212 Tl.MEHRl. 



A beautiful fibre can be obtained from the leaves of 

 the pine apple, but they require to be steeped in water 

 eighteen days, and the difficulty of extraction prevents 

 its being largely used. 



There are in the colony regions, where suitable soil 

 exists for the cultivation of this really hardy fruit-plant 

 — and, having regard to its keeping qualities, it would 

 seem that, freights being favourable, it might be profitably 

 sent to markets not more than twenty-one days distant. 



The mango comes in for a full share of notice. The 

 fruit is greatly appreciated, but the statement that the 

 seeds are roasted and eaten in tropical countries will be 

 new at all events, to the dwellers in Guiana. We do 

 not, however, seem to utilize this fruit as much as we 

 ought. In India the sliced fruit is a common ingredient 

 in curry and forms an excellent pickle, of which Bombay 

 stuffed mangos are an example. Here we prefer im- 

 porting English pickles to using the materials we have at 

 hand. As a food tree it is loudly praised in the report, 

 since horses and cattle in Florida eat the fruit readily 

 and thrive upon it. The mango was, after some attempts, 

 which failed, successfully introduced in Florida so 

 recently as 1877, an ^ when eight years old the mangoes 

 on the two parent trees were estimated to be as many 

 as 19,000, some of them one pound in weight. Eleven 

 trees in the fourth year from planting yielded fruit which 

 sold for $219, and two years afterwards, bushels of their 

 crop were shipped, realising at Chicago 60 cents per dozen. 

 These results are startling, especially when one reads 

 that the variety most commonly grown is the " turpen- 

 tine mango, one of the most inferior sorts, but better 

 than no mango at all." 



