THE MANGO. 



45 



Elphinstone, the famous historian of India, says, "The mango 

 is the best fruit of India, at once rich and delicate, and all other 

 fruits are dull and insipid beside its intensity of taste. There is 

 something in it that is nothing less than voluptuous." 



MANGO PARTLY PEELED 



COLLINS, BUL. 28, BUREAU PLANT INDUSTRY. 



Mr. Kirk Monroe, the author, on a trip around the world in 

 1903, wrote home : 



"Everywhere from Tuticom to the high foothills of the Himalaya, 

 and from Bombay to Calcutta, the mango tree, stately, wide-branched 

 and luxuriant, lining the dusty roads or shading the mud-walled, palm- 

 thatched, native hovels, is an ever-present feature of the landscape, and 

 In Its season, which is the same as in South Florida, viz., from May until 

 August, all native India finds In the mango a welcome addition to its 

 scanty menu. At the same time, save in a few widely scattered locali- 

 ties, and notably in the vicinity of Doitibay, the mango must grow as It 

 can without the least assistance in the way of cultivation or fertilizer 

 from the proprietors of the soil. As a result, the ordinary mango of 

 India is as much a thing of 'tow and turpintine' as is the same fruit 

 without intelligent supervision in the "West Indies or South Florida. 

 Only in the vicinity of Bombay did I find mangoes receiving a certain 

 amount of intelligent treatment, and even there so little is done that one 

 regards with amazement the results achieved. Selection, propagation by 

 the clumsy and antiquated method of inarching, irrigation during the 

 dry season, and in a few cases a scanty supply of stable manure, ap- 

 plied once a year. That is all ; but the result is the production of more 



