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sorts of tropical fruits were bought by special arrangements on Mon- 

 day July 22, 1901. The list of picked fruits, &c, as packed for ship- 

 ment, comprised plantains, pine apples, oranges, limes, mammee-apples,, 

 yams, breadfruits, guava, papaws, sour-sops and manges. In one box, 

 or crate, no especial care was taken in the packing — all of the above 

 named fruits, &c, being nailed up together for transportation. In 

 another box, the mangoes were each wrapped in a piece of newspaper, 

 and carefully packed away in a rather close and partially ventilated 

 case. Two dozen, or more of these fruits in the green state were thus 

 shipped, along with the others to Philadelphia. An inspection of the 

 open, well-ventilated crate, when two days out at sea, revealed the 

 total collapse of the breadfruits and the sour-sops, which had be- 

 come soft and mushy, and were consequently thrown over board. 

 The other fruits carried well — the mangoes best of all. Those 

 mangoes packed in the open box were all more or less in a mel- 

 low condition, while those in the closer box, (wrapped with paper) 

 were firm arid sound, although fully ripe. In all cases the fruits of 

 the common sort, ' the turpentine mango/ were found to have changed 

 from the green of unripeness to to the golden orange of the fully ripe 

 mango. Ten days elapsed before the boxes were opened, so that the test 

 made fully establishes the possibility of shipping mangoes to the lar- 

 ger cities of the American Republic. It should be borne in mind, 

 that the test was a severe one Without a doubt, the mangoes had 

 been collected the Saturday before the writer sailed, July 20th, and 

 kept over Sunday until Monday, when they were bought and packed. 

 The steamer sailed from Jamaica Tuesday afternoon, July l ^3rd, and 

 reached New York Monday morning, July 29th, where the boxes were 

 expressed to Philadelphia, reaching the home of the writer on Tuesday 

 afternoon, July 30th. The last mango was eaten on Sunday, August 

 4th, so that fully fifteen days had elapsed from the time of gathering 

 until the date of final consumption. 



The writer has no doubt, that a variety of mango can be found, or 

 selected, which will carry even better than the ordinary kinds sold by 

 the negro women in the markets of Jamaica. From informationgleaned 

 from ]Vlr. "William Fawcett, Director of the Botanic Gardens, and irom 

 Mons. Charles Patin, Consul General of Belgium, to Colombia, the 

 writer believes that the finer races of mango are not known in culti- 

 vation in Jamaica, but are only to be found in experimental grounds 

 and in botanic gardens. He knows that several such varieties are 

 now under observation at Hope Gardens near Kingston. 



Two elements are, therefore, needed to make the cultivation of 

 mar goes, a profitable undertaking for the people of Jamaica, who 

 sorely need at this time a diversification of their industries. The 

 first thing necessary, as suggested above, is a suitable variety of mango 

 — one that has little fibrous material attached to its seed, one that 

 will carry well and last a long time, and one which is juicy and pos- 

 sesses that delicious turpentiny flavour. The second requisite is a com- 

 pany to push the cultivation in Jamaica, and who will see to its ad- 

 vertisement and general introduction into the markets of the United 

 States. 



University of Pensylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



