Edible Products. 



414 



[May, 1912. 



An examination of fruits collected and 

 brought from different parts of India, 

 and placed side by side reveals the fact 

 that the fruit of one place differs from 

 that of other in colour, general appear- 

 ance, smell and other qualities. It is 

 quite possible that the dry Deccan 

 climate with a small average rainfall, 

 although unfavourable to great pro- 

 ductiveness of fruit, yet cleanses it of its 

 resinous matters and consequently im- 

 proves the flavour. 



Irrigation.— Much useful information 

 might be collected on the subject of 

 irrigating mango gardens in different 

 soils. The fruit produced from areas 

 which are frequently inundated for 

 irrigation with tank or river water, or 

 which have a high underground water- 

 level rising almost to the roots is always 

 inferior to that produced in gardens 

 situated on well-drained slopes and care- 

 fully irrigated. Daring the vigorous 

 period of the growth of mango plants, 

 say up to at least their eighth or tenth 

 year, the trees should be abundantly 

 irrigated, so that they may not receive a 

 serious check to their growth. Of 

 course, there are exceptional soils with a 

 high undei ground water-level on which 

 mango plants do not require any irrig- 

 ation after the fourth or fifth year from 

 planting. 



When fruit is our aim, particularly 

 from well-grown trees, the whole ground 

 under the trees should be well dug with 

 a pickaxe and exposed in October- 

 November after the rains are over. This 

 operation induces the trees to blossom. 

 The ground should remain in this state 

 for about forty days from the time of 

 flowering. It is very often found that if 

 the ground under trees is copiously 

 irrigated just when fruits are setting, or 

 when they ai e only about the size of 

 marbles, the whole crop suddenly withers 

 and drops down on account of the sudden 

 rush of sap to them. 



Manuring.— Manuring of mango trees 

 with well-rotted litter in July or August 

 once in two or three years increases the 

 yield of fruit, but it is said that high 

 manuring interferes to some extent with 



quality. Leaf mould is always the safest 

 manure for mango trees. 



Applications of strong manures to un- 

 irrigated trees after the rains sometimes 

 even kill them in shallow Morrum soil. 



NEGLECTED INDUSTRIES. 



By Howard Newport, 

 Instructor in Tropical Agriculture, 

 Cairns. 



(From the Queensland Agricultural 

 Journal, Vol. XXVIII., Part 2, 

 February, 1912.) 



Dried Mango. 

 The regrettable waste of good food 

 material in the North Queensland mango 

 crops cannot but be noticed by almost 

 every visitor during the fruiting season, 

 and seldom escapes comment. 



The turning to account of the excess 

 production of a fruit of this nature, 

 that almost defies efforts to transport 

 it, and which is in comparatively little 

 demand in the most popular methods 

 of surplus fruit utilisation— viz., as jam 

 or pulp — presents somewhat of a prob- 

 lem ; and the successful utilisation of 

 the oftentimes heavy crops of mangoes 

 that are produced in the tropical parts 

 of Queensland is a matter that has ex- 

 ercised the minds of many. 



The best of this fruit only can be 

 utilised for the table. A ripe mango 

 cannot be packed or transported, and 

 mangoes picked green (and hard) enough 

 to be packed in ordinary fruit cases 

 and shipped to the larger markets of 

 the Southern towns and cities never 

 attain the lusciousness of the properly 

 ripened fruit. Hence the mango as re- 

 tailed on the fruit stalls of the South 

 is often but a travesty, and certainly 

 no criterion, of the real article. 



In any case from an average crop it 

 is necessary to carefully select those in 

 just the right condition to pack for 

 export, and those discarded are not only 

 the finest fruit, but are practically en- 

 tirely wasted. Ripe mangoes in season 

 are fed to pigs in dray loads on many 



