Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-05-16
ABOUT BANANAS.

Interesting Information Concerning Thoil
Growth and Various Uses.
In South America the banana Is moi
thought of us luxury. In fact 1t takes
the place of meat and bread and vegeta-
bies among large part of the people.
Every garden has its banana patch, just
as we have our indispensable rows OF
potatoes. On the Isthmus of Panama
the cars spin past hills covered from
base to summit with the beautiful
broad-leaved plants, their great clus-
tiers of fruit hanging from the stems
Just under the leaves. The banana
plant looks somewhat like an immense
calla-lily. It's stem is made up of the
bases of the leaves so sheathed, or
folded around each other, and hardened
as to sustain the weight of the mass OF
foliage above. 1t will in some localities
attain a height of even twenty feet.
When two years old it bears fruit and
then dies, but number of young shoots
spring up from the base of the old stem,
SO that it continually renews itself, and
the farmer, who is usually an Indian or
negro, has no trouble, except to keep
the weeds and the old withered trunks
cleared away from the growing plants.
Even the trunk is of some nse, for it
contains fiber almost as soft as silk,
which can be woven into the most ex-
quisite muslins. Indeed, some of the
dainty India muslins are made OF this
very fiber.
There are as many kinds of bananas
as there are kinds of apples-medium-
sized ones, such as we see in the North;
big ones foot long; thick ones, almost
like small muskmelons, and little ones
only three or fonr inches in length.
When you visit fruit stand fear you
are likely to select the biggest and
handsomest bananas you see, and that
is where you make a mistake. The
smallest bananas are in nearly all cases
the sweetest and juiciest, the tiny fig"
banana being the best of all. The rind
should be thin. and there should be no
ridges or corners on it. The larger the
ridges the coarser the fruit. The plan
tain, which is the very coarscst kind of
banana, has enormous ridges. This
species is not fit to eat without being
cooked, but when boiled or baked or
fried it is delicious Any coarse banana
that is, one having thick rind with
large ridges-is good for cooking. All
bananas contain starch while green,
which upon ripening is changed by
natures wonderful chemistry into
sugar. Now, if the banana is taken just
after its rind has begun to grow golden,
but is still streal1ed with green, it will
contain a good deal of starch, which
will make it palatable when cooked,
while the small amount of sugar which
has been formed will give it a sweetness
like sweet-potato Strip the rind off,
and boil it until soft. and it will make
one of the incest vegetables you ever
ate. If you live in the country, where
you are blessed with the luxury of an
open wood fire, try roasting some peeled
half-ripened bananas in the ashes, as
you do potatoes, and see how savory a
morsel they make. It is one of the
commonest sights along the Amazon to
see groups of half-clad Indian men and
women squatting around little camp
fires roasting bananas, and having end
less mirth trying to pick them out OF
the hot Goals without burning their
fingers. We are all used to fried ba-
nanas, but we are prone to forget that
for this purpose they should not be fully
ripe, as that makes them too soft and
too sweet. Above all, q banana roasted
or fried should he served hot, for as
soon as it becomes cold it grows tough
and unpalatable.
This fruit. which is the greatest of all
tropical foods comes to us chiefly from
Panama and the West Indies in great
ship loads. and in the banana market in
New York the big green lunches
''heads" they call them in South Amer
lea, Just as we speak of heads of cab
bage-containing from five to ten dozen
each, can he bought for dollar to two
dollars and fifty cents. according to the
variety. They are not SO expensive,
after all, and Il big green bunch hung
in a cool cellar will ripen gradually, so
as to furnish fresh dozen of ripe ones
each day until the whole bunch is gone.
In this way Won can enjoy your bananas
Just as they do in the land of palms, for
even there they cut them while green,
and allow them TO ripen as we do in the
North.-C. DeKalb, in Harper's Young
People.
DIVINATloN IN MONGOLIA.
The Methods Adopted by Some of the Ma