The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-09-05


incisa, seen In the Dutch East Indies
and in many of the islands of the
South Seas, grows forty to fifty feet
high, the 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 di-
ameter, and tastes insipid when
cooked. I could not determine what
the taste was unless it were grocery
store brown paper. In Samoa and
Tahiti the tree yields succession Of
two or three crops during eight
months in the year. ats fruitful
ness is said to exceed even the gener-
Gus plantain, upon which the natives
Of the tropics subsist almost solely
where the bread-fruit Is not grown.
1t dispenses entirely with the labor of
the agriculturist, the miller, the
baker; there need be no care for seed
time or harvest; there is no thresh-
ing, no grinding, no kneading; in
fact, the islanders of the South Seas
have their bread ready prepared, and
have only to place it on the Goals as
they need it," says Ober.
This placing on the Goals is a pictur-
esque affair, like a Rhode Island
bake. The fruit is cut up, the
core removed, and hot stones having
been placed in u hollow in the earth
and covered with leaves, the fruit
is laid Oh top, and again covered with
leaves and hot stones, on which
frFtIf IG
another layer of leaves and stones
and on top of all earth is heaped
to q depth of six inches or more. The
hot-stone bake lasts about thirty
minutes, and the result is brown
piece of natural bread, white, or per-
haps yellow, inside, and very nutri-
tious Some think it more like the
plantain than wheat bread. 1t Is
almost tasteless when cooked green,
but is highly appreciated by experts
when allowed to- ripen just little;
not to the yellow state, however,
when il has decayid flavor. / found
it impossible to like it much in any
state, but it seems to be an acquired
taste with some whom L have heard
praise it. This is the seed-bearing
breadfruit, which grows throughout
POLYNESIA, but the true bread OF the
Moiuccas, which Is prOpagated only
y
absorbed by cultivation-is a different
plant. II Polynesian plants
twenty ordinary breadfruit trees, he
il independent for life, unless his
enemy destroys them. The constant
feuds- of various tribes in the same
group, and on the same island, tend
to famine, as they wantonly destroy
each others cocoanut palms, banana
groves, and breadfruit trees. The
= ho rl- nf no
fruit makes good cloth, but coarser
than the "tapa" made from the paper
mulberry tree. The wood is soft and
light. of a rich yellow, turning to ma
hogany in use, just right for the dug
ont canoe. Then the milky juice OBJ
tanned by puncturing the bole Is used
as q gum. Another use Is TO spread III
about as bird lime, TO eaten the
feathered songsters of the woods. A
preparation is also made Tor tatoolng.
Usually the Polynesian's house Is
made of bamboo leaves and grass; but
sometimes breadfruit uprights and
beams are used. In fact this beautiful
and useful tree is one of the choicest
Gifts OF nature to the brown man OF
The tro,pjc seas. Its deeply-lobed,
dark Green glossy leaves, twelve to
eighteen inches long, and its useful II
not luscious fruit, afford him snade
and food, and if he does not like
baked bread. he puts quantities of 1T
tn hole in the ground, often twenty
faet I'm diameter, changing it from
sxxeet to sour, in which it will keep
for mouths. Some Of these silos hold
couple of tons. The indigenous
trees of the West Indies and South
America which are OF the Artocar-
Dao.oe family, allied to the breadfruit,
are the bread nut of Jamaica anu the
milk or cow tree OF Demerara. 81.
Vincent was the first island of the
West indies where the bread fruit was
,,lonted. and there it has fiourished TO
q greater extent than in any other of
fhe Caribbean chain, even invading
the forest edges to find companion
in the trumpet tree, which looks some
thing like il. 1t grows on plantations,
i'm groves, and in the deeper valleys
i'm n wild state. When at Timor the
east.rnmost island of the Dutch East
indies, last year, L was reminded OF
the strange story of the mutineers OF
the Bounty. a vessel had been
sent to- Tahaiti in the south seas by
West Indian planters, expressly TO get
a thousand breadfruit roots. Lieut..
RIiph. who had sailed with Captain
Cook, was in command. Having Sc
cured the required number OF roots,
which were put in garden pots and
boxes, filled with earth and stuck into
spaces sawed out to receive them In
the special floor built for the purpose
i'm the cabin, the Bounty sailed from
the Society islands April 4, 1879. The
famous mutiny occurred twenty-three
days later, and Lieut.. Bligh, with
eighteen adherents, reached Ilmor
after a voyage in the ships launch of
thirty-five hundred miles. The Boun-
ty with its cargo of breadfruit cuttings
finally reached Pitcairn's island and
was burnt by the mutlneerS, VINO es-
fhIlished the famous colony which
has thrived for more than hundred
years. But breadfruit was destined
TO reach the West Indies, and in 1898,
Bligh succeeded in second eXpedi-
ton. and ST. Vincent received the sec
ond instalIment of the Artocarpus in
eisa.-Correspondent American Agri-
culturist.
The Magnolia brewing associ-