The Hawaiian forester and agriculturist . ruit, but he was not the first one, for the paltaswere here in 1825. The wood of the Persca gratissinia is of fine grain and richcolor, and at one time was in great demand in England for fur-niture under the name of Barbados mahogany. Specimens inthe Bishop Aluseum from one of the large trees of Hilo cer-tainly show a pleasing cabinet wood. My object this evening, however, is not to describe all thehistory and good qualities of this favorite fruit, which I wishwe could call by its original Spanish-American name of Paltain place of the absurd avocado or
The Hawaiian forester and agriculturist . ruit, but he was not the first one, for the paltaswere here in 1825. The wood of the Persca gratissinia is of fine grain and richcolor, and at one time was in great demand in England for fur-niture under the name of Barbados mahogany. Specimens inthe Bishop Aluseum from one of the large trees of Hilo cer-tainly show a pleasing cabinet wood. My object this evening, however, is not to describe all thehistory and good qualities of this favorite fruit, which I wishwe could call by its original Spanish-American name of Paltain place of the absurd avocado or lawyer pear, or the stupidcorruption alligator pear. I intend only to give you brieflysome of my experience in cultivating this fruit. We here areall too ready to merely plant the seed and do nothing more;we push the button and leave the rest to Providence. Thisinstitute is established, I believe, to help us to make someexertion ourselves, and by so doing better our products. In 1888 I was supplied with very good- paltas of the pur- 145. 146 pie variety grown by a friend in Pauoa valley. As these wereof one variety I selected the best fruits,—that is those thattasted best and had the best form without consideration of thebearing qualities of the parent tree. In 1890 I took six of themost vigorous plants resulting from these selected seeds tomy present residence on Judd street and planted all but onein the ground on the Ice side of the house, as this tree needsshelter from the winds, which are often strong in that part ofNuuanu valley. The soil was not originally good, and the place was rocky,but by blasting out the most objectionable ledges and replac-ing them with earth removed from the site of the house, wdiichwas then enriched with both natural and chemical manures,a fair chance was given the young trees, which grew fruiting- results were curious. One on a more rocky bedproduced a small green fruit much inferior to the parent, andas the tree was in the way T cut
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