Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1912-03-22


suckers as they grow This accomplishment
of the Department of Agriculture is not the re-
suit Of any one mans effort, but the product
of at least dozen minds working over pc
riod of 20 years and in seven different coun-
tries
There are among these hundred varieties
those which candy on the tree, others which
are used mainly for cooking, and some which
are hard and not sticky. There are early
varieties and late-ripening ones varieties short
and long and every sort can be. told by the
grooves on it's seeds.
The date as a delicacy is known to every
American child, but, a food, remains to be
discovered by the American public When
the date plantations of Arizona and California
come into full bearing, as they should In
about ten years. the hard, dry dates, for ex-
ample now quite unknown on our markets,
are sure to come into prominence and f1nd
their way to the tables of the poor as well as
Of the rich. The heat of our American sum-
mers is forcing us to study the hot-weather
diets of other countries, and dates are sure to
become important items of food
The persimmon of the South, on which the
opossum fattens, is very different fruit fresn
it's relative the kald, persimmon OF the
Orient. the growing of which is so great ar
industry in Japan as to nearly equal the Jap
anese orange growing industry in Importance
Our persimmon is wild fruit, which VIII
some day be domesticated, while the kak1 has
been cultivated so long that 1t Is represented
bv different forms and colors. 1t is true that
the Oriental persimmon has been grown in this
country: in fact, the census records produc-
ton of IS tons; but this is scarcely begin
ming as compared with the l94,OOO tons which
is the output Of Japan.
We have misunderstood the persimmon Our
own wild ones we can eat only after they have
been touched by the frost, and the imported
Japanese ones we have left until they become
soft and mushy and almost on the verge of
decay We never thought until quite recently
of wondering whether in land where the
nersimmon had been cultivated for centuries
they would not have worked out some artif-
cial method for removing the objectionable
pucker In Japan we find this is done By
hacking the fruit in barrels saturated with
sake and Mr. H. c. Gore, Of the Department
of Agriculture is now working out meth
DDS of processing the Oriental persimmon, so
that it can be eaten when hard as an apple
and there will no longer be any reason why it
should not take its place among the grea
fruits of the country
The whole question of the Improvement Of
the persimmoE mas been opened up, and we
are getting for this work the small-fruited spe-
cies called motus," from Algeria a tropical
SpGc1SS WlLk WUlIo, CHeeSS-llh6 pup, ITCm MAI
lila, Mexico Erithea, and Rhodesia; species
from Bangalore from Sydney, from Madras.
from the Nankau Pass, in China, and from the
Caucasus.
If the Oriental timber bamboo had produced
seeds oftener than in 40 years it would
long ago have been introduced and be now
growing in the South The fact that 1t had
to be brought over in the form of living
plarts and that these plants required special
treatment has stood in the way of the quick
distribution of this most important plant
throughout those portions OF America where it
will grow. After several unsuccessful at
tempts a beginning has at last been made, and
the department has grove of Oriental BAN
boos in northern Florida, and a search is be-
ing made in different parts of the world for
all those species which are adapted to our
climate
In this country l predict 1t will be used
earliest for barrel hoops, for cheap irrigating
pipes, for vine-stakes and trelises, for light
ladders and stays for overloaded fruit trees
for baskets and light fruit shipping crates and
for food AS windbreaks and to hold canal
banks and prevent the erosion OF steep hill
sides, there are species which excel all other
plants while for light furniture and jalousies
1t ig sure to find market whenever the green
timber 10 available.