THE CUBA REVIEW 



13 



Mango Fruit May be Bought Anywhere in Haiti at Ten for One Cent. 



The flowers are small, white tinged with pink or yellow, and, like the leaves, have 

 a resinous smell. The fruit is a berried drupe more or less kidney-shaped; the flesh is 

 soft and pulpy, sometimes stringy, as in the variety called turpentine, sweet, luscious, 

 and nutritious. While the wood is used in India for a great variety of purposes, such 

 as tea boxes, window frames, and, in stained condition, to imitate toon or cedar, the 

 value of the tree lies more in the fruit than it does in the wood. 



In the unripe state the fruit is green, but when it comes to maturity it is of various 

 colors; one variety resembles a peach in color, another is like the green gage, another is 

 yellow, and still others are red. They are remotely pear-shaped and have a very smooth 

 skin. The pulp is very juicy and in a manner resembles a ripe clingstone peach. The 

 large kidney-shaped seed inclosed in a hard leathery case has numerous peculiar string- 

 like fibrous bundles extending from the surface of the drupe to the place of the attach- 

 ment of the fruit to the twig. There are, however, a number of improved varieties 

 which are without these objectionable shreds imbedded in the pulp, and these form a 

 regular article of trade and some reach the northern markets. 



The mango may be regarded as the mainstay of the colored population in the West 

 Indies when the fruit is in season, which is from April to September. The negroes 

 eat little else and provision merchants in the West Indian towns say that there is no 

 demand for wheat flour in the rural districts during the mango season, which 

 shows to what extent the natives are depending on the mango for subsistence. The 

 colored children eat mangoes before they can walk, and many children eat little else 

 for weeks at a time. Men, women and children eat them whenever they are hungry, 

 and to the northern travelers in the tropics, it would seem that all the natives outside 

 of the cities and towns subsist entirely on mangoes. 



When the indolent negroes were brought to the American tropics, nature pro- 

 vided them with the mango tree for without its nutritious fruit a good many of the 

 negroes would have starved. Not only does the tree bear fruit in great abundance and 

 for more than six months in a j^ear, but it produces a full crop every year. It has neve 

 been known to bear a fail crop, for the mango tree bears an abundance of fruit regard- 

 less of droughts or excessive rains. The trees begin to bear at the age of three or 

 four years and continue to yield fruit until they die. 



