Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1908-02-06

Inc people OF the United states
consumed over 100000 worth of i'm
ported bananas in the year 1902. Each
year the importations are increasing
and at the rate of nearly million
dollars per annum in value. The
West India Bulletin states that in the
height of the season, upwards of 20
steamers per week leave Jamaica
alone laden chiefly with bananas for
the markets of the United States.
Comment is unnecessary upon what
TINS trade has done for Jamaica, par
ticu!arly since the decline in the sugar
industry. Banana growing. is to-day
one OF the most profitable industries
in that island, Notwithstanding the
TACT that tornadoes sometimes destroy
whole fields. Further, the indirect in
fuence which this trade has had upon
tourist travel can not be easily esti-
mated. The frequent passage of steam
ers has attracted thousands of people
to the West Indies to spend the win.
ter.
Why should not the Hawaiian
Islands take some more considerable
part in this large and increasing in
dustry and commerce? This is a oues-
ton worthy of careful consideration.
Ihis territory possesses soils and
climate admirably adapted to the
growth OF bananas. 1t also is free
from tornadoes, the grower thus avoid.
ing the great losses that come to
planters in some other countries. A
great market, on the Pacific slope of
the main land of our own country, is
at Hawaii's doors.
The banana plant is used in an al
most Infinite number of ways. Nearly
every part of it is put to several uses.
TO describe these in full would require
a small publication in itself Here
only brief mention can be made of
some of them.
The ripe fruit is known to most
northern people simply as an article
OF dessert-a mere incidental to a
well provided table. In tropical coun-
tries, however, it is a staple article of
food, the native population frequently
being quite dependent upon it, If is
eaten not only raw but cooked in q
great variety of ways. The unrine
fruit is also cooked some varieties
being better in this way than when
ripened. Some varieties are esnecia1.
ly adapted for drying and in favorable
climates may be dried by the sun
without resort to artificial means. In
TINS form, they may be used as are
other dried fruit now so common in
the markets.
Banana Hour or meal is made by re.
ducing the dried fruit to powder.
Other secondary products that have
been made from bananas are preserved
ripe fruit, alcohol, vinegar and wine.
The fruit-bud of some varieties is
cooked and eaten and is said TO he
very good The flowers, fruits and
CORN or root-stoCk are said to have
medicinal value. The CORN is also
used as food for stock as is also the
part of the fruit stem inside the
trunk" The latter is also used as
food by the natives of some tropical
countries.
The leaves have been used as fod-
der for stock and Prof Hilgard states
that they contain nearly as much al
buminoids as average meadow hay,
The fibre of the leaves of the or.
binary bananas has long attracted at
tention and continues to do so That
of the so-called fibre banana CNTusa
TeXtilis), as is we'll known is tbn
souce of the Manila hemp of com.
merce and is one of the most valuable
fibres in the market.
The banana fibre while of fair anal.
ity and adapted to some uses, is so in
ferior to that of Musa textills that the
former does not find a ready market
except when the latter is scarce and
the price very high 1t then brings
only half the price of Manila bemp If
is inferior both in strength and mster
The Hawaiian banana trade had IFS
beginning between 40 and 40 veors
ago. AS early as the year 1864 ac.
cording to Thrum's Hawaiian Animal
there were l2l punches of bananas ev.
ported from these islands. probabIv
these were the first of the Chinese
variety to be shipped from here since
llillebrand records that this sDecies or
Musa was first brought to us from
Tahiti about the year 1855. In the
year 1863 only go punches were ok.
ported, but from this time onward the
trade increased slowly until it reached
its maximum in the year 1896. In
this year the export amounted to 1876
il3 punches. The next three wears
show Il considerable decrease in this
export, From that date to the pres.
ent time there are no figures to show
the size of the shipments, for since