The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-05-15
A Banana Farm.

0lu WyiIeS OF banana pluntattOn .le
has visited You have reen Inc colt n
plantations of Mississippi, the sugar
plantations of Louisiana, the rice plan
tations of southern Georgia, and rel
| haps the corn plantations ce Illinois, or
the wheat plantations OF Michigan, and
possibly the potato plantations of New
Jersey, the tobacco plantations of Con-
| necticut, the cranberry plantations of
Rhode Island, or the hon plantations of
Maine-but have yen ever seen a full
grown banana plantation, with its thou
sands OF gigantic plants, laden with
rich clusters of matured fruit? If not,
a grand sight awaits you.
The banana is strictly tropical
plant, and is extremely sensitive to cold
or frost. All attempts to domestioate
it IN this country, so as to render its
cultivation upcn large scale profitable,
have, until recent period, proved
practical failures. And il is only in the
extreme southern portions of Louisiana
and in certain portions of Florida that
any success has, up to this tifne, been
achieved, and, in thecs localities, want
of more perfect knowledge of the plant
and experience in its culture have caused
many disasters.
The most perfect banana plantation,
States is that OF Col. Whitner, near Sill
yer lake. This plantation covers an
area of several acres, and contains over
ten thousand plants, most OF them in
bearing. The plants are of different
varieties. Some of them are huge trees,
twenty feet high, with trunk from six
to eight inches in diameter, while
others and PROBABLY the largest nunAber,
are of the celebrated dwsft species,
standing from six to eight feet high,
with a trtrk from four to five inches in
diameter. The banana, as cultivated in
this climate, bears no visible seed, but
it is propagated from slips or cuttings
which bear transplanting we'll, aad grow
with great rapidity. These slips are
generally planted about eight feet apart,
if it IS the dwarf species, an acre Of
ground will contain from 600 to 700
plants. They require deep rich soil
and considerable moisture. It has no
season, but the fruit natures GENERALLY
in from eleven to thirteen months from
date OF planting, and by properly timing
the planting, ripe fruit may be OBJ
tanned at all seasons of the year. The
cuttings once planted, first develop two
leaves tightly rolled together. which
grow to q height OF three or four feet,
when the blades begin to unfold one
after another, into great broad leaves,
the stems forming 1 smooth trunk,
which grows to the size of q large apple
tree, composed entirely of these con-
centric leaf stems or petals. In about
eight or nine months, according to the
warmth OF the season, q deep purple
bud peeps out just at the point of
divergence of the upper leaves, and
soon pushes itself into full view, its
frightening stem bending under the
weight of D rple blossom, shaped like
a pointed egg.
Soon leaf of this blossom opens at
the pointed end, and rolls back to the
base, disclosing a row of five or six tiny
bananas, nestled close together, as if
hiding under the shelter of this protect
ing leaf. Each miniature fritz he's q
waxen yellow flower at the end, with
stigma projecting through it. Other
leaves Of the blossom unfold one after
another, in the same way until twenty
or thirty clusters of fruit are developed,
all clinging to one stem, when these
leaves wither and fall, and the fruit
swells and lengthens to maturity, which
requires generally abcut three or four
months. The great stem on which the
fruit grows bends under it's weight until
the long, finger-like fruit hangs down
in graceful clusters.
Each plant bears but single bunch
of fruit, and then withers and dies, but
while the fruit is maturing there springs
up from the base of the trunk several
offshoots, which take the place of the
old plant when that has been removed,
and go on growing to the full size of
the parent tree.
The fruit, when grown full size, be-
gins to show streaks of yellow upon it's
deep green skin, when it should be
gathered for shipment to market, as it
Is easily and quickly ripened after cut
ting by wrapping the bunch in straw or
in blanket and keeping it in s7arm
place.
Col. Whitnes has upon his plantation
thousands of punches, in all staee- of
development, from the E.elG miniature
buds to the wellfnatured fruit, six or
seven inches long. Many of those
punches contain one hundred and TWEEN
ty-five bananas, which sell readily to
shippers for two cents each, from which
may be inferred the great profits of
banana culture.
It is NOT generally understood that
the banana makes very nutritious food.
But if cut into strips and dried, and
then pounded into paste and baked, it
forms very pelatable diet. 1t is said
to be the staple food of some of the
Mexican tribes, who use the young
shoots for green's. Tho tough fiber of
the leaf has il some parts of the world
become an article of merchandise and
is sold in large quantities TO De manu-
featured into textile fabrics, some of
which arr OF great beauty and highly
priced. Banana culture is in its infancy
in this country, but it opens such field
for profitable investment that it is prob
able that the day is not far distant when
vast portions of the now unoccupied
territory, bordering the upper st.
Johns, will be covered with the beauti-
full banana plant, and the Florida banana
will be as we'll known and as highly
priced IS is now the Florida orange