The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-08-27
SPECIAL BUSINESS NOTICE.
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 81

u
with those of other countries has often been re-
marked by travellers. Itis a fact, sadly true, that
there is not a season of the year when fruit is
sufficiently abundant or cheap here to supply the
home demand. Even the banana, which is so
abundantat times, forms no exception. Although
we have under cultivation some of the finest va
rieties known, yet the choicer kinds are scarce or
are held at high prices or SO seldom received from
the other islands, owing to want of speedy COM
municati6n, that two-thirds of the bananas con-
sumed here are of inferior kinds, and unfit for
the table. The same remarks apply to the potato,
both sweet and Irish.
In the Commercial of the 18th inst. was a COM
munication referring to the prejudice existing
against the pineapple. This fruit has never been
in favor here, because it has rarely been properly
cultivated. With US it is a small, acrid, disagree
able fruit, very dissimilar from the pineapple of
the West Indies. They have abundance of the
two kinds at Tahiti, but the last are, alone, eaten
by the people. They were first taken there, we
believe, by the ship Duff, on her voyage out with
the first missionaries. The true kind grows up
right, its length about twice its width its leaves
are of a light green, very finely notched, long
and narrow the fruit is of a delicate straw
color, or pale orange, with the protuberances on
as surfcce rarely deeper than the skin, instead of
being a series of dark blotches and indentations
as In the spurious sort, but are gracefully distinct
and uniform, like a diagram measured by COM
passes, and perfect In itself. The better sort is
entirely devoid of stringy fbres and hard core,
and It's flavor is far superior
A gentleman now residing in Honolulu import
ed a box of this species several years ago from
Tahiti, on board the French ship Lion, where
great care had been bestowed on them and they
were received here in a vigorous state of growth.
Being without facilities to plant them out, the
box was given to a friend who took great interest
in such pursuits, who planted them on his coun-
try lot, but, after several years they were found
nearly persisted among weeds. These shoots,
having been transplanted and placed in careful
hands, are now making another effort to produce,
it is to be hoped to some better resultin quantity,
than the adverse fates have hitherto allowed.
Much the same difference exists between the
true custard apple and the tree which here bears
its name-both in species, appearance and quail
ity. In addition to this, it is a tree of quick
growth, bearing abundantly from the seed in a
I'd VI OI WIN II ehO II NS0
tree of several years growth, before it produces,
whose only correct name is Chirimoya. The
same perverse fate has attended the attempt to
introduce this luscious and abundant fruit here
packet after packet of the seeds have produced
nothing during eight years, but an occasional
growth, to perish from some unknown cause, at
different stages-some in skillful and scientific
hands. Many plants of the tree have also been
imported, and have invariably persisted in the
ground. No soil about Honolulu appears to be
suited to its growth. 1t wants a rich loan, soft
and nourishing in such soil it will grow, and in
no other.
The fruit known here as the mango is very diff
ferent from thatknown as such in other countries,
and the eulogies Of our fruit appear perfectly
ridiculous to those who have eaten the mango
abroad. There is 10 dinner table at Bahia, Tor
San Salysdor) where large dishes of fruit, known
as mangoes, are not in the dessert, when you may
plunge ewo good sets of sharp teeth into the rich
pulp, fill your mouth with the rich juice, and be
in no danger of finding bottom, or breaking a
valuable grinder on the stone while the little,
fat shaped thing here requires you to be satisfied
with a surface of something like its flavor, COW
ering its principal bulk in the seed.
Then there is the Tahitian "a tree, which is the
tallest and largest tree known in the Society
Islands, covering the ground with noble fruit
along their forests, and bearing early fruit from
the seed or cuttings of a branch the size of the
wrist and two feet long. Seeds and plants of the
ri have been frequently imported, but 30 little
care has been given to them by thoss who have
received them for planting, that at the present
time, after ten years of supply, only a few trees
are known to be growing here. There is one now
in Hanalei with about thirty half matured fruit
on it-planted seven or eight years ago, of fine
promise. Two other growing trees, in the same
place which would have been in full bearing,
have had to sustain a long and threatening check
to their advance through the strangling effects of
the rampant growth Of unchecked weeds and IN
derwood. There is also one tree in Nuuanu,
one In Pauoa valley and one at Kalihi-enough
altogether to secure this fruit to the islands, how
ever. Its wood is very coarse in its grain and
spongy, unfit for any ornamental purposes, and
quickly perishable in the weather. Being easily
worked and very lengthy, the tree has always
been a favorite to cut for long canoes, though not
durable many years.
While on this subject of fruits, let US inquire
why the large Naval Orange has never found its
way here. 1t grows luxuriantly at st. Salvador,
and may be found on this side of the continent.
1t differs from the common ~orangein being devoid
of the quarter internal divisions, being composed
of a brittle and juicy pulp throughout; and its
seeds are collected in an external small protube-
rance. 1t is the fayorite orange wherever it
grows.
1t is, however, of but little use to import choice
plants or seeds unless care is taken with them
after their arrival. And this leads us to inquire
about the nursery that we fondly hoped would
have been started long before this. Certainly the
government has not disposed of all its fort lands.
some of which were promised for this object. A
small patch must answer to begin with, additions
can be made when necessity requires. The Ag-
ricultural Society has, we believe, a fund at in
terest, of between $4,000 and $4,000. 1t is also
now frequently receiving seeds and plants from
f,ra;yp rarfa which ou0ht tn he placed under