The durian, however, is extremely luscious. It is large as a pineapple, and has a delicious white pulp. It requires a great deal of courage to open it, as the rough outside-skin has a monstrous odor of decaying flesh.
The favorite fruit is the mango. Of this, quantities are partaken daily in the season.
Guava, from which jelly is made, grows wild.
The pawpaw tree also grows wild, and is valuable to the natives. The bruised leaves exude a saponaceous liquid, that is used in the washing of clothes, and has the cleansing effect of soap. The fruit is cooling, but tasteless. It is said to contain pepsin, and is used by invalids with weak digestion.
Bananas are both wild and cultivated; seventy-seven varieties are found on the islands. The fruit is a staple article of food; and a cloth is woven from the fibre that natives make up into garments. A coarse paper is also made of it.
Cereals and Vegetables.
A native cannot own land. He may hold it under certain conditions. What these are in the tobacco districts has been stated. The regulations outside these districts are as follows:—
He must plant useful trees, suitable to the soil; raise wheat, rye, maize, vegetables, cotton, pepper; maintain every species of appropriate cattle; keep fruit growing in his orchards and around his house; have at least twelve hens, one cock, and a sucking pig. Failing in these impossible conditions, the land may be confiscated at the end of two years.
The missionaries have always helped the natives to divide their farms, plan their cultivation, and garner their harvests; they introduced the useful maize and wheat, as well as melons and garden-truck—peas, beans, cucumbers, onions, and other vegetables. Potatoes are very much in demand, but, so far, have not been successfully cultivated; being literally what the Americans call “small potatoes and few in a hill.”