177 



From Hon. Chas. B. Vickers, Mt. Edgecombe, Bhiefields. 



I cannot give any particulars as to the name or origin of this tree. 

 It stands in a guinea grass past are ab )ut a mile from the house, 

 and though mango trees abound on this property and in the neigh- 

 bourhood, it is the only one of its kind. The negroes call it the 

 "Beef mango. My lite brother William told me, that a Manchester 

 (Ja.) visitor of his said he knew the Mango and called it "Bessy or 

 Sally So and So" giving the name which I have forgotten, I had sent 

 my brother, as usual, some of them. 



The tree is rather lofty for a mango and does not spread much. 

 It is getting old and I should very much like to have plants of the 

 kind for myself and the country generally. 



The planted seeds do not give the same good mango. 



I am equally in the dark as to the introduction of mangoes into 

 Westmoreland. I have a nourishing tree of the Bombay mango, a 

 plant which Sir J. P. Grant sent to my said brother. 



The shipping of Mangoes and the Reason for their Absence in 

 the Markets of the United States. 

 By John W. Harshherger, Ph. D., Philadelphia 

 The travell r from temperate countries in first visiting the tropics 

 is naturally much impressed with the large number of new and un- 

 tried fruits which he meets with on every hand. He tests them all, 

 and after his experimentation has gone on for some time, he generally 

 reaches some conclusion as to those fruits which suit his fancy b^st. 

 Almost universally, the mango is chosen as one of the most desirable 

 of the mew' fruits tried. If this is so, why do we not find the mango 

 for sale in the fruit stores, markets, grocery stores and fruit stands of 

 the cities and towns of the United States ? It is due, one reasons, if 

 not familiar with the facts, to the imperfect or deciyed condition of 

 the mangoes when they reach the northern ports of consumption. Is 

 this so, or is the scarcity of this delicious tropical product due to the 

 lack of energy and business capacity on the part of tropical agricul- 

 turists ? 



This article is written as in part an answer to the above questions, 

 and is based upon actual experiment — the writer h iving recently 

 visited Haiti and Jamaica on a botanical excursion A little history 

 will be of some help in this discussion. According to the Pomologist 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture (Bulletin 1, Division 

 of Pomology) : " No fruit stood higher in the popular esteem of peo- 

 ple in parts of South Florida than the Mango. Wnen the disastrous 

 freeze of January, 1883 occurred, every, or almost every tree north of 

 Fort Myers was destroyed. In 1884, 126,968 mangoes were shipped 

 from Jamaica to the United States and brought $900. In their eighth 

 year from seed two Florida trees bore 19.000 fruits. Some of these 

 fruits weighed a pound. Mangoes were shipped to Cnicago and 

 brought 60 cents a dozen." So much f >r the history of the first in- 

 troduction of the mango, as a fruit, into the markets of the United 

 States. 



The experiment to be described was conducted by the writer during 

 his return from Fort Antonio, Jamaica by steamer to New York, and 

 thence by rail to his home in Philadelphia. A number of different 



