The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-08-24
ure. The offshoots, or suckers" if

ture. The offshOOts, or suckers" il
not needed for extending the plantation,
may be sold to some beginner, as you
bought your start, at the rate of S25 the
thousand. The graceful plant, with it's
splendid sweep of leaves, has no trunk,
but it's soft, fibrous stem, like celery, is
composed of the leaf stalks rolled one
above the other. After the fruit has
ripened, this stem withers, and the con-
slant sloughing of outer leaves serves to
fertilize the root. The tree never seeds,
but is always propogated from the suck
ers that shoot up, year after year until
the stool is exhausted.
A banana plantation in bloom is not as
beautiful as rose garden, but is very in
teresting. In the Trinidad valley are vast
groves of bananas, laid out as regularly as
the orange groves of southern California
Some of the plants are always in bloom,
while others show the fruit in all stages,
from little green knobs to enormous gold
en- punches which contain each from one
hundred to one hundred and fifty bananas.
The buds and blossoms are colossal affairs.
When the plant arrives at the proper age,
single stem shoots up in the middle, two
or three feet above the point where the
leaf separates. The end of the stem
gradually swells, until it resembles a huge
purple rosebud and its weight causes the
stalk to bend gracefully to one side. Then
the bud bursts open and discloses in its
centre a red stem, set with miniature
spikes: and a few days later the end of
each spike shows small yellow flower.
When these drop off, the bananas form,
the central stem becoming that of the
huge bunch, which weighs from eighty to
one hundred and forty pounds. An Amer
lean banana grower near Trinidad has
given me his experience in the following
| figures: He bought seventy acres of land,
which he cleared and planted at cost of
1910, the first year. The cultivation of
the plantation during the second year
cost 81, l20 He sold 81, 600 punches, at
an dNCIdSO VI OC CCulS, INC tOldl IeCelDlS
being $50, 726. net profit, S30,6
Though bananas will grow anywhere in
the tropics, the best soil is warm, moist
but we'll drained loan at an elevation of
from 700 to 1000 feet. The suckers
should be six months old when planted
and placed at least fifteen feet apart, in
Snpnia11v nranaral hCloc wit
compost at the bottom of each; and dur
ing the growth of the plant the land must
be kept free from weeds. In all hot coun
| tries, the banana enters largely into the
native menu, but seldom uncooked, be
| ing usually fried, baked or boiled. In
| portions of South America, notably Be-
livia, it is the only bread of the poorer
classes, boiled half ripe in the skins. In
Central America -four is made of the fruit,
and bread from the flour. The process
of flour making is primitive among the
people of the tropics. They take green
bananas, cut them in slices and dry them
in the sun, and then pound them until
| ZIG pm Gan oe eepd4dtc llolu tue pow
del-the latter being then ready for use.
Not long ago company was formed in
Germany, and later one the United States,
/ for manufacturing banana flour on scien-
| titic principles and putting it into circula-
ton, on the claim that it contains very
much more nourishment than wheat
flour. The demand for it has already far
exceeded the expectations OF its promo
! tors therefore is it not reasonable to be-
lieve hat the field for banana culture is
unlimited? FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.