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"Tiny Fruit on Miniature Trees"
(1902):
"New York, March 2. -- While the orange growers of Florida, California and Arizona are striving to produce giant
fruit, the florist of the cast is bending his efforts in just the opposite direction, to produce dwarf trees laden
with diminutive oranges in imitation of those grown in China and Japan, to supply the demand for the latest fad in
floral decoration of the home.
"These trees are about a foot to a foot and a half high, with fruit the size
of a large strawberry, making charming spots of color in a room. A good tree costs from $1 to $l0, and if
kept in a fairly even temperature should last a month or two. The early trees of this species of dwarf
orange were brought to America from China many years ago, but it is only of late that they have become fashionable.
"Both in Japan and China it is the custom to produce dwarf fruit trees.
In many of the houses in Japan may be met with tiny specimens of the orange tree which are seldom above six inches
in height and bear oranges only of the size of a cherry, and yet sweet and palatable.
"How these results are obtained appears now to be tolerably clear. The
production of dwarfs is indeed based upon one of the commonest principles of vegetable physiology, namely the
retardation of the flow of sap in the young trees. Where the dwarfs are raised for suckers, as is frequently
the case, the main stem is in most cases twisted in zigzag form, which checks the free circulation of the sap, but
at the same time promotes the growth of the side branches that bear fruit.
"When the trees are raised for seed those seeds are selected which are them-
selves the smallest and which have been gathered from the smallest trees. The supply of water is reduced to
the smallest possible quantity, and as new branches are in the act of formation their growth is retarded in various
ways, the points of the leaders being generally nipped out.
"Sometimes the branches are bent and interwined or tied together in order to
force them into some grotesque position. By this means a tree is given the appearance of great age.
"No doubt the climate of both China and Japan favors to some extent the growth
of plants under these most unfavorable conditions, but there can be no question of the natives' superior skill in
this branch of arboriculture; in fact, they have no real competitors in the art.
"Possibly this new fad will extend to other flowers, fruits and plants that
are capable of sustaining life on short allowance.
"Diminutive strawberries are always of better flavor than large ones. So,
possibly, we may have the dwarf violet, a concentrated bunch of ecstasy no larger than a thimble."
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