LAND-USE COMPETITION ON A GEOMORPHIC SURFACE: THE MANGO IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA

References

• 1 A recent Florida Agricultural Extension Service publication lists most of the species that have been grown in Florida, and further indicates an areal restriction imposed by cool season conditions; H. Mowry, L. R. Toy, and H. S. Wolfe, revised by G. D. Ruehle, Miscellaneous Tropical and Subtropical Fruits, Agricultural Extension Service, Bulletin 156A (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1967).
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• 2 Based on the vast number of cultivated varieties, etymology of the name, and historical references to the fruit, de Candolle estimated the duration of cultivation, suggested an area of origin, and concluded that the mango be classified with the earliest of cultivated plants; see: A de Candolle, Origine des Plantes Cultivées, Quatrième Édition (Paris: Ancienne Librairie Germer Bailliere et Cie., 1896), pp. 159–61, 355.
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• 3 L. B. Singh, The Mango: Botany, Cultivation, and Utilization (London: Leonard Hill, Ltd., 1960), pp. 1–10; and S. R. Gangolly, R. Singh, S. L. Katyal, and D. Singh, The Mango (New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricultural Research, 1957), pp. 3–11; both contain excellent discussions of the description of mango trees in ancient sanskrit literature, the role of the tree in Hindu mythology, and numerous other incidents relative to the regional significance of the mango.
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• 4 S. K. Mukherjee, “The Mango,”Economic Botany, Vol. 7 (1953), pp. 130 62.
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• 5 J. J. Ochse, M. J. Soule, M. J. Dijkman, and C. Wehlburg, Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture, Vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan and Company, 1961), pp. 530–31.
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• 6 Ochse, et al, op. cit., footnote 5, pp. 530–31; D. Sturrock, Notes on the Mango (Stuart, Florida: Stuart Daily News, Inc., 1944), pp. 1–13.
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• 7 Sturrock, op. cit., footnote 6, for Barbados; for Jamaica: “In 1782, Captain Marshall of His Majesty's Ship ‘Flora’, one of Lord Rodney's squadron, captured a French ship bound from Mauritius to Haiti, and on board were found many plants and seeds of economic value, amongst them being the Mango,… The plants were all numbered, and No. 11 was the Mango which has since become so famous. The ship was sent as a prize to Jamaica, and Captain Marshall, … deposited the collection of plants and seeds in the garden of Mr. Hinton East, … The Mango found a congenial home, and appears to have rapidly increased in numbers and variety of kinds;” W. Fawcett and W. Harris, “Historical Notes on Economic Plants in Jamaica,”Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, N. S. Vol. 8 (1901), p. 161.
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• 8 “According to an extract from a postscript of a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated Campeche, Mexico, September 12, 1833, Perrine sent to Florida, …Mangifera domestica (indica) …;”P. J. Wester, “A Contribution to the History of the Mango in Florida,”The Philippine Agricultural Review, Vol. 10 (1910), reprinted in Mango Studies (Stuart, Florida: Florida Mango Forum, 1951), p. 9.
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• 9 Dr. Fletcher probably brought the seeds from Jamaica, descendents of the Number Eleven variety previously referred to in footnote 7; Wester, op. cit., footnote 8, p. 10; S. J. Lynch and Mrs. W. M. Krome, “Mango Varieties Originating in Florida,”Proceedings of the Florida Mango Forum (1948), pp. 8 23.
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• 10 Lynch and Krome, op. cit., footnote 9; T. R. Robinson, “The Mango on the Florida West Coast,”Mango Studies (Stuart, Florida: Florida Mango Forum, 1951), pp. 21–22; J. W. Barney, “West Coast Mangos of Early Days,”Mango Studies (Stuart, Florida: Florida Mango Forum, 1951), p. 24.
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• 11 Because of the very short viable period of the mango seed, seedlings were shipped to increase the chances of reproduction in the new environment. This lack of extended viability probably acted to retard the earlier dissemination of the plant via the much slower means of transportation.
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• 12 T. R. Robinson, op. cit., footnote 10, reported that an Alphonse variety, one of the six imported, also survived and fruited in 1898. However, none of the early 20th century reports seen by these writers substantiates Robinson's statement.
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• 13 Wester, op. cit., footnote 8, p. 10.
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• 14 Mrs. R. R. Haden, “Tropical Fruits,”Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society, Vol. 23 (1910), pp. 137 40.
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• 15 Largely a tropical fruit crop, mangos are generally limited to altitudes of less than 4,000 feet, to climates of high annual temperature, and to situations without freezes. Precipitation normally should total from thirty to sixty inches annually, and the early spring should be dry to allow optimum conditions for the setting of the fruit. Excessive annual precipitation, or the absence of a dry season, frequently limits mango fruiting by fostering moist conditions conducive to blossom drop because of fungi development. Mango production is concentrated in southeast Asia and those countries on the periphery of the region, particularly parts of the Philippines, Indonesia, tropical Australia, and Ceylon. The fruit, today, is also a significant product in Egypt, southern and eastern Africa, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Brazil, and Hawaii. The greatest concentration of mango production, however, is in India, where 2.2 million acres, about seventy percent of the grovelands, are in mango; see L. B. Singh, op. cit., footnote 3, p. 6.
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• 16 R. B. Ledin, “Florida Mango Census,”Sub-Tropical Gardening, Vol. 2 (1954), pp. 20 21.
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• 17 Personal communication from the County Agricultural Agent in each of the counties with mango trees in 1954.
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• 18 R. S. Pryor, Palm Beach County Agricultural Agent, personal communication.
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• 19 Frost damage is greatest at the very base of the tree, and especially on the younger trees, up to four years in age, whose trunks tend to rupture easily under frost conditions. Grove owners fully aware of this specific frost damage position straw collars around the bases of their trees to moderate the effect of low temperatures (Fig. 3). There is indication that temperatures lower than 40°F. may adversely affect fruit development; 1958 Annual Report of the Florida Agricultural Extension Service, Sub-Tropical Station (Gainesville: University of Florida), p. 336.
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• 20 Sturrock, op. cit., footnote 6, p. 27.
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• 21 Climatic data are averages drawn from stations at Homestead, Miami Airport, and a position about midway between the two, Miami Station 12SSW. The figures were taken from Climatological Data, Annual Summary, 1965, “Florida,” Vol. 13 (Asheville, North Carolina: United States Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau, 1966), p. 179.
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• 22 Nearly all the commercial groves are positioned on the limestone cuesta. Field mapping during the summer of 1965 disclosed that the mango groves occupied the crestal portion of the cuesta whereas groves of other fruits were located somewhat lower on the dip slope.
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• 23 Although named and described by R. Harper in Natural Resources of Southern Florida, Eighteenth Annual Report (Tallahassee: Florida Geological Survey, 1927), p. 55, it was much later that they were correctly interpreted as relict surge channels in the Pleistocene bioherm; G. G. Parker and C. W. Cooke, Late Cenozoic Geology of Southern Florida, with a Discussion of the Ground Water, Geological Bulletin No. 27 (Tallahassee: Florida Geological Survey, 1944), pp. 54–55.
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• 24 Data contained in the 1943 Annual Report, Florida Agricultural Extension Service, Sub-Tropical Station (Gainesville: University of Florida), p. 164, show that this night its plots below the cuesta surface recorded a low of 26°F., plots near the crest recorded a low of 29°F., and the farm on the margin of the Everglades recorded a low of 31°F.
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• 25 The two principal soil series on the cuesta surface are Rockdale and Rockland; R. G. Leighty, M. H. Gallatin, J. L. Malcolm, and F. B. Smith, Soil Associations of Dade County, Florida, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, 1965 Circular S-77A (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1965).
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• 26 The issues of the Annual Report of the Florida Agricultural Extension Service, Sub-Tropical Station (Gainesville: University of Florida) contain data ascribing the low yields of 1955–1956 to the freeze in January (1956, p. 298), and high winds in the spring (1956, p. 308); of 1957–1958 to heavy winter rains followed by a severe February freeze (1958, p. 35); and of 1959–1960 to a freeze in January (1960, p. 315).
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• 27 John D. Campbell, Agricultural Agent for Dade County, personal communication.
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• 28 Information Circular distributed by the Dade County Agricultural Agent's Office, February 18, 1965.
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• 29 This was determined through local interviews and by identifying the trees presently occupying the areas identified as groveland on the 1952 aerial photographs.
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• 30 Personal communication from Abbot J. Waldberg, President of Abbot Realty, Coral Gables, indicates that for tax purposes a grove is defined as more than twenty-two trees.
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• 31 Edward Mitchell, personal communication.
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• 32 Fred Piowaty, Secretary, personal communication.
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• 33 J. W. Harshberger, “The Shipping of Mangoes and the Reason for Their Absence in the Markets of the United States,”Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, N. S. Vol. 8 (1901), pp. 177–78.
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