STUDIES ON SOME COMMERCIAL CHARACTERS OF IMPORTANT EARLY MANGO VARIETIES OF MARSHIDABAD DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

The mango is the most important commercial fruit crop of India, growing freely in widely separated mango tracts ranging from the tropical South India to the subtropical North India and from the humid Eastern India to the drier tracts in Western India. Nearly one thousand mango varieties are known to be grown in this country. Some of the popular horticultural varieties have already been described, viz. West Bengal, Bihar and UP varieties by Mukherjee (3), South India varieties by Naik and Gangolly (4), UP and Bihar mangoes by Singh and Singh (6) and some Indian varieties in general by Gangolly et al (2).

However, most of these descriptions have given more stress on botanical rather than on commercial characters. Informations on such economic aspects as yield and regularity in bearing, intensity of fruit drop, tree size, fruit quality, keeping quality, resistance to disease and pests, etc. are therefore not available in all cases.

The district of Murshidabad posesses a wealth of mango varieties, many of which enjoy local reputation as good to excellent fruits. The famous orchard of Murshidabad namely Raisbag alone is said to possess 128 horticultural varieties of repute. Several of these varieties are sold not only by local growers but also by Calcutta Nurseries. But unless reliable informations on their commercial characters are known it may not be advisable to recommend them for commercial planting. Several of these varieties have been botanically studied by Mukherjee (3), but their various commercial characters are not known. In these studies therefore an attempt was made to determine the most important commercial characters such as fruit size and percentage pulp, fruit quality and sugar/acid ratio, yield and regularity in bearing, fruit drop intensity and tree size, and keeping quality and resistance to rotting.