8 PROPAGATION OF TROPICAL FRUIT TREES, ETC. 



this paper can be accomplished by the use of but few of the methods 

 of budding and grafting, only- those methods which it is necessary to 

 employ will be described in detail. 



THE MANGO. 



PROSPECTS AS A FRUIT TREE. 



The Department of Agriculture is constantly in receipt of letters 

 from present or prospective growers of the mango in the subtropical 

 regions of the United States and its tropical possessions, asking for 

 instructions as to the best method of propagating the finer varieties of 

 the mango. Like most other fruit trees, it has been found that even 

 when the seeds of good varieties are planted the fruit of the resulting 

 seedlings is almost invariably inferior to that of the parent. 



The mango will undoubtedly grow in popular favor. At present, 

 unfortunately, it is suffering from a bad reputation, owing to the fact 

 that the fruits which have been placed before the public in recent 

 years have been grown mainly from seedling trees that are only fit to 

 be used as stocks or wind-breaks. They are in fact wild or jungle 

 mangoes and bear the same relation to the improved forms that the 

 crab apple does to the Baldwin or Ben Davis apple. The prejudice 

 which exists against them will, it is believed, disappear when the finer 

 varieties become known. This will not be in a year or two, because 

 there are comparatively few plants in the country which are worthy 

 of growing, and so far as the writer is aware the fruit of only one of 

 them has found its way North. 



A short cut to success in raising a large number of trees of any 

 approved variety is found in budding, or transferring a single bud, 

 with a good-sized piece of bark attached, from a good variety to the 

 stem or branch of a healthy stock plant raised from seed. In this 

 way. from the growth made by the bud, exactly the same fruit is 

 obtained as that produced by the tree from which the bud was taken. 

 The stock on which the bud is inserted may be dwarf or tall; it may 

 be vigorous or otherwise, and to the extent that these peculiarities 

 occur in the stock it will, in a large measure, transmit similar 

 peculiarities to the growth of the scion. But if the fruit of the stock 

 should be of a fibrous nature and of an undesirable flavor, these char- 

 acteristics exercise no influence whatever upon the fruit of the scion. 

 Therefore nothing is gained by propagation from seed be} T ond per- 

 haps the raising of new forms arising from artificial^ pollinated 

 flowers or otherwise. 



There is every probability that the finer varieties of Asiatic origin 

 will soon be grown in the South much more extensively than hereto- 

 fore. Not only has the Department of Agriculture had its agents on 

 the lookout for improved varieties in India and elsewhere, resulting 



