The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-03-05
BANANAS A PROFITABLE CROP.
Immense Quantities of the Fruit Are
Raised at the South.

Immense Quantities of the Fruit Are
Raised at the South.
As the banana is grown in this lat
ftude solely for it's shade and as an
ornamental plant, it is hard for us to
realize how Indispensable it is to the
inhabitants of the tropics, or to what
extent it furnishes them with their
| daily food. Upon those rare occasions
when the fruit ripens here it is far
from attaining the size and flavor of
| the banana of the torrid zone, and
those that are imported, being cut
| while green and allowed to ripen in
warehouses, lack the perfection of
fruit matured under tropical suns and
| eaten fresh from the tree. But not.
withstanding these disadvantages, the
consumption of bananas is rapidly in
creasing, and in 1892 there were 49,
100000 punches brought into the
United States, valued at the custom
house at $4,OO0,OOO. The imports of the
last two years doubtless much exceed
that amount, and this calculation takes
no account of those raised in the south
ern states and in California, so it will
be seen we are fast becoming banana.
loving people.
So far the fruit has been used here
simply as fruit, with the exception that
in the south it is occasionally fried or
baked, but it has not become an article
of ordinary diet, as it is in those lands
where it is Indigenous. There it takes
10 great extent the place of our
cereals, and the laborers greatly IRE
fer it to our standard articles of diet,
bread and potatoes, while we learn
from Stanley that, in the interior Of
Africa, the banana and plantain con-
stitute almost the only food of the
negroes. They have for them the great
recommendations that they require so
little culture, and are so easily propa-
gated, and that their yield is so much
greater than other crops. 1t is said
that an acre planted in them produces
d ton of fruit, while their productive
ness as compared with wheat is as
twenty-three to one, and to potatoes
forty-four to one. The coarser kinds
are chiefly used in a dry state AMI re-
duced to meal, when they MAKE a
palatable cake or porridge, but it would
need some education to make European
nations relish them in that form, as
the great recommendation of our stable
articles of food, rice, potatoes and.
bread is the absence of any peculiar
flavor or sweetness.
1t is difficult to define the difference
between the banana and the plantain
except that the latter is rather coarser
and has less flavor than the banana
and is therefore more frequently cooked
than eaten raw. There is, however, a
great variety of plants belonging to
his class, varying from the Chinese
banana, which is of dwarf growth, not
reaching more than four or five feet
in height, with fruit five inches long,
to the giant bananas of central Africa
which attain to the height of 40 feet,
and bear fruit that measures 20 inches
in length and eight in circumference,
with from so to 100 of them in a bunch.
One of these monsters might well serve
| for meal for small family.
In those countries where the banana
grows luXuriantly it is useful to the
natives in many ways besides as food
The native nuts are matched with the
| leaves, they are made into baskets for
holding various things, the fiber ia
used as thread for sewing and cord
for tying, the young buds and tender
| shoots are cooked and eaten as we
would asparagus, or made into salads
Some varieties have a fine white pow
der on the under side of the leaves
that when melted becomes pure white
wax, and all of them have so much
tannin in the juice of the stem that it
can be used in dyeing or as ink. The
burnt leaves and stalks produce pot
ash that takes the place of soap, and
the plant can be utilized in many other
ways. But perhaps the most useful
article made from the plantation is
the MANILA hemp of commerce from
which ropes, mats and numerous other
things are made, while the old ropes
are utilized by paper manufacturers
to make strong quality of wrapping
paper. This species of the banana
grows SO luxuriantly in the Philippine
islands that $4,000 tons of it are ex-
ported annually in the shape OF ma
nilla hemp-Charleston News and
Courier.