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Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



time they are hard^ acid and flavourless^ but the after-ripening process renders 

 them tender and full flavoured in a few days." 



Future Possibilities 



A careful study of the behavior of the few bearing mango trees in Southern 

 California will leave little room for doubt as to the future possibilities of this 

 fruit here. Past experiments^ while limited in extent, and confined chiefly to the 

 seacoast belt, have been amply adequate to demonstrate that the mango will be, 

 some day, a success in California. 



But the varieties which have originated here, or been grown here thus far, 

 are scarcely worthy of consideration for future planting on an extensive scale. In 

 India, and other tropical countries, the foango has been grown for centuries and 

 has reached a high state of development, and the existing varieties are so far ahead 

 of anything that could be produced here by many years of breeding and selection 

 that it behooves us not to waste time and effort experimenting along such lines, but 

 to obtain at once for trial in different locations and under varying climatic condi- 

 tions inarched or budded trees of a great number of the best varieties. By making 

 such an experiment, we can determine without long delay what varieties or types 

 are adapted to this climate, and obtain for cultivation here varieties much choicer 

 than we could develop in many years. 



This work has already been started by the Department of Agriculture. A 

 set of inarched trees, comprising about forty of the choicest varieties from India, 

 Ceylon, Philippines and other countries, has recently been sent to several locations 

 in Southern California for trial. The list includes Alphonse, Ameeri^ Amini, 

 Bhadauria, Bhurdas, Bombay Yellow, Brindabani, Bulbulchasm, Cambodiana, 

 Carabao, Chickna, Davej^'s Favourite, Divine, Ennuria, Faizan, Fernandez, 

 Itamaraca, Jamshedi, Julie, Kachmahua, Kistapal, Langra, Langra Hardoi, 

 Langra Large, Malda, Mailer, ^lulgoba, ^lullgoa, Paheri, Punia, Rajaburj^, 

 Salamar, Sharbati Black, Singapur, Stalkart, Sufaida, Surkha, Totapari, and 

 White Alphonse. Notes regarding these will be found in the appended list of 

 varieties. 



By such experiments as this there is little doubt but that a number of choice 

 varieties will be found that are adapted to this climate, and we will be enabled 

 to proceed at once to the production of the finest forms of this valuable fruit. 



The mango being so highly esteemed and extensively cultivated in tropical 

 countries there seems no doubt but that the industry will reach large proportions 

 here when choice varieties are found which are susceptible of rapid acclimatization. 



Propagation 



It is a regrettable fact that up to the present time the mango has been propa- 

 gated in California exclusively by seed. The entire lack of budded or grafted 

 trees of desirable varieties from which to propagate and the inferiority of the local 

 seedlings have not tended to stimulate attempts at asexual propagation of this 

 fruit. A small number of seedlings has been grown by the nurserymen during 

 the past few years, in order to supply the demand which has existed, but it is to 



