Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-10-04
JAPANESE FRUITS.
THE MOST PROLIFIC soryRcE o,c
POPULAR NEW VARIETIES.
an Extensive Interchange of vege.
table Products Going on Betycen
This Country and the Land
on the NIileado.
HE United States Department
IL OF Agriculture has recentIy

tlstlcally by the Professor of Horti.
culture in the University of Toxic.
This gentleman, whose name is Kizo.
Iamari, was educated in this country
The models serve to illustrate the ex-
tenslye Interchange of such vegetable
products that has been going on dur
ing the last few years between tl,a
United States and the Empire of Tho
Mikndo. Many of the finest varieties
now on our market have been obtained
from there, while not n few American
fruits are being cultivated largely in
the land OF the rising sun. For ex-
ample, Japan Inns no apples that are
good tor anything; but apples from
New England are being grown in such
quantities on the Island OF Yezo- the
uorthernmost of the Japanese group
as to have become an important COM
mercial article
Tho climates of Japan and the
United States are much alike, and any
plant native to one country seems to
thrive in the other nstonishincly.
FROM our point of view, lust now TINT
lar Asiatic archipelago is the most
prolific source of profitable new types
OF fruits, us well rs of hardy ornamen-
tai plants. In 1858 two naturalists
named Williams and Morrow, who &C.
c0mpanied Commodore Perry's OK
petition, secured and brought back
with them many japanese plants;
while others were collected subse-
quently by Charles Wright, who made
the trip with Commodore Rodgers in
1855. These collections were submit
ted for study to Professor Asa GRAY,
the famous botanist. He was much
struck with the similarity between the
horn OF Japan and that of the ALLIE
gheny region of North America. The
theory on tho subject which he then
published is accepted to-day ms the
true one.
During the great glacial epoch the
northern part of this continent was
covered by sheet of ice which ex-
tended rs far to the south rs Philadel-
phia and st. Louis. When this sheet
WIS withdrawn, the so-called nuvial
period supervened, during which the
climate was much warmer than it is Mt
present. The sen WINS 500 feet above
its present level, and the rivers were
vastly larger than they are now. Ele.
phants and rhinoceroses roamed over
Canada and MS far rs the shores of the
Arctic Ocean. while mastodons, buff
ialoes, lions, elks and horses inhabited
high ATTITUDES. Alaska and Northeast
Asia were connected by land, and the
Siberian elephant wandered from one
continent to the other. AT the same
time the plant life of tho two hemi.
spheres became intermingled.
Meanwhile the terrace epoch came
slowly on. The Arctic lnnds were ele-
waited, the waters receded and the tenn
pernture fell. The age during which
Greenland had IL semi-tropical flora.
when, MS has been said, an Eden might
hnvo been planted in Spitzbergen-
vanished and the earth approached its
present condition. The vegetation of
all sorts was driven southwark
through Asia and America. The
plants, pushed down from the North
on all sides of the globe, held on in
similar climates; hence the GORE.
spondence between those of Japan OF
to-day and their congencrs IN this
part of the world.
From Japan we have obtained our
finest varieties of plums, and these
nro planted all over the eastern part
OF the United States from Connecticut
to Florida. The Japanese have a
huge white clingstone peach, which,
though it does not lock mt all like any
of our varieties. is extremely delic.
ious. They got it from China, how.
sver. This Is to-day the leading
market peach of Georgia. Some years
ago DR.. S. FL. Rumph, of Marshall
vile, Ga, planted about 10, 900 of the
stones, from which he got as many
Seeding trees. From the lot he chose
two that bore the finest fruit, event.
ually discarding one of them. The
other was the parent of the alberta
variety, which has since become fa-
nous. DIR. Rumph has already sold
$50, 600 worth of these peaches, hun
dreds of car loads of which will be
shipped out of Georgia this season.
Another Japanese peach, also origi-
nally from China, is the Peento. It ia
cultivated to a considerable extent in
Florida, but blooms too early for a
higher latitude. Two or three bright
days at any time in winter will bring
out the blossoms. Some of the trees
have been planted in Maryland, but,
for the reason mentioned, they never
bear fruit. Speaking of plums, the
Japanese grow certain varieties for
the blossoms alone. They are ex-
trcmely fond of spring flowers, and
festivals are held annually to celebrate
the blossoming of the plum and the
cherry. The fruit of those blossom.
producing varieties is acrid and
of small account. Plums in general
in japan are not valued for eating
fresh; they are picked green usually
and picked.
All of our cultivated persimmons
come from Japan. Recently horticul.
turists in Missouri, Illinois and In.
diana have been trying to do something
with native American varieties, but
none of the latter approaches in size
those of the Orient, and as yet they
| cut no figure commercially.