The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-12-07
GENEROUS GIFT OF NATURE.
The Dread-Fruit Trees, AHord!hg FseSs
Clothing and Shcltor.

0ENRhOOS GtT OF IVA CNss'
The Dread-Fruit Trees, AHord!hs FsoS,
Clothing and Shelter.
The bread-fru;t tree, Artocarpus ia
elsa, seen in the Dutch East Indies and
in many of the islands Of the South
seas, grows forty to Atty feet high, tho
fruit being round or slightly oval in
shape, first green, then brown, and
turning yellow when fully ripe. 1t is
from five to eight inches in diameter,
and tastes in5inid when cooked.
could not determine what the taste was
like unless it wero grocery store brown
paper. In Samoa and Tahiti the tres
yields succession Of two or three crops
during eight months in the year. Its
fruitfuiness Is said to exceed even the
generous plantain, upon which the NJ
tivcs OF the tropics subsist almost wholly
where the bread-fruitis not grown. 1t
dispcnscs entirely with the labor Of tho
agriculturist, the miller. the baker;
there is no threshing, no grinding, no
kncading; in fact, the islanders OF tho
South seas have their bread ready pre-
pared and have only to place 1t on tho
Goals as they need it" says ODER.
This placing on the Goals is a pictur-
esque affair like q Rhode Island clam
bake. The fruit is cut up, the core re-
moved, and hot stones having boen
placed in hollow in the earth and coz
cred with leaves, the fruit is laid on top
and again covered with leaves and hot
stones. on which more bread-fruit IS
laid, then another layer Of leaves and
stones, and on top OF all earth is hcaped
TO a depth OF six inches or more. The
hot-stone bnlSc lasts about thirty min
utes and the result is q brown piece OF
natural bread. white, or perhaps vel
lo.y, inside, end very nutritious Some
think 1t more like the plantuin than
wheat bread It is almost tasteless
when cooked green, but is highly APP
prccia ted BIZ experts when allowed to
ripen just little: not to the yollow
state, however, when it has 4 decayed
flavor find it impossible to like it
very mnch in any state. bNt it seems TO
re acquired taste with some whom
have heard praise 1t. This is the seed
bearing bread fruit which grows
throughout Polynesia, but the truo
bread of the Moluccas, which is propn-
gated only by cutting the seeds boing
entirely nbortcd by cultivation-is q
different plant.
If a Polyncsian plants twenty ordi-
nary brcad-fl7,it trees he Is independent
for life, unless his enemy destroy them
The constant foul Of various tribes in
the same group. md Oh the same island,
tond to famine. as they wHntonly de-
strOv each others cocoanut palms,
banana groves and broad-fruit trees
The fiber Of the inner bark of tho bread
fruit ma!scs good cloth bnt coarser
than the "t;,pa," made from the paper
mulberry tree, The wood Is soft and
light, OF rich yellow. turning to ma
hosany in use, Just right FOR tho dug-out
canoe. Then the milky juice obtained
by puncturing the bolc is used as Il
gum Another use is tospread it about
rs bird limo, to catch the fcathercd
songstcrs of the woods. a preparation
is also made for tattooin9. Usually the
Polyncsian's house is bamboo leaves
and grass. but sometimes brcad-fruit
uprights md beams are used. In fact,
this beautiful and useful tree is one OF
the choicest gifts OF nature to the
brown man OF the tropic seas. Its
deeply lobcd, dark green, glossy leaves.
l., to is inches long, AMI its useful, If
luscious fruit, afford him shade and
food: and, if he does not like baked
bread, he puts quantities Of it in a hole
in the ground, often 20 feet in diameter,
changing it from sweet to sour in
which state it will keep for months
Some of these silos hold couple Of
tons
The Indigenous trees of the West
Indies and South America, which AFRO
OF the Artocarpacep family, allied to
the bread fruit, are the bread nut Of
jamaica, ard the milk or cow tree Of
pemorara. ST. Vincent was the first
island of the West Indies where the
bread fruit was planted, and there it
has flourished to 4 greater extent than
in any other Of the Caribbean chain,
oven invading the forest edges to And Il
companion in the trumpet tree, which
looks like It. 1t grows on plan atoms,
in groves, and in the dcopor valleys in
wild state American Agriculturist.