The times., 1899-08-20

tude of tropical fruits, little known and
not usually relished by the Anglo-Sa
race, there are many less perishabIe va
rieties, such as guavas, tamarinds. man
goes, and aguaeates, which might profta-
bly, be conserved, or with proper care
transported uncooked.
The Banana as n bonanza.
AS to bananas, the field is practically
unlimited. To be sure-like love. and the
Scriptures, and many other good things,
it is an "old, old story" and the same
may be said of wheat, potatoes, corn, and
other stats of life which the world goes
on eating. No crop requiring small capt.
tai to grow Is so readily marketable and
always profitable as bananas. They thrive
in almost any soil, need little care, and
yield fifty times as much in weight to the
acre as wheat. Suppose you decided to
turn banana planter and paid as hign as
IS the acre for twenty acres of well-clear-
ed land in the vicinity of Trinidad Santa
Clara, or any ether pleasant Cuban city.
You might obtain any number of plants
wild, for no cost except the hire of man
to dig them; but by far the better way
would be to go to some established plan
tation and buy suckers" which sell for
$25 per thousand. Setting the plants If
teen feet apart, your twenty acres will ac-
commodate about 1900 plants, costing
500. Add to that amount the price of
your land, $40 for wedding and another
$40 for. harvesting, and the total outlay
foots up to s240 The suckers shoot up
like magic and in few months each has
a stalk, called the STOOL" from twelve
to twenty feet in the air. with a single gil
gantic bunch of fruit glowing like gold
near the top. The lowest price bananas
ever bring Is 25 cents bunch, American
money, on the plantation. If carried to
New Orleans, they command from 80 to
so cents a. bunch, and when successfully
transported to England (Which is not an
easy matter, for then they must be picked
very green and allowed to ripen in the
dark, without brusing) they bring as
high as 81 bunch. Reckoned at the low
est, your 1000 punches, with no cost or
risk of transportation, will sell where they
grow for $1,000, realizing a clear profit of
$760.
The second year two punches may be
expected from each STOOL or eight thou
sand punches in I'll, yielding 81, coo, minus
part of the cost of the previous year. This
will continue until the stools are exhaust
ed, when they must be grubbed up and
new suckers planted In their stead With
the trees fifteen feet apart suckers may
be set between them when the first sign
of exhaustion appears, so that there need
be no break in the yield of the plantation.
AS each stool sends up six or eight by the
end of the third year, 1t is possible to
reap that number of punches from each
original tree and often four or fve stems
are allowed to produce fruit. But that is
not the best way, for the fruit will be
much finer IL only two stems are permit
ted TO mature. The off-shoots, or suck
ers,' If not needed for extending the plan
tation, may be sold to some beginner, as
you bought your start at the rate of $25
a thousand. The graceful plant, with its
! splendid sweep of leaves, has no trunk,
| but Its soft, fbrots stem is composed OF
the leafstalks, rolled one above the other.
| After the fruit has ripened, this stem
withers. and the constant sloughing of
outer leaves. serves to fertilize the root.
| The tree never seeds, but Is always prop
| agated from the suckers that shoot Up,
year after year until the stool Is exhausted
J The BLOSSOM of the Plant.
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 Califor-
MIA. Some of the plants are always in
bloom, while others show the fruit in all
stages, from little green knobs to tnor-
nous golden punches, which contain each
from 100 TO $50 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 sepa-
rates. The end of the stems gradually
swells. until ii resembles a huge purple
rose-b bud, and its weight causes the stalk
to bend gracefully to one side. Then the
bud bursts open and discloses in its cen
tire red stem, set with miniature spikes.
and a few days later the end of each spike
shows a small yellow flower. When these
drop off the bananas form, the central
stem becoming that of the huge bunch,
which weighs from eighty to 140 pounds.
An American banana grower near Trini-
dad has given me his experience in the
following figures: He bought 70 acres OF
land, which he cleared and planted at a
cost of 5000, the first year. The cultiva-
ton of the plantation during the second
year cost 81, ,120. He sold 54 600 punches
at an average of &C cents, the total receipts
being $35,726; net profit, S30,6S0
Though bananas will grow anywhere In
the tropics, the best soil is a warm. moist
but well 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 specially pre-
pared holes, with little compost at the
]
the plant the land must be kept free from
weeds In all hot countries the banana
enters largely into the native menu, but
seldom uncooked. being usually fried, bak-
ed or boiled. In portions OF South America,
notably Bolivia, 1t is the only bread OF
the poorer CLASSES, boiled half ripe. in
the skins. In Central America flour is
made of the fruit, and bread from the
-four The process of -four making is
primitive among the people of the tropics
They take green bananas, cut them in
sliHes and dry them in the sun, and ther
pound them until the pith can be separat-
ed from the powder, the latter being ther
: ready for use. Not long ago company
was formed In Germany, and later one iI
The United States, for manufacturing ba-
mana flour on scientific principles and put
ting it into circulation, on the claim tha
1t contains very much more nourishmen
than wheat flour. The demand for it ha.
already far exceeded the expectations O
, its promoters, therefore is it not reason.
able to believe that the field for banana
culture is unlimited?
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.
MORE TRANSPORTS BOUGHT.
The Government Purchases tn,