Improvement of Tropical Fruits in the Philippines.
The average fruit is so poor that most foreigners never give any attention to the santol, and the fruit is a drug even in the native markets and enormous quantities annually rot on the ground. Few are aware that there are mutations among the santol trees the fruit of which in point of flavor vies with the best fruits in the Tropics, and that in this respect it is superior even to its celebrated relative, the lanzon (Lansium domesticum), the greatest defects being the large seeds and the adherence of the flesh to the seeds. If the seed in these superior santols were abortive in the same proportion as those in the mangosteen, the now despised santol, with its translucent pulp, separable from the pericarp as that of the mangosteen, subacid, juicy and of a vinous, excellent flavor, would rapidly become one of the most popular fruits in the Tropics. Its thick, tough “rind” should make the santol at least equal to the mangosteen as a shipper.
What is probably the first horticultural, asexually propagated variety of the santol is now being established at the Lamao experiment station from buds obtained by Mr. F. Galang, assistant agricultural inspector, from a tree in Pampanga, the fruit of which is so highly prized locally that the fruit never retails below the relatively high price of 2 centavos apiece even when other santols are so plentiful as to be literally unsalable.
Mr. B. Malvar, assistant agricultural inspector, has obtained in Batangas budwood of a sweet-fruited camia which is also being propagated. This is the first mutation of this kind coming to the attention of the writer.
The collection of Philippine citrus fruits of economic value or of botanical interest has been in progress since in 1911, but no systematized selection work in the mandarin district has been attempted until December, 1914, when Mr. B. Malvar was detailed to visit the citrus region in Batangas. Mr. Malvar returned with sample fruits of some twenty odd trees, a number of which were found to be of very good quality. These are being propagated for future distribution. Mr. Malvar also found another “Tizon” (Citrus nobilis var. papillaris) of excellent flavor and quality which has been added to the citrus collection at Lamao.