2 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



For, strange as it may seem to many who have never lived 

 or traveled in the hot belts of the earth, those lands come far 

 short of conforming to that conventional idea of the tropics, as 

 regions where luscious fruits grow wild upon every tree and the 

 languorous native has only to stretch forth his hand to obtain 

 his dinner. It is a well-attested fact that the inhabitants of 

 many tropical countries suffer for want of sufficient fresh 

 fruit ; and it is also true that much real starvation in densely 

 populated hot regions, India for example, could be averted by 

 planting on a wholesale scale fruit-trees such as the avocado, 

 whose product has a relatively high food value. 



The reason for this scarcity of fruits in precisely those 

 regions where, by climatic indications, one would expect them 

 to be most abundant, is not to be found in any single fact, 

 but is, perhaps, largely the result of three causes : first, the 

 enervating effect of heat, which discourages man from under- 

 taking work which can be avoided; second, the one-sided 

 exploitation of many tropical regions for the production of 

 materials such as rubber and cotton, without sufficient regard 

 to supplying wholesome foodstuffs for those who labor in 

 producing these articles ; and third, the long time required by 

 tree-fruits to yield returns, as compared with the annual crops 

 such as corn, beans, and squashes. This last factor is par- 

 ticularly disastrous where primitive races of people are con- 

 cerned, for such almost invariably devote their attention in the 

 main to crops which give quick returns, the very crops which 

 must depend absolutely on the season's rainfall. 



It is, indeed, only as scattered, often neglected, specimens 

 in dooryards and around cultivated fields that many of the 

 tropical fruit-trees exist. Others, such as the mango and the 

 breadfruit, are given more attention, yet they rarely receive 

 more than a fraction of the solicitous care which northerners 

 lavish on their apples, peaches, and pears. 



With the exception of a few species, such as the banana 



