THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1887. 
Secondly, after referring to an extract from Al- 
phonso de Candolles' Origin »f cultivated plants that 
the stones of mangoes produce better fruit than that 
of the original stock. Dr. Bonavia says that he has 
preached for many years that it is a grave mistake 
to throw away the thousands of stones of superb 
rriangoes that are consumed every year. I don't 
know if Dr. Bonavia can produce any facts to show 
that the stone of a good mango will give say at 
least in 5 per cent of cases a better fruit than 
its parent. Theoretical considerations are out of 
the 1 question when we ha^e to deal with facts. I 
have devoted, as I have said, some attention to 
this subject, and I can positively state that I have 
never met with a single mango tree raised from a 
good stone which has ever produced fruit at least 
equal to much less better than that of the original 
seed. OE course I must admit that such a thing 
is possible, and that it has occurred at some time, 
but in extremely rare cases. I have observed 
thousands of trees, some of them positively reared 
from good seed, but I have never met myself with 
such an instance. Under these conditions, I do not 
see what advantage there is in raising plants from good 
seed. In every instance in which a plant has been 
raised from good seed, the fruit, although having 
a certain resemblance with its parent, has always 
been stringy and of less delicate flavour — in fact, 
not fit to be eaten. We know at once by the shape, 
colour, flavour, and taste that a mango has been 
raised from the seed of one of the grafted varieties. 
It is a sheer waste of time and money than to 
attempt to raise a tree yielding good fruit from the 
seed of a good mango. It cannot be ordinarily done. 
The arboriculturists, at least of this part of India, 
are not so ignorant as not to know their own in- 
terests. They would not spend time, labour, and 
money if they could raise good trees without graft- 
ing. They even know the difference between the 
ready grafted plants sold in the Victoria Gardens 
and elsewhere, and the maugo plants which are 
grafted in their own gardens, after raising the 
parent stock to a certain height. The former yield 
produce in about five or six years, but they never 
grow to any great height, and die early, while the 
latter, although there is always some uncertainty as 
to their taking the " graft,'' always live long and 
yield comparatively a larger produce. Some trees of 
this kind have been known to yield annually a produce 
of from R20O to B600. There is a common belief here 
of which I have not yet been able to test the accuracy. 
It is this, that you cannot raise a tree yielding really 
good fruit if you graft upon plants which originally 
belonged to the same or similar variety, and that 
it is necessary that your seed should belong to the 
inferior kind if you wish to get good graft. It would 
be interesting if any of your readers would bring 
forward facts to support or to disprove this belief. 
Thirdly, Dr. Bonavia, if he see this letter, may be 
glad to know that already several very successful ex- 
periments have been made in this part of India in 
preserving mangoes in their fresh condition, just in 
the same way as we get preserved peaches and pears 
from Europe. I hear that the necessary machinery 
has already been ordered from Europe, and that in 
the next season we may see a large stock of preserved 
mangoes ready for exportation. Dr. Bonavia is quite 
right in supposing that we can export mangoes to 
Europe la their fresh condition. I have myself kept 
thick skinned mangoes, such as Fernandinas for full 
30 days after they were plunked, and we know 
that we can send them to London within 2L or 22 
days. Of course it will be necessary to take some 
special measure to protect them from exposure to 
high heat, especially in the Red Sea. I think there 
is a great future for this kind of trade, and also for 
preserved mangoes in tins. 
Fourthly, Dr. Bonavia is not weil informed if he 
thinks that good mangoes are sold in the Bombay 
market at the rate of RIO per dozen. This price 
is only paid at the commencement of the season, 
when the fruit is rare, but when we are in the height 
of the season we can get good mangoes at the rate 
of B9 or 9 per hundred, 
Fifthly and finally, I think we in Bombay could give 
a great stimulus to the cultivation of good varieties 
of mangoes if we could hold every year iu the last 
week of May or the first week in June a maugo 
show, and give prizes to those cultivators who would 
exhibit the best variety of mangoes. We know the 
improvement that has and is taking place iu Poona 
in the cultivation of flowers and vegetables among the 
natives owing to the annual show there, and I do not 
see why a similar show should not have a similar effect 
in the improvement of our king of fruits. Let the 
show be open to the whole of India, and then we could 
easily compare our varieties of maugoes with those of 
Upper India. — Yours, &c, 
D. G. Daldauo, m. d. 
Savantvadi. 
[On which we have to remark that while it seems 
a general rule that to obtain superior fruits, such as 
apples, peaches, mangoes, and oranges, we must graft 
with superior kinds, yet very fair fruit is grown 
here in Ceylon from stones of mangoes, and orange 
pippins, if only the fruits are allowed to ripen on 
the trees. Not one mango tree in a thousand in 
Ceylon is grafted, and the proportion of orange trees 
grafted is still less, and yet visitors from India have 
pronounced our Colombo mangoes very good, while 
in the dry climate and on the lime soil of Jaffna 
fine fruits with red cheeks which might pass for 
Bombay mangoes are produced. Oranges left to ripen 
on the trees, especially the " mandarin " kind, are 
also greatly appreciated by visitors. What is done 
without grafting or pruning proves what could be 
done with proper cultivation. — Ed. T.A], 
BAB. 
The Government of Bombay has published a most 
interesting report by the Director of Agriculture on 
experiments with rab, which is, both literally and 
metaphorically, the burning question of the day in 
the agricultural districts on and near the Ghats. 
Rub, as all the world now knows, is a term applied 
to the several systems in vogue iu this presidency 
for preparing, and usually also burning manure. It 
is a term also applied to the finished product, Mr. 
Ozaune distinguishes three kinds, namely, (1) cowdung, 
(2) din, and (3) fangal. The first consists of layers 
of cowdung, straw, grass, earth, and pit-manure ; the 
second of freshly-cut rti«-loppings, coarse grass, straw, 
earth, and pit-manure (ain being the vernacular name 
of a •ommon jungle-tree — Terminalia tome ntosa); fangal 
is a shrub (Pogostemum purpuricaidis) ; and the third 
kind of rab consists of layers of freshly-cut fangal, 
grass, straw, earth, and pit-manure ; this last ingredi- 
ent consisting of the contents of the dust-bin with 
some cowdung added. Small plots of land were 
manured with these three kinds of rab at Linauli, 
Khadkala, Igatpuri, Karjat and Alibag. At each of 
these places the results were largely in favour of 
cowdung-rnft as regards the yield of cereals ; then 
came ain ; and last of all fangal. 
Mr. Ozanne is inclined to value rah more for its 
efficiency in killing weeds and noxious insects thau 
for its manurial properties, but, in our opinion, his 
experiments tend if anything to show that the mineral 
constituents of the loppings are the most potent 
factors in the success of the crop: only in this 
manner can we explain the superiority of freshly-cut 
to dry jungle-rafi, which is apparently due to the 
fact that, as soon as the green parts of a tree begin 
to fade, the most important mineral constituents, 
with which the leaves are, so to speak, saturated 
during the period of vegetative activity, flow back 
in large quantities to the stem, there to remain stored 
up until the next season. It is, however, very diffic- 
ult to make comparisons or draw safe conclusions 
from these experiments, as they vary greatly in re- 
gard to the quantities and kinds of material used 
as well as the conditions under which they were 
made: besides this, it is not always quite clear what 
description of material was used, and the areas ex- 
perimented on were too small to admit of reliable 
inferences. Nobody is more alive to the deficiencies 
of ttjese first trials than Mr. Ozanne himself, who 
