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Fruit Growing in Natal
By Claude Fuller, f.e.s..
Chief of the Division of Entomology and Horticulture, Natal
One of the many charming features of this delightful sun-lit land is its rich and remarkable diversity of fruits. In itself comparatively small, one has only to select any small part of the Province to discover, growing well-nigh luxuriantly, the fruits of many lands, temperate to almost tropical.
From the sea, as the crow flies, to seventy miles inland, the country, loitering only in the river valleys, bounds rapidly upwards to an elevation of 5.000 feet. Hill and dale and deep river valley quickly succeed one upon the other all the way. so that the traveller by roadway or railway must perforce progress forward with so many winding turns and doubling loops that many a short distance is a long journey. So it happens that first because of its latitude and then because of its configuration Natal is a veritable garden, sustaining within a few miles of the Indian Ocean the whole gamut of fruits from the cocoa-nut of torrid climes to the hazel-nut of the homeland.
It would be no great exaggeration to.materialize an ideal fruiterer's window in Pietermaritzburg and stock it with fruits galore gathered in from within a 35 mile radius only.
*Here would be the round piled up oranges, deepening almost into red. heavy with juice and vieing with them the sprightly flavoured naartje and the sweet mandarine. Next them, yellow lemons garnished with limes, pompous shaddocks and fat pompelmousse, sweet lemons, rough lemons, kumquats, in short, the citrus tribe in Eldorado. Pears swelling downwards — mouth watering ; apples with brown-red cheeks — as if they had slept in the sun ; furry quinces, and brown medlars from fantastic trees, sprays of leitchies — fruit fit for the gods ; and baskets of loquats. Mangoes — whose juiciness tickles the mouth's corners ; bananas and plantains — gloved in yellow skins ; pawpaws — full of vegetable pepsine; guavas and grenadillas — with which to make "angels' food;" pineapples — great and small and
'With apologies to Leigli Hunt.