, consumption in the United States has increased to upwards of five million dollars worth annually. Banana flour is becoming a staple article of food.
Its cultivation antedates historical records in India. Pliny mentions that the Greeks under Alexander the Great saw it in India.
The banana plant is the most wonderfully productive fruit in the world. It is a native of Asia, but most of our bananas come from the New World. Here the plant is full grown and the bananas ripe. From the time the suckers are planted to the gathering of the fruit is less than a year, so rapidly does the plant come to maturity.
Blueberry. See Huckleberry.
Cassava (Manihot utilissima), the bitter cassava, and M. Aipi, the sweet cassava, are both natives of tropical America. Both are shrubby plants, the former with yellow poisonous roots and seven-lobed leaves, the latter with reddish wholesome roots and five-lobed leaves. The coarsely-grated roots are baked into cassava cakes, from which the intoxicating drink piwarrie is prepared. The juice of the poisonous kind is rendered harmless by boiling, and is then the delicious sauce known as cassareep. If allowed to settle, it deposits a large quantity of starch, known as Brazilian arrowroot when simply sun-dried, or as tapioca when partly converted into dextrine by roasting on hot plates. It was long cultivated in Brazil, and, after Spanish discovery, extended to Africa and Asia.
Cranberry (Oxycoccus), a small evergreen shrub, that grows in bogs and marshy grounds, and is a small wiry shrub with creeping, thread-like branches, and small oval leaves rolled back at the edges. The berries are an excellent antiscorbutic, and hence furnish an excellent addition to sea stores. The American cranberry (O. macrocarpa) is larger and more upright with bigger leaves and berries. Large quantities are exported to Europe and other varieties are also imported into Britain and Germany from Russia and other parts of northern Europe.
Currant (Ribes rubrum), is an important shrub, bearing red, black and white fruit. Its branches are not prickly; its leaves have three to five lobes, greenish-yellow blossoms and the berries [144] hang in clusters like grapes. It is often planted in gardens for the sake of its fruit, but is also found in a wild state. Black currants are extensively grown in Continental Europe, Scotland and Canada; sparingly in the United States. In France the liqueur de cassis is made from the fruit. Red currants are very widely grown in Europe and the United States, chiefly for jellies. New York and Michigan lead in production.
The method of gathering bananas is practically the same wherever they are grown, and here we see the bunches being brought to the railway. Bananas need a great deal of water. They will only grow in a warm, damp atmosphere and if much rain does not fall they must be supplied with water artificially. This is done by having canals between the rows of plants.
Elder (Sambucus) has thorny branches, elliptical, serrated leaves and single, white blossoms which grow in such numbers that they sometimes resemble snow. Its fruit is black and blue. It grows from three to six feet high in copses, hedges and forests. Few of the species are considered of much value though S. Canadensis is used to make a domestic wine and jelly. The most ornamental of the species is S. pubens, which has large, loose panicles of bright scarlet berries. This species is occasionally found in moist high grounds from New York southward. It is very abundant and beautiful on the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains.
Gooseberry (Ribes Grossularia) has branches covered with spines, brown-reddish blossoms and berries of green, yellow or reddish color, which stand singly on the young shoots. It is frequently planted in gardens, and has many varieties. It is highly prized in northwestern Europe; not cultivated in southern Europe, and reaches highest perfection in England. In the United States, while widely grown, is of minor importance, ranking sixth among small fruits, being preceded by the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cranberry and currant.
Grape (Vitis Labrusca) has a climbing, knotty trunk, which sometimes attains a length of thirty to fifty feet; its leaves have from three to five lobes, and are coarsely serrated; its small, fragrant, greenish blossoms stand in panicles. The fruit of many varieties of vine, which have been produced by cultivation in the course of thousands of years is very different in color, size and flavor. It is either consumed raw and dried, or manufactured into wine.
In the United States the first vineyard was planted by Lord Delaware in 1610, but not extensively grown until after the introduction of the Concord grape during the last century. While the Concord, Catawba, Isabella, Hartford [145] and most of the cultivated varieties originated from the wild northern fox or plum grape, Vitis Labrusca, the Clinton grape was derived from the wild species, Vitis riparia, and most of the American wine grapes from the native summer grape, Vitis aestivalis.
Since 1860 grape culture has made remarkable progress, the last census showing a crop exceeding eight million dollars in value. New York produces one-third of the American grape crop and is followed by Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, in order named. Notwithstanding the extensive culture of the European grape in the Pacific States, the American grape constitutes three-fifths in value of all grape products of the United States. Millions of young vines have been shipped to Europe to be top grafted with the European vine.
The grape shares leading rank with the apple among the world fruits. Chief products: raisins, currants and wine of great commercial importance. Raisin production largest in Spain, but important in southwestern Asia, Australia and California. Currants are small, seedless raisins, mostly grown in Greece (name derived from Corinth). Wine is made throughout the world, total production estimated at four billion gallons, France, Italy and Spain contributing about three-fourths of this enormous amount. The European grape products of California—wine, raisins and table grapes,—amount in value to two-fifths of all grape products of the United States.
Remotely ancient in Egypt. Used by Lake Dwellers of the Bronze Age in Italy. Cultivated by the Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. Introduced into China 120 B. C.
Huckleberry. The popular name of the genus Gaylussacia, of which there are several species. The Dwarf huckleberry, the Blue huckleberry and the Black huckleberry are common throughout the United States, the latter being the huckleberry of the Northern States. In New England the name is commonly restricted to the black berry species in distinction from the blue berry. The shrubs range in height from about three feet to twelve feet high. In New England canning huckleberries is an extensive if not exceedingly profitable industry. The crop is first picked by hand and afterwards with a “blueberry rake.” The Indians long ago gathered the fruit and dried it for use during wintertime.
Pepper Plant (Piper nigrum) is found all over the Torrid Zone. Its berries stand to the number of twenty to thirty on one spike; at first they are green, then they turn red, and finally black. The black pepper is prepared from the unripe fruit, the white from the ripe fruit, which loses its black shell by being put into salt water (sea water). Pepper is now the most commonly and widely used spice. It is extensively cultivated in East and West Indies, Siam and Malay Peninsula, whence millions of pounds are exported.
Cayenne pepper, or chili is much grown in tropical Africa and America, but less generally used than black pepper.
Pistacia is a small tree, about twenty feet high, and native to Persia and Syria, but now cultivated in all parts of southern Europe and northern Africa. Flowers in racemes, fruit ovate and about the size of an olive. Pistachio nuts are much esteemed; but readily become rancid. Oil is expressed from them for culinary and other uses.
A PINE-APPLE PLANTATION IN FLORIDA
Pine-apple (Ananassa sativa) is highly esteemed and much cultivated for its fruit. It has a number of long, serrated or smooth-edged, sharp-pointed, rigid leaves, springing from the root, in the midst of which a short flower-stem is thrown up, bearing a single spike of flowers, and therefore a single fruit. From the summit of the fruit springs a crown or tuft of small leaves; capable of becoming a new plant; the pine-apple, in cultivation, being propagated entirely by crowns and suckers, as, in a state of high cultivation, perfect seed is almost never produced. The pine-apple is a native of tropical America, and is found wild in sandy maritime districts in certain parts of South America, but has been very much changed by cultivation. It is extensively grown in Florida, and in the West Indies for shipment to northern markets and to Europe. Increasing outdoor plantations have also been developed in the Azores, the Hawaiian Islands, northern Africa, Queensland, and the Bahamas. Florida supports upward of fourteen million plants. Great care is requisite in the cultivation of the pine-apple, which without it is generally fibrous and coarse, with little sweetness or flavor, and with it one of the most delicate and richly flavored of fruits.
WHERE TEA GROWS AND IS CULTIVATED
A TEA PLANTATION IN THE BEAUTIFUL HILL COUNTRY OF CEYLON
The most productive tea gardens are at an elevation of about one thousand feet, the land at this altitude being generally of an undulating character, well watered, and the climate sufficiently humid to encourage leaf-production.
The plants are ready for plucking when three years old, at which time they send out numerous leaf-shoots, known as “flush.” The plucking season begins in September and lasts until June of the following year, during which period each bush is plucked about sixteen times.
For producing superior fruit in winter the Smooth Cayenne and Black Jamaica are two of the best and most reliable, and the Queen is the most highly esteemed for summer fruiting. The Spanish is the variety commonly grown in Florida. A spirituous liquor (Pine-Apple Rum) is made from the pine-apple in some warm countries.
Raspberry (Rubus Idæus), the most valued of all the species of Rubus. The wild raspberry has scarlet fruit and is found in thickets and woods throughout the whole of Europe and northern Asia. It was early introduced into the United States, but those now grown originated in native American varieties. The black raspberry, is largely grown in New York and Ohio as a commercial industry. The red variety is widely grown in the United States, but production is small compared to that of the black raspberry. Among the more promising varieties of the blacks are Gregg, Ohio and Kansas. Cuthbert is one of the best of the red varieties. The raspberry has long been in cultivation for its fruit. The root is creeping, perennial; the stems only biennial, bearing fruit in the second year, woody, but with very large pith. The raspberry is the leading bush fruit of the United States and second only to the strawberry among small fruits. New York, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, ranking in the order named, grow over one-half of the total crop, which exceeds seventy-five million quarts. The berries are consumed raw or in a preserved state, or are manufactured into raspberry juice, wine and cordial.
Tea (Camellia theifera) is a plant of which there are two well-known varieties: (1) Assam tea; and (2) China tea. The Assam variety, known as “indigenous” tea, is a tree of vigorous growth attaining a height of thirty to forty feet with a leaf from eight to ten inches in length. The China variety is a comparatively stunted shrub, growing to a height of twelve to fifteen feet, with a rounder leaf about three and one-half inches in length, and calyx covered with soft, short hairs. These two varieties have resulted in a hybrid which combines the hardy character of the China with the other features of the indigenous, now largely cultivated on the hills of India and Ceylon, and known as “hybrid-Assam.” The hybrids vary much in productiveness.
The tea-plant will flourish in all parts of the tropical and subtropical zones where the rainfall is over sixty inches and evenly distributed throughout the year. In Ceylon it grows from sea-level to an altitude of seven thousand feet.
The tea-plant is not particular as to soil, but it succeeds best on new forest-land containing plenty of humus. As is the case with cacao, coffee and other economic plants, tea grown on rich, alluvial soil is stronger than tea grown on poorer land, though the latter is often of more delicate flavor.
Chinese teas may be classified thus: Monings, or black leaf teas are grown in the north of China, and shipped from Hankow and Shanghai. Green teas are shipped from Shanghai and consist of Gunpowder, Imperial, Hyson, Young Hyson and Twankay. Kaisows or Red-leafs are grown farther south and are shipped from Foo Chow.
The United States and Canada consume nearly all the tea exported from Japan, all of which is of light character, consisting mostly of Oolongs and greens. Tea has been grown with success in South Carolina and experimentally elsewhere in the United States.
Manufacture.—The first process is to spread the green leaf thinly on hessian trays in the withering house, where it is exposed to a free current of air—a very important operation, which takes from twelve to forty-eight hours. When the leaf is tough and flaccid, like an old kid glove, it is ready for rolling. The old or Chinese system of rolling was by hand. Now this process is performed by machinery, and in India and Ceylon tea is not manipulated after plucking. The rolled leaf is now ready for fermentation, an operation requiring close attention. It is placed in drawers or on tables and covered. The state of the weather hastens or retards the process; in hot, dry weather the leaf will be sufficiently fermented or oxidized in twenty minutes, in cold wet weather it may take hours. Whenever the leaf assumes a bright copper color it must be fired; over-fermentation is a fatal error.
The difference between black and green teas is simply this: if the tea is fired immediately after rolling it is green tea; if it is fermented it becomes black tea. After firing the manufacture is complete, and the tea is what is known as “unassorted,” which contains all the different grades into which tea is usually separated. Sorting by hand sieves is still done in small factories, but in large factories machinery is used.