THE MANGOSTEEN AND ITS RELATIVES 397 



to keep the surface soil continually moist, and the application of a 

 small amount of earth from the poultry-yard, sprinkled about under- 

 neath the trees each year, are the only attentions given them. Whether 

 or not artificial fertilizers could be employed with profitable effect 

 is a question that has not been answered." 



In the same article * Fairchild writes of mangosteen culture 

 in another region : 



" In Singapore there are some small mangosteen orchards, that 

 is, mangosteens mixed with other fruits. One which is easily acces- 

 sible lies on the well-known road to the Botanic Gardens, some two 

 miles from the Raffles Hotel. The land is low and wet and several 

 drainage canals cut it up into large, square blocks. The soil is clay 

 and evidently saturated with moisture. About each tree is a cir- 

 cular bit of cultivated soil, the rest being in grass, and scattered 

 over the bare soil under the trees is a mulch of leaves and coconut 

 husks. I do not know how old the orchard is, but it is presumably 

 about 30 years of age. . . . Dr. Ridley, then Director of the Botanic 

 Gardens in Singapore, remarked that though apparently in excellent 

 condition this orchard was not productive. It was his belief that it 

 needed pruning and his experience with a tree in Government House 

 Gardens bears out his belief. He cut out the innermost branches 

 from one of the lot of old mangosteen trees there, which had not 

 borne well for years, and as a consequence it produced, the next year, 

 an abundance of fruit. His opinion is that the trees should regularly 

 be pruned of all the small inner branches." 



Regarding the behavior of the mangosteen in Hawaii, Fair- 

 child says : " Francis Gay, who planted the tree at Makaweli, 

 Kauai, wrote that where the tree is growing the water is about 

 six feet below the surface of the soil, that the tree is irrigated 

 twice or three times a month, and that the rainfall of the region 

 is six to seven inches a year. This tree of Mr. Gay's is about 25 

 years old, fruited first when ten years old and now bears only 

 a few fruits per year. ... It stands about 15 feet above sea- 

 level in a spot well-protected from the winds by windbreaks 

 and is growing on a sandy, alluvial soil." 



1 Journal of Heredity, Aug., 1915. 



