Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-05-11
BANANA


The Once Despised Fruit Now q Never
Failing source Of Income.
The banana and the plantain have
always formed one Of the staple foods
Of tropical countries. Improved com
munication and an ever-increasing de-
mand for tho banana here, gave, some
fourteen years ago, a great impetus to
It's cultivation. The sugar-planter OF.
the West Indies was gradually but
surely being ruined by beet and
bounty-fed sugars. The banana was
with him a tree to be hated. In Ja-
maica every negro had a few planted
in the small clearing round his hut,
and a bunch Of the fruit would feed
him and his family for a week. When
80 provided he saw no need to go out
to work in the cane fields. The planter
had fOreseen this, and with the abOli-
tion of slavery disappears the banana,
plantain and cocoa-nut trees. At first
the banana-walks were made anywhere
on the estate; generally Oh abandoned
cane-fields. which cost less TO clean,
but experience has taught the planter
that certain sites suit the tree best.
The best place for o banapa-walk is
a valley or hillside having a western
prospect. The large leaves attract
the dew, and in the early mornings a
patch of bananas looks as il it were
encrusted with diamonds. These drops
Of dew are 0 evaporated by the
morning sun, but il the trees are
shaded the plant absorbs most of the
moisture.
The ground for the intended patch
is thoroughly cleaned and "stubbed."
The suckers must be obtained, as
the banana is only known to seed in
one small spot on the earth, the An
daman Islands. These ''suckers"
sprout from the root OF the banana-tree
when it is one year old. They are
torn from the parent tree and may be
shipped long distances, being hardy
and long-lived. About 400 or 5O0trees
4 planted to the acre, and now the
chief care is to see that the weeds, and
especially the creeping ones, are kept
down; otherwise they will soon choke
the young plant.
The banana tree bears fruit in its
first year. The bunch hangs down on
a stem which springs from the tree
just under its frond OF leaves. This
stem extends beyond the fruit, ending
in a purple cone, under which is a
small, insignificant bunch Of flowers.
The early morning visit.to a banana
walk exposes one to the equivalent of a
thorough r~ain-dreuching. AS each
bunch becomes full, but still green, the
tree is chopped down with one or two
blows from a 'machete," great care
being taken that the fruit is not
bruised. The bunch is then carried on
the head OF a negro to the dray that
carries it down to the port. The
punches are packed between layers OF
trash" and on being unloaded from
the drays are sorted into mines"
''eights." ETC.; that is to say, into
'shand lunches OF those numbers. A
''hand' of bananas is one Of the small
portions that go to make up a bunch.
Bananas are paid for with ready
money on the beach, according to the
number of ''hands" and the time of
year. InJanuary, February and March
they cost from u to IS cents a bunch;
in April, May and June from 48 to "
cents. In a good year a bunch OF ba-
nanas costs AGENTS to land at the beach,
all expenses included. The planter
has his risks, however. A hurricane
will in an hour destroy every tree, and
for that year the cultivation is. OF
course, a dead loss. In Jamaica and
Honduras at least the thefts by the
negroes form a large item. Landed in
New York the punches bring from 80
cents to 81, according to the time OF
year and the size OF the bunch.
As Don as the banana begins to give
a good shade the spaces between the
trees are planted with cocoa, a tree
that must have shelter from the sum-.
Almond trees aud the ~aamboyant are
also planted to give the shade for the
cocoa when the bananas have ceased
to bear proftably; that is, In three or
four years.-N. I. Tribune.