

SECTION 2. 



CHAPTER X. 



FRUIT CULTIVATION 



It is hardly necessary to explain that by the term "fruit" 

 here is meant dessert fruits, as distinguished from fruits which are 

 cooked and used as vegetables, as Bread-fruit, Jak-fruit, Cho-cho, 

 Bandak-kai, Gourds, etc. Many of these latter may, however, 

 be eaten either raw as " fruit," or as a "vegetable" when cooked, 

 e.g., Jak-fruit, Granadilla, Tomato, and Papaw. Botanically speak- 

 ing, any portion of a plant which produces a seed is a fruit. As 

 compared with most European fruits, the great majority of edible 

 tropical fruits have undergone but little improvement by the process 

 of cultivation and selection. Many of them are nevertheless 

 capable of being greatly improved in quality by a system of careful 

 selection and hybridising, and by bud or graft propagation. 

 Following on these lines, the cultivator should aim at producing 

 or selecting fruits which approach a seedless state, as has already 

 been attained in the case of the Banana, Pine-apple, Orange and 

 others. 



Fruit-culture for Market. In recent years fruit-growing for 

 export has considerably advanced in the West Indies, South 

 Africa and Australia, forming an important industry in these 

 countries. The export of tinned pine-apples has developed into a 

 considerable source of revenue in Singapore, Cuba, Hawaii etc., 

 while the inhabitants of the Canary Islands are chieHy dependent 

 on the cultivation of tropical or sub-tropical fruits, which go to 

 supply the London and other European markets. Many of the more 

 purely tropical fruits, however, are as yet practically unknown outside 

 the countries of their production. Hitherto fruit-growing in Ceylon 

 has been carried on in an haphazard manner, either as an auxiliary 

 means of livelihood or for private consumption, and it is asserted that 

 there is not sufficient inducement to make it a business venture. 

 Yet the requirements of the Colony in the way of fruit, either 



