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The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



He had not been very long in Ceylon, but he had 

 been long enough in India to know that the 

 climate of Ceylon was as good, if not better 

 than, some of the best districts of Sou- 

 thern India where the pineapple grew very 

 luxuriantly. The difficulty here, as far as ho 

 knew, was in getting land for cultivation. He 

 was sure that if the cultivation of the pine was 

 systematically and carefully carried out, the 

 results would in every way justify the outlay 

 on such a cultivation. As far as he knew, he 

 thought that the Fruit Growers' Company 

 were ready to bring out any plant required, and 



TO ENCOURAGE FRUIT GKOWERS 



in every way. The soil here was very good, the 

 climate was not hard at all, it was very tem- 

 perate, and he could not understand why, if all 

 kinds of English fruits could be grown suc- 

 cessfully in a place like Bangalore, better re- 

 sults could not be gained in Ceylon. 



MANGO CANNING IN CEYLON. 



Asked whether mangoes had received any at- 

 tention at the hands of the Company, Mr. Mac- 

 Haffie said that that what he had said about 

 pineapples applied equally to the mangoes. He 

 knew that in some parts of Southern India the 

 best of mangoes could be secured, but he did 

 not know of any great output in Ceylon. When 

 the pressman informed him that the mango 

 fruit was abundant in some parts of the 

 Western Province, Jaffna District and the 

 Southern Province, he was surprised. If that 

 was the case, he was sure of a great opening. 

 In India, even during the mango season, a 

 dozen fruits could not be bought for less than 

 a rupee, which was the ordinary price, but 

 when he was told that in Ceylon mangoes were 

 much cheaper, Mr. MacHaffie was disposed 

 to doubt it. If there was a sufficient supply of 

 fruits the Company would at once take up the 

 matter, he said. But so far no investigations 

 had been made in that direction. The only 

 difficulty, he said, was that there was only one 

 crop in a year. If a canning factory was opened 

 for mangoes, a large number of employees would 

 be required, because the fruits had to be canned 

 and packed during the season ; if not, there 

 would be heavy losses. 



THE PKOOES8 OF CANNING. 



Mr MacHaffie said that the canning of man' 

 goes was similar to the process employed in the 

 case of other fruits. First the mangoes were 

 pared and the stones taken out. Over-ripe, 

 bruised or otherwise unfit fruit were rejected. 

 The good ones were put in cans, which were 

 weighed and filled with syrup. The cap was 

 then soldered on to the opening of the can with 

 a capping steel, leaving a vent hole in the mid- 

 dle of the can for driving out the air inside. 

 Steam from a boiler was passed in to the water 

 in a large wooden vat and the cans were placed 

 in the boiling water in crates suspended from a 

 crane. This was called exhausting. After the 

 air had been driven out, the vent hole was sol- 

 dered up and the cans were put in boiling water. 

 This operation was called processing. After a 

 certain time the cans were taken out and placed 

 in the cooling vat. They were then ready for 

 (shipment, In conclusion Mr MacHaffie said 



that he could not do anything in the matter 

 until Mr Harry Martin returned to the Island, 

 in about three months, when it was likely that 

 the subject of mango preserving would be 

 seriously considered. 



A FRDIT GROWER'S REMARKS. 



A Sinhalese gentleman, who has a large rubber 

 estate in the Kelani Valley, speaking to our 

 representative, said that the villagers did not 

 care at all about cultivating fruit, as in years 

 gone by. In his estate there was a block of 

 land of about 8 acres in extent where pineapple 

 was planted as an experiment, and he was glad 

 to say that the results had been so far satisfac- 

 tory. With regard to mangoes he said that the 

 yield of that fruit was ten times as much as that 

 of the pineapple. He was sure that if sufficient 

 encouragement were given, those who had 

 mango trees would nourish them and cultivate 

 them more systematically instead of cutting 

 them down. 



GIT1US FRUIT HANDLING AND 

 SHIPPING IN FLORIDA. 



The investigations of citrus fruit handling and 

 shipping in Florida were continued during the 

 season 1910-11 on a broader and more compre- 

 hensive scale than has been possible in previous 

 years. The lines of work included : (1) a com- 

 parison of fruit picked and handled carefully 

 with ordinary picking and handling, and a com- 

 prehensive study of the effect of washing ; (2) 

 shipping experiments with carefully picked and 

 packed fruit, and fruit picked and packed in the 

 ordinary commercial way, part of each lot being 

 packed and shipped as soon as practicable after 

 picking, and part being delayed several days 

 before packing and shipping ; (3) inspection of 

 oranges in the fields and packing houses for the 

 determination of mechanically injured fruit and 

 fruit with long stems, with demonstrations of 

 the effect of such injuries on the keeping qual- 

 ities of the fruit ; (4) a determination of the per- 

 centage of 'stem-end' decay in oranges shipped 

 to Washington, and the study of the occurrence 

 of the stem-end rot under different conditions, 

 including shipping experiments with fruit from 

 sprayed and nonsprayed sections of experimen- 

 tal groves. — W. I. Agricultural News, March 1. 



MANURE UNDER FRUIT TREES. 



It is usual to apply manure underneath fruit 

 trees as far as their branches extend overhead, 

 but this is not a correct system, writes an autho- 

 rity on the Continent. At an experimental 

 station on the Rhine a cherry tree '25 years old 

 was dug up, and the roots were found to extend 

 more than ll yards. The roots of a plum tree 

 three years old Were quite two yards long. How 

 extensive, then, must the roots of a fully-grown 

 tree be ! From this fact it is clear that the proper 

 plan is to spread the manure, whether farmyard 

 manure or artificial, in a wider circle, and in 

 orchards, where the trees are close together, to 

 distribute it over the whole surface. Only in this 

 way is it certain that all the trees will get the 

 benefit of the nourishment supplied to. them, 

 —Western Mail, March 16, 



