The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-19
BANANA GROWING IN NICARAGUA.
Some Interesting Facts About a Pop
uI0r Fruit.


Some Interesting Facts About Pop
uInr Fruit.
Nlcaraguan Letter in Country Gentleman.
Millions Of people depend on bananas as
other millions do upon potatoes as food,
and with about as much reason; for while
the tubers have 20.72 parts, bananas have
20.13 parts of flesh-maklng materials; and
if the potato has 1.79 parts of fat-making
matter, the fruit has Ill parts of the
same.
A writer in The Cosmopolitan for Febru-
airy says that the first crop Of bananas is
obtained twelve months after planting and
that the trees" produce fruit all the year
round, keep on bearing from thirty to for
ty years, yielding 400 punches per annum
to the acre. lie adds, that these lunches
are worth 80 cents each and that the crop
is as sure and regular as clockwork and
the stem which bears the punches of fruit,
usually two or three at once, is cut down
or dies down naturally after the fruit ma
lures. Now the word tree" used by the
writer is likely to mislead, as the banana
is not like plants commonly known as
trees. II is no more than central stem
enclosed in bunch of leaf-stalks closely
bound In cylindrical shape These stalks
are of open cellular structure single cells
often being three-fourths of an inch long,
one-third of an inch wide and one-eighth
of an inch deep; and are usually in part,
if not wholly, filled with clear water The
cell walls are, in considerable part, of
long and not very strong, stringy hbers.
1t is of one kind of sucn banana fibers
that Manila hemp comes, from which
most of The best cordage of the day is
made.
If any banana stem ever bore more than
one bunch of bananas, practical planters
seem to have missed seeing it; but as
many stems rise from one base or cluster
of roots, il may be truly said that a sin
gle banana plant may at once, have a
dozen punches of fruit growing. Each
! fruit-stem is incased in its own envelope
| of leaf-stalks until, in seven or eight
months, time comes for it to rise boldly
above circumstances and hold aloft, often
| more than twenty feet from its base its
head of thick, purple petals Little by
little teh first pair of these strong richly
| tinted petals loosen their grip, and let in
light and air to the row of tiny things
| packed closer than sardines in a box
| These delicate white things are quickly
! TO wax big and fat, and become sweet yell
| low fruit to I'LL the ever greedy stomach
| of natives of the summer land, or per-
chance delight the taste of some bleached-
| out child OF the frozen north.
| While the first row of banana fingers"
are taking form Of the fruit, as we of the
North know it, the fruit-stem has push
| ed out new petals beyond, new row of tiny
| fingers have been uncovered, and vet
| other petals have curled back ready to
| fall TO the ground, and so on until may
| hap a dozen pairs have so served their
| turn. Long before that has been done
| the head has become heavy with its rich
| load, and is bowed toward the ground, as
! other heads carrying rich stores have bow
| ed. 1t is no wonder the banana hangs its
! head. It is burdened with perhaps 100
| pounds of fruit But the average weight
! is only 50 pounds per bunch, which is equal
! to a pound for every week Of a year. and
| is more than equal to a growth of four
| pounds of fruit per week after the first
| blossom appears.
Studies covering the last ten years or
more lead me to say that the general av-
/ erage Yield of bananas in Central Amer
lea has been 800 punches per acre yearly
and the average price 1851 cents per
| bunch, of $lW.10 per acre. Il has been
| found that the cost Of labor and provisions
! required in cultivating and harvesting the
| crops of an acre of bananas in the famous
| Bluefelds district, has been $3.50 per an
mum. This leaves only S9361 for the plan
! ter.
II banana plantations in Central Amer
lea are ever cultivated as corn, potatoes.
Or other crops are cultivated in the states
| I have been unable to learn of such work
| having been done When one would plant
! with bananas. he sometimes fells all the
! big timber slnshes down the small stuff
! and waits until leaf ana twig are dry
! enough to burn. When that time has come
! fire is set at the windward edge of the
! clearing, which is, by the way. always the
! northeast edge A roaring flame sweeps
| through, and blackened tree trunks and
| limbs and gray ashes are where was an
| hour before a dense tangle
! Then women come and lay banana mat
| as or sprouts In rows and men dig with
! their eword-like machetes little holes. and
| in them set the plants. 1t is supposed that
| these VIII be- for white men. who are fus-
| sy folk, Is feet apart For the native who
! is too wise 60 trouble about trhes. the
| plants will go in where it's easiest to nut
| them, but even so, they Will be 10 feet or
| such a matter from each other, unless
some stump prevents But when that va
| riely of bananas which is known as the
| platano is planted, The sprouts are set or
| 10 feet apart.
After that the plantation-which it wiz
! be well TO call the guineal If the plants are
! of The well-known varieties eaten i'm the
north, or the plantanal, IL Of the better
sort that are good 60 cooks left 70 get
along as 1t may, neglected for three
months or so. Then men go through. slash
ing at such saplings as may have sprouted