44 CROPS THAT PAY. 



Florida. The extent of mango culture in India is shown by the 

 number of varieties, of which 500 have been listed there. Of these 

 100 are characterized as "good." The inferior sorts are the com- 

 mon, or jungle, mangoes and are seedling descendants of the native 

 or wild trees of India. Such have been aptly described as a mix- 

 ture of tow and turpentine," because of the mass of tough fibres 

 which is attached to the seeds and distributed in greater or less 

 abundance throughout the resin-flavored pulp. Now tow is not 

 good "eating," nor is turpentine good drink; therefore it would 

 seem that the objection of some folk to the common, or turpentine, 

 mango is but reasonable and what might be expected, although the 

 mango lover unhesitatingly pronounces it better than no mango at 

 all. This inferior mango comes honestly enough by its turpentine 

 flavor, for a near relative of Magnifera Indica is the very tree 

 which yields turpentine; but why the fibre, or "tow" is one of those 

 things which passes human understanding. In its physical char- 

 acteristics the common mango differs more widely from one of the 

 better varieties than does a clingstone peach from a freestone. The 

 eating of such a mango calls for the exercise of rare skill, coolness 

 and good judgment, especially if the act be performed in public, 

 so elusive and uncontrollable is the fibrous, pulp-enveloped seed 

 when one tries to eat the fruit out of hand. It is not recorded that 

 anyone ever succeeded in doing this to his own satisfaction without 

 the comforting knowledge that an immediate bath and a convenient 

 dentist awaited him — the former to remove all external traces of the 

 deed, the latter to extract the fibre from between the eater's teeth. 

 How different is the really good mango, a luscious "Mulgoba," or an 

 indescribable "Alphonse," as the best two varieties are named. 

 A writer of imagination says: "Compare the untidy act of suck- 

 ing the rich and spicy pulp from its mass of slippery, oozy fibre in a 

 seedling or jungle mango with that of dipping with a spoon from 

 the 'half shell' of a firm, beautifully colored peel of a 'Mulgoba,' 

 its smooth, delicately blended, aromatic, custard-like pulp as the 

 modest feminine does the sparkling ices from a golden sauce dish." 

 Surely the characterization of a good mango is in that sentence. 

 An official account of the "Mulgoba" mango in the Yearbook of the 

 Department of Agriculture for 1901 will serve to describe the better 

 varieties generally. It reads: "Fibre scanty, fine and tender; flesh 

 rich, apricot yellow, very tender, melting and juicy, sweet, rich, 

 fragrant; quality very good. The Mulgoba surpasses in flavor and 

 quality the seedlings previously grown, but its most distinctly marked 

 features of superiority are the tenderness- of flesh and absence 

 of the objectionable fibre and strong turpentine flavor common to 

 most of the seedlings grown in this country." It is the absence of 

 "tow and turpentine," and the presence of the indescribable flavor 

 that distinguishes good mangoes from others. 



The mango tree and its fruit are subjects about which travellers 

 in the East have written interestingly. 



