July, 1910.] 



29 



Edible Products. 



top of the stems of mango seedlings, 

 slightly damaging them, or budding 

 them, will cause early fruiting, and give 

 an opportunity for determining the 

 value of their produce. 



An illustration is given showing a 

 mango stock, that has been used for 

 grafting purposes, bearing a well-deve- 

 loped fruit, although its age was only 

 about twenty months. 



[A great desideratum in Southern 

 Ceylon, which may well occupy the 

 attention of the Agricultural Society, is 

 to show the villagers how to graft and 

 bud. In this way the present miser- 

 able fruit supply might be much im- 

 proved.— Ed. J 



COMPOSITION OF FRESH 

 AVOCADO FRUIT. 



(From the Journal Board of Agriculture 

 oj British Guiana, Vol, III., No. 3, 

 January, 1910.) 

 According to the analytical data pre- 

 sented by M. E. A. Patrault in the 

 "Bulletin Assoc. Chim. Su3r. et Distill," 

 the edible portion of the avocado has 

 the following percentage composition :— 



Water, 821 per cent. 

 Protein, 1'2 per cent. 

 Fat, 8'7 per cent. 

 Sugar, 2*9 per cent. 

 Cellulose and undetermined mate- 

 rial, 4*6 per cent. 

 Ash, 5 per cent. 



Starch and tannin were not present. 

 The fat, it is stated, is a green aromatic 

 oil with an odour recalling that of laurel 

 oil, which solidifies at 15°C. The sugar 

 present was not completely identified. 

 It reduced Schling's solution, and hence 

 is not the same as that which has been 

 identified in the avocado seed.* 



* This sugar in the seed is Perseite (= " Lau- 

 rite" of the late Mr. E. H. Francis some time 

 Government Analyst, B. Guiana) which was 

 first described by Avequin and Melseus (An. 

 Ch. 72/109) and subsequently investigated by 

 Muntz and Marcano (C.R. 09/38). It was syn- 

 thetically formed by E. Fischer and Passmore, 

 by the reduction of mannoheptose by sodium 

 amalgum. Mr. Francis did much very exact 

 work on it and showed that it is present in all 

 parts of the tree, for example in the bark, 

 the fruit and seed. Pare samples were later 

 prepared by Prof . J. B. Harrison and Mr. J, 

 Williams in the Government Laboratory. Mr. 

 Francis ' name "Laurite " was a bad one, as it 

 intended to promote confusion with "lauric 

 acid "and "laurin" earlier described products 

 from Lauras nobilis (the bay tree)— Ei>. J. B, A. 



THE PROPAGATION OF THE 

 AVOCADO PEAR. 



(From the Agricultural News, Vol. IX., 

 No. 208, April, 1910.) 



The following account of a method for 

 propagating the avocado pear is taken 

 from the Bulletin of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Bahamas, Vol, IV., No. 4: — 



As in the early days of the orange 

 industry, the budding of citrus Iruits 

 was thought to be very difficult, so the 

 budding of the avocado was at first con- 

 sidered a complicated operation, but the 

 difficulties are rapidly being cleared 

 away, as experience is accumulated, and 

 by experiments. The writer has fre- 

 quently succeeded in getting an average 

 of 75 per cent, of buds to develop into 

 trees. The general impression is that 

 the avocado is difficult to transplant, 

 and, budded trees being expensive, those 

 buying trees prefer to purchase them 

 established in boxes or pots. To meet 

 this demand, the seed is placed in the 

 pot and allowed to develop until it is 

 ready to bud ; or the seed is planted in a 

 nursery in rows 3^ to 4| feet apart ; 6 

 to 8 inches apart in the row, where the 

 trees grow until they are budded and 

 ready for the market, when they are 

 taken out of the nursery and planted in 

 pots or boxes, where they remain until 

 they are well established ; this will take 

 from four to six weeks. 



The method of budding is the same as 

 that employed in the budding of citrus 

 fruits. Many complaints have been 

 made that the buds do not take, or that 

 they do not start readily . This is due, 

 not to an inherent difficulty in the 

 budding of the avocado, but rather to 

 the inexperience of the performer, 

 either in budding, or more frequently, 

 in the selection of bud-wood. Only 

 large, well-developed buds should be 

 inserted, and these should be rather 

 larger than citrus buds— certainly not 

 less than § inch in length and preferably 

 1 inch, as small buds are frequently 

 grown over, where the stock is in a 

 vigorous condition, as it should be. In 

 experiments, it has been found that 

 tender wood is preferable to older 

 wood, and even soft and tender tops, in- 

 serted as spring buds, have been used 

 with perfect success. Where old and 

 hardened wcod is employed, the buds 

 frequently drop, making a ' blind bud." 

 For wrapping the buds waxed cloth is 

 preferable to string, as it affords the 

 buds better protection from injury and 

 water. The buds should be inserted 

 during the spring and early summer, 

 and not later than August. Two weeks 



