7 9 6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1882. 
of rivers. The items for ploughing and manuring are 
superfluous, but the forming of furrows and ridges 
with the aid of a plough, will facilitate the plant- 
ing in straight lines, and expedite the work. The 
plants will require watering at least two years, and 
not one year only, or rather for nine months in the 
first year, and seven in the second year. By trans- 
planting early in August, the plants will, if well 
watered, take firm root, and spring up quickly during 
the cold months of October, November and December, 
without being watered. The loss of 630 trees to 
every acre of land should not have been dreamed of. 
Such a mode of cultivation must be condemned as 
a very slovenly one. Spare plants are always retained 
in a bed ar two to replace those that die away, so 
that the full complement of 3,680 plants may be 
calculated upon. It would be more accurate to say 
that the plants will take five years to come to 
maturity, not four. An acre of the best description 
of dry land in this district is assessed at a little below 
Rs.2-8. The coat under his head need not therefore 
have been doubled to Es.20 per acre. The assess- 
ment of land suited for casuarina plants never exceeds 
Rs.2 per acre. I have no means of framing an estimate 
for planting a fence for six acres of land, but as I 
have said that it will pay for itself, any inaccuracy 
under this head will be immaterial. 
The suggestion to plant castor oil beans on the 
ridges between the casuarina plants must commend 
itself, as it will afford shade to the young plants, 
and prevent the moisture being absorbed by the sun. 
A common, or butter bean may, with advantage be 
set at the foot of the castor oil plant, for its beans. 
The return from these two latter sources is not 
brought to account in the following estimate. 
Following the estimate of "B." as close as possible, 
for planting six acres of land, mine would be os 
follows : — 
24,0'JU plants at Rs.5 per 1,000 Es. 120 
Planting and first watering at 12 As. per 100 ,, 18 
Forming ridges with the aid of a plough ... ,, 9 
Assessment at Bs. 2 per acre for 5 years ... ,, 60 
Watering for 1st year ,, 600 
Watering 2nd year 300 
Cost of fence or hedge 100 
Cost of watching and sundries ,, 444 
1,651 
Interest on Rs. 1,651 at 12 per cent, for 5 years 1,580 
Total cost ... „ 3,231 
Sale of 21,780 (plants 3,630 plants per acre) 
at 8 Annas each 10,890 
To be realized from fence in the shape of 
fuel or fibre „ i00 
Deduct gross expenditure 3,231 
Net profit ,, 7,759 
"B. " having omitted three very important items 
in his estimate, namely, the assessment, cost for fencing, 
and interest on the capital, his estimate for the cost 
of raising the plantation is insufficient. As the want 
of funds will hamper any undertaking, it is essential 
that an estimate of the probable costs should be as 
accurate as possible. Yours &c, 
Nellore. W. 
TROPICAL FRUITS. 
(Field, 24th December 1881.) 
Sir,— In last Saturday's Field F. T. P. expresses '. 
wonderment at never having seen the mango 
for fialo in London. Lot his Burprise now cease, for I 
raw Homo only a fortnight nince at a fruiterer's in 
Oxford-street, at the corner of Holies-street. Judging 
from the view I got of them through the window, I 
should say they were the " pucka " Bombay article, and 
in by no means bad condition. I have eaten several 
kinds of mango in Java, and the best is still inferior 
to the Bombay fruit. The fruit sold in Singapore and 
Penang, and known as the Manila mango, is simply 
consolidated turpentine in taste. 
The flavour of the Durian is a matter of — not taste, 
but habit. I have eaten a good many, and cannot 
really say I like it. Those Europeans who really long 
for the fruit are such as have lived a long time in the 
country, among the natives. I always understood that 
the Malays value the fruit for its supposed aphrodisiacal 
qualities; but I met with a direct practical argument 
against this in the fact that the Europeans who praised 
the fruit most were some Roman Catholic missionaries, 
one of whom had been thirty years in Malacca. 
F. T. P. has evidently never tasted the mangosteen. 
E. T. S. 
(Field, 31st December 1881.) 
Sib, — I have to thank E. T. S. for his notes on 
tropical fruit. But how came mangoes in Oxford-street 
at this time of the year ? for the fruit ripens in India 
in May and June. There is a variety which sometimes 
bears fruit in September and October, but it is scarcely 
fit to eat, and I must avow, if I was astonished before 
at not having seen mangoes for sale in London, I am 
doubly astonished to hear that they were exposed for 
sale a fortnight ago. 
I know the mangosteen well, but it is a fruit which 
will not keep any length of time. To get it in perfec- 
tion it must be taken ripe off the tree and eaten there 
and then. The fruit has been introduced into India. I 
saw numbers of trees in a garden between Vizianagram 
and Rajahmundry. The trees bore fruit plentifully, but 
it was quite different from the mangosteen of the Straits, 
and not fit to eat; I see no reason why it should be 
introduced into England. The lichie is also a delicious 
fruit, which might with advantage be introduced into 
our hothouses. The loquat, if I mistake not, has either 
been grown in England, or can at times be procured 
there ; but it is a fruit I care little about. Good fruits 
in India, except in the hills, Cashmere, and Afghan, 
are very scarce. In the Straits and China there are 
many varieties, but I do not think much of them with 
the exception of the lichie and mangosteen. 
The grapes at Aurungabad, near Jaulwah, were, some 
thirty-three years ago, when I first went to India as a 
"griff," the finest I ever ate, and as cheap as dirt; 
but since the railway they are sent to Bombay, and the 
same care in their growth is not now taken as in days 
gone by. I have eaten as fine peaches grown in the 
open ah- in Assam, as the very best hothouse ones in 
Perhaps the vendor of the mangoes in Oxford-street 
would, explain where he got his fruit at this time of the 
year, and what is their price? F. T. P. 
Sib, — I venture to think that F. T. P.'s surprise will, 
so far from ceasing, be greatly increased by E. T. S.'s 
letter, in which he says that he saw some mangoes for 
sale " only a fortnight ago at a fruiterer's in Oxford- 
street, at the comer of Holies-street." I have lived for 
upwards of sixteen years in varioiis parts of the Bombay 
Presidency, of which four were spent in Bombay itself, 
and I can assure E. T. S. that the good folks of that 
city would be extremely surprised to find mangoes grow- 
ing there in November. The mango tree flowers from 
January to the end of February; the mango showers, 
which are popularly supposed to knock off the surplus 
stock of fruit, and to usher in the hot weather', usually 
occur about March 10, and the fruit is in season, as a 
rale, throughout May and the first few days of June. [ 
A few are to be found in the market towards the end 
