S6a 



THE TUoPiCAL AOmdjLTvmsr, 



[Feb. i^ 1 f J^ 



only inferior Bjmbajs. The pre-umptinu is they were 

 the fotmer, as no one iu his seu.es would thiuk of 

 sendiug inferior Boiubay uia-igi s all the way from 

 that capital. IcinfLSsI was di-aprjoiuied. They were 

 not bad, but str iigy, wnd i i erior in flavour to scores 

 of varieiieb we tiave ii' Upi>t=r ludia. One has heard 

 so much of Mazaf,'oiis and Aiphjuses, that 6ne may 

 perhaps have lear.it to limk upo.i them with a sort 

 of awe. The noiou ihat B .mbay's surpassed all the 

 mangos of the rest nf India may hav-- been true in 

 the days of Clive, when commui icatioti betueen the 

 coast and the interior may have been difEculf, owing to 

 want of ro-tds, aud the presence of tbu^s, dacoits, 

 tigers, &c. And it is not imp.js-ible that by repeti- 

 tion over a hundred years that they icere the best, 

 this notion may have stuik to them, and that every- 

 thing else out of B'imbay was jungle-manc/o. If our 

 up-country Bombays were reall> orgmally brought fioni 

 that place, it would appear that the flavour aud tex- 

 ture of the children have far surpassed those of their 

 parents. Anjhow there are so m^ny choice varieties 

 now iu cultivation up-country that they can hardly 

 all have owed their oiij,iii to the Western Presidency. 

 If the people of Bomt.ay were m<ide aware of tlie 

 wealth of varieties which are to be had iu the Upp -r 

 Provinces, and of the superiority of many of them, 

 it is alm-jst certain that a bri>k mmgo trade woula 

 result between Upper India and Bomoay. 



"When pears are being sent to Covent Garden from 

 the Oape iu capital condition, and when both pears 

 and apples are bei 'g sent to the Colonial Exhibition 

 from AustraUa over 14,000 miles of sea it is a great 

 pity that uo one has thought of making some arrange- 

 ment to send over to the Exhibition samples of the 

 ehoicest mangos of India — fruits, which, iu the esti- 

 mation of many, are far superior to the pears aud 

 apples of any part of the world. The mango bears 

 being plucked under-ripe, and by refrigeration, could 

 easily be sent to England tale quale, and there ripened 

 to perfection, within a week. N<iy more, it could be 

 sent to New York, a sea voyage of only six days 

 further. The voyage from Melbourne to Colombo takes 

 now about 19 days, and from Colombo to L )ndon the 

 voyage is longer than from Bombay to Ljndon. Ro 

 that mangos could he carried from Bombay to New 

 York in a shorter time than apples and pears cau 

 be carried fiom Mell ourne to Lon oa. Of course at 

 these places, an Indian, up iu ttie art of mango 

 ripening, which is simple enough, might be employed 

 to bring them to maturity after arrival. If England 

 and America were made acquainted with the choice 

 varieties of this unique frui', there is no kiiowiug what 

 stimulus a trade in mangos between Bombay and tuose 

 countries would give to their cultivaiionall over 

 India. There are positively scores of superb varieties. 

 Leaving, however, foreign trade out of the question, 

 there seems room for an extensive trade between 

 Upper ludia aud Bombay. Someone recently returned 

 from Bombay, told me that mangos there were sell- 

 ing at R6 a dozen. It in true the octroi duties may 

 be high in Bombay, and it may be true that high 

 rent if paid for fruit stalls in the Crawford Market : 

 still R6 a dozen for mangos in Bombay is an enorm- 

 ous price, when up-country the choicest, in favourable 

 seasons, sell for 20 or 25 for one rupee. It would be 

 interesting to have it settled oiice for all whether 

 the "Lingra' of Beuarec, or the " Tikari '' of Faruk- 

 habad, or a dozen of so-called Bombay mango varie- 

 ties grown in these Provinces, are not i'lfinitely superior 

 both in flavour and texture to any native BomV.ay or 

 Alphonse mangos. If not, those g-owu in Boiubay 

 mu^t be simply anyelic as many varieties grown iu 

 these Provinces are simpb/ perfect. Alphonse De Can- 

 doUe, in his Origin of Cultivated Plants, sa\s that 

 " in the new world the mango was fi st introduced 

 into Brazil, for the seeds were brouglit thence to 

 Barbadoes in the middle of the last century. In Jama- 

 ica it was introduced about the year 1782. It is culti- 

 vated at the present day in tropical At'nca, aud even 

 in Mauritius aud the Seychtllcs, where it his become 



to some extent naturalized iu the woods It was 



not cultiv»ted in Cayenne in the time of Aublet at 

 tbe end of the IStb century, but now there are maogO0 



of the finest kind in this co'ony. They are grafted, 

 and it is observed tha* their stones liroduce better fruit 

 than that »f the ovljind .itock." 



If the latter stat-meut be tru», it should be written 

 in large letters in every village and to«Tn iu India, 

 where mango hac/hs of tbe fine kinds exist. I have 

 preached for many that it is a grave mistake to throw 

 away the thiatnand* of stones of superb maugos that 

 are consumed every year. Natives still believe that 

 there is no other way of obtaining good maugo trees 

 exc- pting by taking f/rafts. This is s.O; if the iden- 

 tical sort of mango fruit is wanted, but it does not at 

 all follow that a stone of a good mingo will not 

 give a httter fruit than that of its parent. A little 

 reflection must teach them that all the choice varie- 

 ties they now possess could not have come about 

 except through the seed of interi r sort«, and these 

 again from sorts interior to them and so on until we 

 reach the wild mango of the jungles. Very rarely 

 new varieties of any sort of fruit can be raised in any 

 part of the world, excepting by means of the seeds 

 which may give nn inferior, an equal, or a better va'iety. 

 All J body who came across a fine mango would do 

 a good service if he either planted the stone himself, 

 or gave it to some one who would plant it. The 

 Caual Department aud public gardens, and j lil gardens 

 might do a great deal in this w>>y by letting it be 

 known that they would be glad to collect seeds of 

 fine mangos for sowing. If some of the trees turned 

 out inferior kmds and not worth keeping, very little 

 would be lost, as sucli trees might be sold for fire- 

 wood, while the good ones might be propagated by 

 grafting. 



Although India has n^issed the opportunity this year 

 of showing the world at the Coh^nial Exhibition what 

 sort of a thing a good mango is, aud how many scores 

 of choice varieties she might send to London and 

 new York, there will be yet another opportunity of 

 doing so shortly. It is proposed to hold either next 

 year, or the one after, an International Horticultural 

 Exhibition in London, and under any circumstances 

 that opportunity should not be again missed. The 

 Maharaja of Durbhunga and the M-ihiraja of Benares, 

 who are great collectors of choice mango trees from 

 all parts of India, and mmy other Eajas, Nawabs, 

 and native gen'lemen could easily Rend a represent- 

 ative collection of one of th*' finest fruits in tlie world. 

 And if the supjjly could be kept up, as is being now 

 dime with apples and pears from Australia, so much 

 better, i^lready Jam^iica sends mangos to New York, 

 but an American in luHia who k'lows them, told me 

 they are not good. No couotry for many years could 

 compete with India to- the supply of choice fiuit. 

 She has had centuries in which to pprfect her mangos, 

 aud if they took the fancy uf the Englsli and Ameri- 

 can people, a gooi business might be nade of it. 



It is stated that '• in London there are restaurants 

 to-day, where over a thousand dinners dail- are served, 

 wholly of cereals, vegetables, aud fruits:" the vege- 

 tal iau mania is still on the increase. What would 

 not a vegetarian give fur a breakfast of iced mangos 

 and to<st? Tnose who have not tried it had better 

 do so, aud see how delicious and satisfactory it is. 

 — Pioneer.— [In Ceylon, where grafting is practically 

 unknown, a good proportion of the mangos, are ex- 

 ce'le-t.— Ed.l 



A coNTEMPOTtAET uoticcw tuat IU the agricultural 

 class book for use in schools about to be revised by Mr, 

 Ilot)ertsou, th-re is a chai^ter on insectivorous birds 

 which that at le ornithologist, Mr. \\ . Davison, of 

 Shoreham, has contributed. Tiie birds described iu 

 the w ;rk are figured in colors ou separate charts to 

 be used to illustrate the book. The ignorance of 

 natural history among school -going children of the 

 present day is profound, and some satisfaction is felt in 

 learning that at last the Educational Department is 

 alive to the importr.nce of the sttbject. It is not only 

 those who are trained to agri ulture who should 

 distinguish one bird from another, ami be able to tell 

 the proclivities of eacli, but young children generally 

 should acquire early a taste for such knowledge, 



which is both elevatiug and moraliziug Indian Ayrl' 



cultwUt, 



