The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-03-07
a Rival OF TIE BANANA
Mango's Rapid Progress as a Candi
date for Popular Favor.

Mango's Rapid Progress as q Candt'
date for Popular Favor.
Afruit that is expected to rval the
banana in popular favor is now be-
ing introduced into this country by
the department of agriculture, says
the Boston Herald. It is the mango,
SO highly esteemed in the tropics,
where it outranks in public esteem
both the mango and the orange. Eu-
ropean residents in the hot belt all
most always acquire a Loneliness fori it.
As yet, however, it is little known in
the United States, being represented
only by inferior varieties in our mar
kete, which give no suggestion Of the
qualities Of the better sorts, and tend
rather to discourage than increase de-
mand.
If an effort similar to that which
brought the banana into favor in this
country could place an adequate sup
ply Of mangoes before the public
there is no apparent reason why this
new tropical fruit should not repeat
the history Of its now popular prede-
cessor.
Already the tree which bears it has
been planted to a considerable ex-
tent in Florida. seeds of fine varieties
having been brought from India,
and soon planters in that state will be
sending mangoesi in boxes to northern
markets. Some of the Florida trees
are yielding as many as 10000 fruits
per treei in a season.
The mango tree grows under all
sorts Of conditions, and requires lit
tie cultivation. 1t is so prolific that,
with rs to 100 trees to an acre, enor-
nous quantities Of the fruit may be
produced on a small tract. The man
go varies, according to variety, from
little more than a bush to a tree so to
rs feet high. Its flowers are small
and reddish white or yellowish.
The fruits of some kinds are only
two or three inches in diameter, but
others are three or four times that
size, weighing as much asfourpounds.
In shape they vary from nearly spher-
zeal to long and narrow like a cucum-
Der. In the best varieties fiber is al
most entirely absent, and the entire
fruit consists of a mass of juicy or
ange colored pulp. Insome kinds the
pulp is so firm that it may be sliced
with a knife, in others it is soft
enough to be eaten with a spoon.
The mango is said to have original
ed in southern Asia and the Malay
archipelago. It is now found wild in.
the forests of Ceylon and in regions at
the base of the Himalayas. 1t was in
troduoed first in Brazil, on this con-
tinent, and thence was taken to the
Barbados in 1742. At the present
time it is common throughout the
tropics all around the world, but is
finest in India,
There are over 500 varieties. 1t is
the most highly priced fruit of the
island of Guam, receives more atten-
ton in Hawaii than any other fruit
and fOurishes with special Iuxuriance
on the south side of Porto Rico.
The mango is used principally as a
fresh fruit, butitalso employed green
for jelly and sweet pickles. Itmakes
an excellent marmalade. In Porto
Rico one may buy 100 mangoes for
five cents, at which price their cost
for jellies and marmalade is nominal.
They are one of the chief ingredients
of the famous chutneysauce of India.
The unripe fruit, peeled, cut from
the stone and dried, is reckoned supe-
rior to lime juice as a preventive or
cure for scurVy. In India the bark
and leaves are utilized for dyes, and
Indian yellow, so familiar as a water
color paint, is aproduct of the mango,
as has recently been ascertained,
though previously its origin was un-
known: The gum of the tree is a
good substitute for gum arabic. In
fact, the mango may almost be said to
rival the olive in respect to the multi
tudinous ways in which it is service
able to man.