Fruiting . 



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MANGIFERA 



THE FRUIT FRESH AND PRESERVED INDICA 



Cultivation 

 near the root. Firm stakes and shade are desirable during the following 



six months, and the mt. T\ .-11111- hind may be cultivated with moderately 



irrigated and richly manured crops till the tre-> h,i\.- attained doweriny 



size. In live years the plants should be fit to bear a considerable <|ii.. 



.I fruit, \\hfii fruiting age is attained, there is no necessity for irrigation Kruitii* Ae. 



from the time the rain oeWM in September till the young fruits appear; 



th.-reafter, irrigation about once in fifteen days is desirable whil.- tin- 



hints an- in< reaMiiL: in >i/e, but may be discontinued when ripening p- 



proai-hes. The surface soil should be kept in a loose, friable stir 



cause the water to pass downwards. The general flowering season is 



from .January to March, and ripening from May to August, but varieties 



dower and ripen at all seasons. 



Fruit. The cultivated kinds of mango are very numerous, but the Fruit. 

 reader need only be referred to the list given by Maries in the Dictionary, 

 and to the accounts by Firminger (Man. Gard. Ind. (ed. Cameron), 1904, 

 _~>i <>1) and by Woodrow (I.e. 25-32). An interesting paper by Maries in 

 the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society may also be consulted. 

 The two principal localities in India where the finest fruits are said to Bert 

 lie produced are Mazagon at Bombay and Malda in Bengal. On the 

 other hand, the fruit ripens so badly and is so much diseased in Assam 

 that it is hardly ever seen to be cultivated, except as a shade-tree. 

 Maxwell-Lefroy gives an account of the Mango Weevil (Agri. Journ. 

 Ind., i., pt. ii., 164-5) which is so very destructive to the fruit. 



Besides being eaten as a ripe fruit, numerous preparations are made 

 of it. When green it is cut into slices, and, after extraction of the stone, 

 is put into curries, or made into pickles with other ingredients or into 

 preserves and jellies. When young and green it is boiled, strained, 

 mixed with milk and sugar, and thus prepared as the custard known as 

 in'ttK/o-phul, or dried and made into the Native ambchur. When very 

 young it may be cut into small pieces and eaten in salad. So again, 

 the ripe fruit is used in curries and salads, and the expressed juice when Pickl< *- 

 spread on plates and allowed to dry is formed into the thin cakes known 

 as ainbsath. Attempts to bring the fresh mango on the London market, 

 at a paying price, have hitherto been unsuccessful, but if it could be 

 conveyed cheaply to England, a trade that would rival the fruit of the 

 West Indies might be immediately anticipated. In times of famine the 

 kernels are eaten. Preserves, chutnies and pickles made from mango 

 fruit are largely exported to England and elsewhere. In MKDK INK, the Medicine, 

 ripe fruit is considered invigorating, fattening, laxative and diureti. . 

 but the fibrous rind, as well as the unripe fruit, are astringent and 

 acid. 



Timber. According to Gamble, the WOOD is used for planking, Timber, 

 door and window-frames, in Calcutta for packing-cases, and in Bihar 

 for opium and indigo boxes. Canoes and masula, boats are also made of 

 it, arid in Dehra Dun and some other tea districts it is in large demand 

 for tea-boxes. Hooper (Rept. Labor. Ind. Mus (Indust. Sec.), 1906-7, 8) 

 says that samples of the resinous substance procured from the tree were 

 found to contain 79 per cent, of resin and 15 per cent. gum. Some samples Gum. 

 also contained an insoluble 'gum like tragacanth. The bark and leaves 

 yield a yellow DYE of which little use is made ; one of the curiosities of DT- 

 the industrial uses of the tree is the peori (or Indian yellow) made from 

 the urine of cattle fed on the leaves. (See Coal Tar Dyts, pp. 345, 707.) 



765 



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