26 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



AGRICULTURAL MATTERS. 



Experiments With Mangoes— Poultry Feeding — Lemons and Grapefruit — Another 

 Horticultural Exposition in 1910. 



Keeping Powers of Ripe Mangoes. The Avocado Most Wholesome and 



Some exoeriments were lately carried 

 out in British Guiana under the auspices 

 of the Department of Science and Agri- 

 culture to test the effect of immersion 

 for a short time in a three per cent, 

 solution of formalin (a treatment which 

 is known to liave a preservative influ- 

 ence in the case of many soft-skinned 

 fruits) upon the keeping power of 260 

 mangos belonging to twenty-three dif- 

 ferent varieties. The fruits were gath- 

 ered two at a time, one immersed for 

 ten minutes in the formalin solution, and 

 the other, which wr.s not treated with 

 formalin, being kept under precisely 

 similar conditions for control purposes. 

 The mangos were handled with every 

 care and examined daily. 



It was found in practically all cases 

 that the use of formalin tended to lessen 

 the number of days which elapsed before 

 the mangos became unfit for eating 

 purposes. Incidentally, the experiment 

 has shown that, with careful handling, 

 mangos will, on the average, keep for 

 ten or twelve days in British Guiana, 

 and it is expected that in cold storage 

 their keeping powers would be much in- 

 creased. — Barbadoes Agricultural News. 



The Avocado Most Wholesome 

 Nourishing. 



The Avocado. — The avocado or alli- 

 gator pear is one of the best, if not the 

 best, of all tropical fruits. It is the 

 most easily digested, the most whole- 

 some and the most nourishing. Ac- 

 cording to government statistics, it con- 

 tains Gve.- 10 per cent, of fat, and in a 

 form that tie mr^st delicate persons can 

 partake of t with a relish, when they 

 cannot partake of fat from an animal 

 source. It is an upbuilder of the system, 

 nerve, as well as muscle, and requires 

 but little coaxing of the palate for one 

 to become extremely fond of it. 



It is a fruit that all physicians should 

 look carefully into, on account of its 

 nourishing and digestible qualities. 



The avocado, says the Tampa Times, 

 also makes the basis of a score of the 

 linest salads that ever tickled the palate 

 of an epicure and it has the great merit 

 tliat it cannot be spoiled. 



Economical and Proper Feeding of 

 Poultry. 



In the West Indies the birds are fed 

 almrst entirely on maize, which is cheap 

 and abundant, and provided the hens get 

 plenty of liberty, and are not fed too 

 heavily, the substance is fairly satis- 

 factory. Like most West Indian grown 

 poultry foods, like rice, Guinea corn, 

 yams, sweet potatoes, etc., maize pos- 

 sesses an excess of starch, and is de- 

 ficient in flesh-forming constituents. A 

 common result of feeding too much 

 maize or other starchy food is that the 

 birds become over-fat and numbers die 

 from apoplexy or other diseases brought 

 on by this condition. But the addition 

 of a certain proportion of pigeon or 

 other peas, cocoanut or meat scraps to 

 the maize, makes a well balanced food. 

 Soft food, such as a mixture of various 

 meals, should be given to fowls in the 

 morning, and hard food, as a mixture of 

 corn and pigeon peas, the latter roughly 

 ground or broken, be fed in the evening. 

 The proportion of corn to peas should 

 be two parts of the former to one of the 

 latter. — From Notes on Poultry in the 

 West Indies, No. 23. Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture, prepared by Mr. John Bar- 

 clay, of Jamaica. 



Care in Handling Lemons. 



Tlie handling of the lemon in the pack- 

 ing house is done with more care than is 

 l^estowed on any other orchard fruit 

 crop, says the California Fruit Grower. 

 The shippers have found from costly ex- 

 perience that the dropping of the fruit 

 or the rough handling of it in any other 

 way is followed by heavy losses from 

 decay. The injunction to "handle the 

 fruit like eggs" is kept constantly before 

 the laborers, and this care in handling 

 is consistently practiced in the well- 

 managed packing houses. 



Grape-Fruit. — Twelve or fifteen years ago, 

 says the same paper, peddlers sold the first 

 grape-fruit, calling them "big oranges," and 

 the following day the housewives of New 

 York were out looking for them with broom- 

 sticks and hatchets. Now grape-fruit, in 

 season, is an indispensable adjunct to mil- 

 lions of breakfast tables. 



Orange Grove Returns. 



A California horticulturist figures the re- 

 turn from an orange grove as follows : 



Third year 10 boxes per acre 



Fourth year 50 " " " 



Fifth year 100 " " " 



Si.xth year 175 " " " 



Seventh year 225 " " " 



Eighth year 275 " " " 



Ninth year 300 " " " 



Tenth year 325 " _ " 



—California Fruit Grower. 



