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FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON. . 105
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* Xii. The Pi/Um. Fkom The Wave-Hollowed...
seldom are mistaken—a matter of some' importance , since if insufficiently dried the fruit would not keep , and if left too _long
becomes hard , and is then little esteemed . In some villages an oven for prune-drying is dug in the earth , whicli , for one season at
least , does as well as a built one . What are known as " German plums" are made from the
" Quetsc 7 ie , " a variety largely cultivated in Germany , Belgium _, Switzerland , and the North of France , for the purpose of drying ;
for though less sweet , and therefore less fit for this use , than many other kindsit has the advantage of coming to perfection at a
concultivators venient season have , , when little peop else le to are attend tired to : of besides the fresh that , fruit it will , and flourish when
in colder climates , and is less liable to fail than almost any other sort . In Lorrainean orchard of these plums brings four times
more profit to the owner , , according to Bosc , than could be derived from any other crop on the same amount of land ; and the same
author bemoans the ignorance or carelessness of his countrymen in not planting this kind of plum throughout the length and breadth
of France , so that prunes might become a hundred-fold more lentiful than they are at presentsince he considers that the sun
p alone would suffice to dry them in , warm , provinces , and in others , four days of care such as the children of a household could in great
part assist in rendering would suffice to lay in a large stock of wholesome and pleasant provision for the winter . M'Intosh , too ,
laments that his Scotch compatriots make no efforts in this direction , lums being little used now by the poor , even for ordinary
prep serving ; whereas drying sorts fit to be made into prunes for home use could be well grown in Scotlandin hedgerows and on banks
not available for anything else , and , their produce thus become an . article of common consumption .
There are three species of wild plums indigenous to America , from none of which , however , has any cultivated kind been reared _;
but our primus domestica , early introduced there , found that country so congenial an abiding-place that it soon became naturalized , and
in the Middle States grows almost spontaneously , sporting continuallinto new and fine varieties . Among these , the magnificent
Washington y plum holds a pre-eminent place , yielding , it is true , to the greengage in point of flavor , but surpassing in size and beauty
every plum that has ever been grown . The parent tree of the " Washington" grew on a farm near New Yorkbut being used as
, a mere stock and grafted with another kind , escaped notice , until a sucker from it was sold by a market woman to Mr . Bolmer , a
merchantin whose garden it came into bearing in 1818 , and attracted , universal attention . One of its descendants was soon
after sent to the Horticultural Society of London , and it is now known throughout Europe , and registered A 1 in all collections .
kind This , tree and the fruit large is broad of a roundish lossy foliage oval quite form , unlike about any 2 _J inches other
VOL . VIII . X
Fruits In Their Season. . 105
FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON . . 105
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1861, page 105, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101861/page/33/
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