THE MANGO 107 



Experience in Florida has shown that girdling, to be effective, 

 must be done in late summer. No one yet has had sufficient 

 experience to recommend it as an orchard practice. Like 

 root-pruning, the use of salt, and several other unusual prac- 

 tices, it may prove of decided value when its proper method of 

 use has been determined. Every grower should conduct a 

 few carefully arranged experiments along such lines as these, 

 even though on a limited scale. 



In India, the only pruning usually given the mango consists 

 in cutting out dead wood. Since the fruit is produced at the 

 ends of the branchlets, general pruning of the top cannot be 

 practiced as with northern fruits. In Florida, however, 

 several growers have found it desirable to prune out a certain 

 number of branches from the center of the tree, so as to keep 

 the crown open and admit light and air. 



PROPAGATION 



Like many other fruit-trees, the mango has been propagated 

 in the tropics principally by seed. In some instances seedling 

 trees produce good fruits; this is particularly true of certain 

 races, such as the Manila or Philippine. But in order to 

 insure early bearing, productiveness, and uniformity of fruit, 

 it is necessary to use vegetative means of propagation. In- 

 arching, budding, and grafting are the methods most successfully 

 employed. 



The seedling races of the tropics are, so far as has been 

 observed, polyembryonic in character. Three to ten plants 

 commonly grow from a single seed. Since these develop 

 vegetatively from the seed tissues, they are not the product of 

 sexual reproduction, but may be compared to buds or cions 

 from the parent tree. Most of the grafted Indian varieties, on 

 the other hand, have lost this characteristic. When their 

 seeds are planted a single young tree develops, and this is 



