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Correspondence.Persimmons, Apricots, c.The persimmon does not grow in cold climates, though some are found as far North as Southern Illinois. We nave always understood that they were good for nothing until after hard frosts, but we find that here they ripen perfectly before any frost at all, and, what is more, to our taste are a delicious fruit. They grow wild in great abundance and furnish food for birds and insects as well as man. There are, we believe several varieties, but probably all from the original type the same as apples, etc. They have a commercial value, as we saw them quoted in a St. Louis paper as bringing two dollars per barrel, but for shipping we think they must be picked before fully ripe to bear shipment, as when ripe they speedily become soft. Those in market were probably the wild ones, as the business of raising them for market has but recently attracted much notice. We have never yet seen a specimen of the Chinese persimmon, but from the accounts given it must be a beautiful and excellent fruit, bearing profusely fruit as large as good sized apples, and hard enough to bear transportation. Besides, the trees are said to bear young and are well adapted to our climate, but we suppose like other fruits need attention, appropriate manure,c. Frequently new varieties of fruits are advertised into prominent notice which in point of fact are no better, or notas good as those we already have. But if this fruit answers its advertised value, the earliest planters will reap a rich harvest. Try a few and, if nothing more, you will assist the dealer in trees to a large slice of bread and butter.The apricot is a fruit which does its best in a warm climate, is a delicious fruit, but is subject to the depredations of the little Turk, which often spoils much of the fruit. It is somewhere between a peach and a plum. There are a few varteties, the peach apricot being one of the best. To get rid of these fruit borers many expedients have been resorted to. The most popular remedies are jarring the trees daily, spreading a canvas under the tree, letting the pigs run in the orchard to eat the stung and falling fruit is another, and the spraying of the trees with various compounds about the time the insect appears; but, of all the remedies suggested and tried, we think plenty of chickens in the orchard will do most toward exterminating this pest. The chickens eagerly hunt for and swallow them as they fly into the tree to sting the fruit. Entomologists conjointly with fruit raisers are studying the ways and means of saving fruit from destruction by the numerous insectenemies and will, no doubt, at last be partially successful.The fruit is marketed green, dried or canned for sauce and pies. They have a good flavor and sell readily in all places where they are not raised, are indeed, to successful raisers, a source of money making. For variety’s sake and the possibil-ty of their filling the place of some kind which has failed to bear, should be a sufficient inducement to the farmer to set out at least a few trees.Right here allow me to mention a somewhat similar fruit—the nectarine—a very nice fruit and which will serve to make complete the list of fruits which may adorn and beautify the farm home and has the merit of being useful at the same time.Incidentally, I wish to inquire why we do not see any currant and gooseberry bushes here in the South? Should be glad to hear from those who have tried to raise them, and the reasons of failure. In a list of fruits of a Southern nursery these shrubs are not mentioned.R. K. Slosson.
Newspaper Details
Starkville Southern Live Stock Journal
Starkville, Mississippi, US
Thu, Jul 24, 1890
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Jun 2021
Other Publications Near Starkville, Mississippi
The Starkville News
Southern Live Stock Journal
Starkville East Mississippi Times
Starkville Southern Live Stock Journal
Starkville Southern Farm Gazette
