(3_ iftate College of ^gxitultntt^ 9t Cornell ?Hntber«itp Kibvatp DATE DUE Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924058926795 THE BANANA ITS CULTIVATION DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIAL USES BY WILLIAM FAWCETT, B.Sc.(London) lATB DIRECTOR OF 7UBI.IO GARDENS AND PI.ANTATIONEi, JAMAICA ; FOKMIRI.T AB8IBTANT, BOTANICAI. DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM (HATDRAL HISTOBT); JOINT AUTHOR OP A " PtOKA OP JAMAICA," VOt. I ; PEIiIiOW OF THE UNNXAN SOCIETY WITH AN INTBODUCTION BY SIR DANIEL MORRIS, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, D.C.L., F.L.S. PUBLISHED DNDEK THE ACSPICES OF THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE OINCORPOKATBD BY ROYAL CHAKTEE) LONDON DUCKWORTH AND CO HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN 1913 hci.5Z,5S i FEINTED AT THE BALLANTYNE JPBESS LONDON FOREWORD Fifty years ago all the fruit exported from Jamaica was of the value of £728. The captain of a small schooner trading between Jamaica and Boston made a few trial shipments of bananas, and thus with the aid of Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave and others who followed him was laid the foundation of an enormous industry, Jamaica now exports fruit, but chiefly bananas, of the value of more than a million and a half sterling. Large areas are also planted with bananas in Central and South America, so the Caribbean region is fast becoming the centre for the production of a delicious fruit that is coming into large demand in all north temperate countries. A fleet of splendid white steamers conveys bananas to the teeming millions in the United States, and another equally fine fleet brings cargoes of 50,000 bunches at a time across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom and neighbouring countries. What Captain Baker, modest and genial man as he was, did for Jamaica, Sir Alfred Jones did for the Canary Islands, and eventually for Jamaica and the Caribbean. SirAlfred Jones was enabled, with the assistance given by Mr. Chamberlain, to solve the hitherto difficult problem of successfully carrying a perishable cargo of fruit all the way across the Atlantic, first through the heart of the tropics and then, on occasions, through the cold of northern winters, and deliver it in splendid condition for the consumption of the working millions of this country. As aptly stated in a recent speech in Parliament by Mr. Harcourt, " it was no small service to the poor of this V b vi FOREWORD country to have made the banana the common object of the coster's barrow." As banana planting, after all, is only in its infancy, and even in Jamaica, where the present enormous crops are produced, there are still extensive areas available for ex- tending the industry and new areas are continually being developed in other countries, it is a fortunate circumstance that my friend Mr. Fawcett has been able to see his way to bring together such a large mass of information relating to bananas and present it in so attractive and clear a manner. Mr. Fawcett has been in intimate touch with banana planting for nearly thirty years, and, therefore, he may be regarded as an authority of high standing in all that relates to the details of ciiltivation and the general management and control of banana plantations. It is with much pleasure that I find myself in a position to recommend his hand-book to all interested in the subject. Daniel Morris Sefieubeb 8, 1913 AUTHOR'S PREFACE It is not necessary for me to add much to the kind " Foreword " of my good friend Sir Daniel Morris. I have to acknowledge my indebtedness in the study of the cultivation of the banana to my friends the banana planters of Jamaica, by whose sldll and perseverance under difficulties and misfortunes the plantations of the Island have increased to such a marvellous extent. It may be somewhat invidious to give the names of any ; but I cannot refrain from mentioning the names of two, to whom I am especially grateful — Mr. Robert Craig and the Hon. Henry Cork. My thanks are due for many courtesies, and are hereby tendered to the Librarians of the Royal Colonial Institute, the Imperial Institute, the Pharmaceutical Society, and the Botanical Department of the British Museum (Natural History) ; also to the Westlndia Committee and itssecretary, Mr. Algernon Aspinall, for valuable aid in the preparation of this volume ; to Mr. H. Hamel Smith, editor of Tropical Life ; to Mr. A. Roger Ackerley, of Messrs. Elders and Fyffes ; to Dr. A. B. Rendle, keeper of the Botanical Department, British Museum (Natural History), and to Mr. Ramsbottom, of the same department. References are given by footnotes in most cases to sources of information; but sometimes, especially in the case of Diplomatic and Consular Reports and Colonial Office Reports, extracts are given without specific reference, as the source is sufficiently obvious. I have consulted the periodical publications of Agricultural Societies and Departments in all parts of the world, and desire to express viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE my obligations to the information contained in them, and I wish specially to mention in this connexion those most interesting and useful periodicals, the Agricultural News of the Imperial Department of the West Indies, and the Journal of the Agricultural Society, Jamaica. After the following pages had been printed, an important paper by A. d'Angremond was brought to my notice, entitled Parthenocarpie wnd Samenbildu/ng bei Bananen, which appeared in Behrichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, xxx. 10, p. 686 (January 1913). The experi- ments made by him in Surinam confirm the results obtained by myself in Jamaica, that the Gros Michel or Jamaican banana can be made to produce seed — ^in this case by dusting the female flowers of the Gros Michel (and also the Apple banana) with pollen from Musa basjoo and M. ornata chittagong. Papers have also appeared in the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica, N. S. II., 6 (January 1913), on Banana Diseases in Jamaica, by S. F. Ashby, and a translation by Mr. Ashby of " The Surinam Panama Disease of the Gros Michel Banana," by A. W. Drost, Assistant, Department Agriculture, Surinam. These papers deserve careful attention, and I regret that I had not an earlier opportunity of reading them. William Fawcett October 1913 CONTENTS I. The Plant 1 i IIA Cultivation. General Operations. Preparation OF Land. Clearing. Distance. DiooiNa Holes 20 III. Planting. Time op Year. Seed-Suckers. Pre- paration OF Suckers 25 IV. Irrigation and Drainage 27 V. Cultivation after Planting. Mulching. Earth Mulch. Dry Mulch. Geeen Mulch. Ploughing 29 VI. Peuning and Treatment of Suckers. Reasons for Pruning. Method. Choosing and Timing. Pruning Leaves 37 Vll. Harvesting and Eeplantestg 44 VJII.; Bananas as Nurse-Plants and as a Catch-Crop 48 IX. Financial Considerations and Prospects for Beqinnees. Cost of Cultivation and Receipts. Prospects for those starting Cultivation 51 X. Banana Soils in Jamaica • 56 XL Humus. Farmyard Manure. Ijme 65 XII. Fertilizers 69 Xin. Fungus Diseases 83 XIV. Insect Pests 99 XV. Bananas as Food _,„ 107 XVI. Bananas in Medicine 125 XVII. Wine, Whisky, and Alcohol from Bananas 127 XVIII. Drying Bananas for Flour and Figs 137 XIX. Manila Hemp and other Fibees from Species of Musa 148 XX. Development of the Ba,nana Trade 155 XXI. Transport by Sea 166 XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. xxvn. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. CONTENTS Teansport on Land Gbnbkal Review op the Cm/rivATiON op Species OP MusA (Banana and Plantain) throughout THE Tropics : India and Ceyi-on PASS 174 Cultivation Icontinued) ; Cultivation (continued) : {contitmed) g '{continued) g op Cultivation {continued) : General Review op Malay Archipelago General Review op PHUjppraE Islands General Review op Cultivation Australia General Review op Cultivation Polynesia General Review op Cultivation {continued) i Africa General Review South America General Review OP Cultivation {continued) g Central America and United States General Review op Cultivation {concluded) : West Indies and Bbbmttda Horticultural and Botanical Notes. Cultiva- tion OP Species op Musa Pl,ANTS ALLIED TO THE BaNANA Short Description op Species op Musa Appendix: Recipes por Cookdto Bananas Index . 177 185 188 192 196 203 218 237 244 256 260 263 280 283 ILLUSTRATIONS net. HarveBting Bananas in Jamaica Frontispiece 1. The Roots of a Jamaica Banana Plant To face 4 2. A Banana Plant with the top cut off „ 6 3. A Banana Plant (from " Natural History of Barbados ") 9 4. Banana in Fruit 12 6. A Flowering-stalk 13 6. A Furrow Disc Plough used in Jamaica 21 7. Cutting down Bananas To face 44 8. „ „ „ 46 9. A Banana Plant {from Pdre Labat's work) 114 10. Plan and Elevation of Drying House with Shelving for use with Blackman's Fans and Hot Air 140 11. A Brough Sketch of the Wolfi Dryer, showing Empty Trucks waiting to be used 143 12. A Vacuum Dryer To face 146 13. S.S. Barranca 168 14. A Special Itailway Truck for Bananas To face 174 15. Unloading Bananas at Garston Docks, Liverpool „ 176 16. MtisaEnsete 205 17. Musa aapientum var. vitkUa 215 CHAPTER I THE PLANT The banana is a well-known edible fruit, the product of cultivated varieties of either Musa sapientum, Musa Cavendishii, or Musa acuminata. The first-named is cultivated extensively for the export of the fruit in Jamaica and Central America ; M. Cavendishii is grown largely in the Canary Isles, and is generally known as the Canary or Chinese banana ; M. acuminata is grown in the Malay Region as well as M. sapientum. In the earliest account of the West Indies, the " bonana," as it was spelt, was clearly distinguished from the plantain {Musa paradisiaca) ; but in the Old World, the fruits of these two plants are often both called plantains. The plants are very much alike, but in the fruiting stage they can readily be distinguished by the novice — ^the fruiting- stalk of banana plants being naked between the fruit and the large purple knob of sterile flowers at its apex, while the fruiting-stalk of the plantain does not lengthen much, and the sterile flowers do not all drop off, so that the stalk is fairly covered. The Chinese or Canary banana is like the plantain in this respect, but there is never anjft difiiculty in distinguishing between the two, as the Chinese banana is a dwarf plant and its fruit is much smaller. The plantain requires much better soil than the banana plant, and a bunch is worth in mo'hey three or four times the value of a bunch of bananas. The plantain fruit is much larger than the banana, and is used before it is ripe, cooked — ^roasted or boiled — instead of bread or potatoes. Plantains are not exported to Great Britain, and only in 1 A 2 THE BANANA small quantities to the United States from Honduras. They are not much wanted in countries where potatoes are plentiful and much cheaper, and they are more valuable than bananas in the countries where they grow. In a paper on " Bananas from a Commercial Point of View," published in the Journal oftheBoyal Horticultural Society, Mr. Frank Pink makes the following remarks^ on the kinds of bananas that are sent to Great Britain : " That grown in the Canary Islands is the Musa Cavm- dishii, which bears large compact bunches of moderately large 'fingers,' and attains a height of about. 10 or 12 ft. The plants are fairly hardy, but the fruit is very delicate, and, in spite of its thick skin, is^ very sensitive to bruising or low tempteratures, in consequence of which it is always shipped carefully packed in crates. In flavour it is rich, and is generally preferred to other kinds. This kind is also grown in Barbados, but there it attains greater per- fection, and is of finer flavour and more luscious, probably owing to the soil being richer than that of the Canary Islands. " The variety grown in Costa Rica and Jamaica is the ' Gros Michel,' the plants of which attain a height of 18 or 20 ft., and bear long straggling bunches of large fingers, which are much CQgiser iaflavour than those of M. Caven- dishii. The plants are less robust than those of the smaller variety, but the fruit is much more hardy, and -will stand a lot of knocking about and a moderate amoujit of cold, for which reason the bunches are always shipped without packing. This is fortunate, for the long bunches require very cumbersome crates to pack them in. "Another kind sometimes seen here is the 'Claret,' which derives its name from the dusky claret colour of its skin, and which, in my opinion, is the best of all, having a very delicious flavour. The bunches are usually very small, with very few fingers on them ; but these, being . very large, are well worth the price charged for them, viz. 2d. each. It is possible that this kind may become better known before long. THE PLANT 8 " Of kinds which are useless for export there are several ; and I have often been asked why one, the ^ Lady's Finger,' is not sent over. The reason is that the bunches and the ' fingers ' of this variety are very small, and the skin of the fruit is so delicate that it is almost impossible to ' market ' this banana in good condition. " It is frequently stated that the large fruit seen on the hawkers' barrows and in the shops is not the true banana, but the plantain. This is incorrect, for the plantain is quite a distinct variety, and is generally used as a vegetable. I have never heard of any being sold here." Pkopagation and Bulb The banana plant has no seed, but is propagated by young plan^ which bud from the underground tuberous stem, or " bulb," as it is called, of an older plant. This bud at firsCgets all its food material from the parent bulb, but very soon forms leaves and roots of its own. Its first leaves — "sword leaves " — are very long and narrow as com- pared with those developed later. When the young plant is six or eight months old, it is about 9 or 10 ft. high, and its own bulb is 8 or 10 in. across. This is cut clean away tpom the parent, and the roots trimmed oflE. It may be planted as it is, but for convenience of carrying, and tck prevent its being blown over before its roots anchor\it, it is cut down to within 6 in. of its biilb. This bulb solpn shoots, both from the centre and from eyes all round. 1 If a bulb is cut vertically, the eyes or young buds cap be traced, clearly showing that the bulb is a stem stifucture ; it is of large sizp to provide room for food material which is necessary at first for the formation and growh of leaves and roots. The cut surface Idoks white anck starchy, and in fact the minute cells of the bulb contain grains of starch, just as those of a potato do, and, if required, it could be eaten like a yam or potato, or the stafrch could be extracted, as in cassava or potato. The storesd, stationary food (starch) changes into the 4 THE BANANA mobile food (sugar), when the bulb absorbs warmth and moisture from the soil ; then growth commences, and the eyes begin to shoot. One shoot takes the lead, monopoliz- ing most of the food supplied from the bulb, and this leading shoot is known henceforth as the plant — ^the others are its " suckers." Thk Roots There are two sets of roots, the horizontal and the vertical ; the horizontal push out in all directions, while others from the base of the bulb grow vertically downwards (Fig. 1). The main roots are fleshy, not forming wood, and are of the same thickness throughout, like stout cords, whereas the roots of rubber, orange, &c., become thicker and more woody the older they are. The growing cells occupy only a small portion in length of the root behind the tip, and the tissue of this part is tender and very intimately attached to the minute particles of soil. The cord-like roots do not branch naturally, but sl^ort thread- like roots grow out, and on these, and on the %nain roots behind the growing portion, are the root-hairs \which do the work of absorbing liquid from the soil. Throughout the whole length of these roots there are bundles pf fibres running into the bulb, which can be discerned on^cutting a root across. These bundles connect the absorbing root- hairs with the leaves. If a heavy wind shakes th^stem, the thread-like roots with the root-hairs are torn rM, and perhaps even the cord-like roots are broken ; fthe ap- paratus for absorbing soil moistiu-e in which the I mineral elements of the food are dissolved is destroyed, (and the effects are noticed at a later period in the bunchfjbs or the fruit coming small. The roots generally do not seem to have tjftie power of adapting themselves, like the roots of miCny other plants, to overcoming difficulties. They are n*>t sensitive to anything like the same extent ; on meeti Ag a large stone they do not feel their way under or over itl; they do not respond to the stimulus of obstruction bM curving. Fig. 1. THE KOOTS OF A JASIAICA BANANA PLANT THE PLANT 5 The cells grow on, and consequently get crushed and injured. The root dies back a little and then branches, and grows again. If the soil becomes either too wet or too dry, the roots at length decay and the plant falls over ; there is no disease, though, if the soil is wet, the pjiant may rot. If the thick cord-like roots are cut through at the tips, it appears to encourage the growth of the thread-like roots ; if they are cut through at some distance from the tip, they burst out at the severed ends into numerous branches of equal thickness, which continue to grow in much the same direction ; the thread-like roots are multiplied by this means also, and in consequence the capacity for absorbing food material from the soil in both cases is increased. The roots do not approach the STirface nearer than about 2 in. ; but if mulching is applied to the soil, the roots may run into the mulch, or very near the surface, and care must be taken to keep the mulch renewed, other- wise the roots will get burnt off. The depth to which they descend depends on the nature of the soil, modified by deep cultivation and drainage ; under favourable conditions, the horizontal roots will be found at the depth of 2 ft. 6 in. from the surface, and the'vertical roots from the base at a depth of 4 ft. 6 in. They grow rapidly when the soil is rich and in good tilth, at a rate of 2 ft. in a month for vigorous roots starting from the bulb. I have traced them to a distance of 17 ft. from the stem, but their length depends on the conditions favom-able to extension. The evidence afforded by their structure points to the soil best suited to them — ^a deep loam, well drained, but retentive of moisture from containing a large proportion of humus. The Stem The underground " bulb " is the true stem of the plant. The trunk, or apparent stem, is not a true stem, but 6 THE BANANA consists of a cylinder composed of concentric layers (Fig. 2), each of which may be traced up to a leaf — ^the outermost to the oldest leaf— and which are, in fact, the lower portions of the leaves adapted for the special protection of the younger leaves and the flowering stalk. The true stem or " bulb " (properly a tuberous rhizome) is the store- house of food, which may ]be used in the formation and growth of roots and leaves, but is chiefly of use to the plant in the production of suckers and in the development of the flowering shoot and the fruit. If a sufficient supply of food is not stored up in the bulb when the flowering shoot is in process of formation, the bunch will only bear a few " hands." Insufficiency of stored material may be due to various causes ; the roots may not have been able to do their work properly, the leaves may have been damaged, or new suckers may have been allowed to drain the parent. In the wild state, when the fruit of a particular plant has ripened and dropped, or in cultivation, when the bunch is cut, the life of that individual is practically over ; it does not bear fruit again, but it gives help to the suckers which may be attached to it. Any food left in the leaves passes down into the bulb, and they gradually dry up. The old bulb lasts for some time ; it is connected by a large surface with the bulbs of its suckers, and bundles of fibres pass from one to the other. By means of this connexion the younger bulbs draw upon the resources of the parent bulb, slowly and gradually exhausting it of its remaining store. The Leaves The most striking features about the banana plant are its rapid growth, its early maturity, and the enormous amount of food produced in proportion to the area occupied.* These are accounted for by almost the whole plant being composed of leaf-structiwe. * Banana, 242,000 lbs. of fopd per acre ; potatoes, 4000 lbs, ; wheat, 2000 lbs, Fig. 2. A BANANA PLANT WITH THE TOP CUT OFF Reproduced from a photograph by Mr. J. M. Eeith. This shows a banana plant the top of which was cut off before the flower-stalk haid grown to the height of the cut. The flower-stalk continued to grow, emerging above the cut, and eventually forming fruit. The cut surface shows the concentric cylinders which form the trunk, each of which is the basal portion of a leaf. THE PLANT 7 Compare the leaves with those of the coco-nut, which are divided into ribbons, offering no resistance to wind, and seeming to enjoy the stormy gales of the seiashore. The undivided leaf of the banana shows very clearly that it was developed under conditions where only gentle breezes lazily move it, and as the structure of the root points to a forest soil as the cradle of the family, so the leaf indicates an open glade sheltered from the rough winds by sm-rounding woodland. Naturally a windy situation is not the best, if large bunches and good fruit are desired, and the crop becomes more precarious in proportion as the plants get heavier and more top-heavy , with ripening bunches. The youngs leaf, before it expands, is so rolled round on jtself that not a drop of" rain can penetrate to the cehtre of the cylindrical trun£, where another young leaf or the bunch is forming ; when it at length expands, another convolute leaf is there on guard. The last leaf to appear before the flowering stalk is much smaller than the rest, and it hangs over and protects the flowers from the direct sunlight. As has been already indicated, the sheathing bases of the leaves act the part of a woody stem in supporting the huge leaf blades and carrying them upwards towards the sunlight. They also enclose in their centre, and protect, the flowering stalk for the few weeks while it is pushing its way up from the bulb to the top of the trimk. The sheaths, when cut across, show very large air spaces, and these are connected with minute pores on the lower surfaces of the leaves which admit air, a large quantity of which is necessary for the rapid growth. It is interesting to note how the leaves adapt themselves to sunshine and shade. When the rays of the sun are perpendicular and too intense, the sides of the leaf collapse and hang together, the imder^m-faces, on which the vast majority of the minute pores are situated, coming together and preventing too great evaporation. In wet weather, 8 THE BANANA on the other hand, the upper surface of the leaves jecomes concave. ' In an aUied plant, the " traveller's tree " (Bavenala), it is well known that it is possible to get a drink of water by piercing the hollow leaf stalk ; and in a similar way the banana leaf collects the rain-drops of a shower and conducts them along the fluted leaf stalk into the interior of each concentric sheath. Each leaf provides for its own sheatTi, but the central space, where the young growing leaves or the flowers are pushing their way upwards, is protected. Water supplied in this way, and quite in- dependent of the amoimt at the roots, is important for the proper " shooting " of the flower stalk ; it causes expansion of the trunk and relieves the pressxire on the central space. An observant planter noticed that in dry weather a shower of rain seemed to start his plants shoot- ing, and when he found this process hanging fire used to spray his bananas with a hose in imitation of the beneficent, shower. The function of the leaves is to provide food for the requirements of growth in the plant. The energy or motive power necessary for the work of manufacturing the food is obtained fropi the sun's rays by means of the green colouring matter. The water absorbed by the roots, containing nitrogenous and mineral material, is carried up to the leaves, and a union of these elements with the carbonic acid of the air takes place. The manu- factured food is transferred to any part of the plant where growth is taking place, or, if not required for growth, it is stored up in the bulb in the form of starch grains for use later. The green colour of the trunk shows that it is also taking part in the manufacture of food. The Flowebs If the flowering stalk (inflorescence) is examined in the embryonic condition in the trunk, it will be found that the flowers are arranged in clusters disposed spirally Fig. 3. A Banana Plant Drawing of a. banana plant, showing the la^e oyariea of the female flowers, the ^mall ovaries of the neuter flowers, and the bracts covering the male flowers. From an engraving by G. D. Ehret in " The Natural History of Barbados," by the Eev. Mr. GrifSth Hughes, A.M., London, MDCCL. 10 THE BANANA round the axis, The clusters at the base of the stalk become the " hands " of the fruiting bunch. It will be found that the flowers in different . regions of the stalk vary in the proportion of the length of the ovary (the future banana) to that of the rest of the flower. In those clusters which eventually become hands, the ovary is two-thirds the length of the whole flower ; higher up on the stalk are clusters in which the ovary is about one-half the length of the flpwer ; and still higher, there is another series in which the ovary is about one-third of the flower. These three sets of flowers, clearly distinguishable by the different proportionate length of the ovary, are physio- logically very different : those with the long ovary are female flowers and become the fruit ; those with the short ovary are male flowers ; and those with the ovary about half the length of the flower are hermaphrodite (male and female) flowers or neuter flowers (neither male nor female), and form short useless fingers in the bunch (Fig. 4, 06). The problem of increasing the number of hands in the bunch must be attacked at a stage earlier than its ap- pearance in the embryonic condition described. Each cluster has its own covering or "bract," which fits closely over it and over the rest of the flowering stalk, until the flowers of the cluster to which it belongs are mature, when the bract falls. In some allied species the flower stalk (inflorescence) remains upright, but in the banana and plantain the bunch hangs down on emergence from the trunk. The floral envelope and stamens drop from the female flower, and the ovaries— rthe future fruits — gradually turn upward. The effect of the pendulous habit with reversed upright fruit is to increase the flow of sap into the fruit. When the embryjfttiie flowers are first reccgnizable as such, the flower stalk is a short projection at vhe apex of the bulb in the hollow base of the trunk in its interior. The formation of flowers only takes place wh^en growth in height, and also of the leaves of the plant, has practically come to an end, and when there is sufficient stored food THE PLANT 11 in the bulb to provide for the active growth of the floweriiag system. The actual length ^f_time which is necessary from the first planting of the bulb until the period arrives when the plant commences flower formation will vary according as the conditions for growth have been favour- able or otherwise. But probably the time may be safely put down as somewhere between seven and nine months. The period of flower formation maybe considered, from the planter's point of view, as the critical point in the life- history of the plant ; for it is at this period that the number of hands in the future bunch is irrevocably determined. If the store of food in the bulb is ample, the bunch will be a large one ; if meagre, the bunch will be small. No amount of manuring or irrigation, applied after this period, can possibly affect the number of bunches, although such assistance may be necessary for the welfare of the plant and its bunch, and for the size of the fruit. It is difiicult to determine the length of time that elapses between the first definite formation of flowers at the base of the trunk and its appearance on emerging — ^the " shpot- ing " — ^from the top. Doubtless the time varies con- siderably under different conditions, and may possibly be as short as one month or as long as two months. Probably an ample provision of water, both at the roots and into the trunk from above, will considerably hasten the shooting. The usual time for the banana to shoot may be put dowQ as ten months from the planting of the six to eight months old sucker. The extreme end of a bunch of bananas, as it hangs from the plant (Fig. 4, m), consists of a large number of flowers, tightly enclosed by large, claret-coloured bracts. There are several flowers together in a small cluster under each bract. All the bracts, except the uppermost, are very firmly closed over the flowers, overlapping one another. The uppermost bract (Fig. 4, b), like the upper shell of an oyster, rises on its hmges. The cluster of 12 THE BANANA mature flowers within this bract can then be visited by insects for the honey and pollen. The bract has now Fig. 4. Banana in Fruit m, male flowers covered by bracts ; 6, bract ; I, portion of stalk from which male flowers have dropped ; o6, neuter flowere. THE PLANT 18 done its work of protecting the flowers and soon falla,; the flowers also drop, the next bract rises, and this procesi^\ continues indefinitely until the bunch is cut. There is. Fig. 6. A Flowebing Stalk A, Flowering stalk (inflorescence) of banana, just emerged,' before the bracts covering the flowers have dropped. B, Female flowers. C, Male flowers, ov, ovary ; st, stamens ; p, flve-lobed perianth (three segments of calyx and two of corolla) ; c, inner portion of perianth (being onq segment of the corolla), the free petal. '^ therefore, a long piece of stalk hanging below the bunch without bananas or flowers, from which bracts and flowers have already fallen. There are fl5;e_stamfins (Fig. 5, C, st) bearing pollen in each of these male flowers of the banana ; in the Abys- 14 THE BANANA ^amn banana {Musa Ensete) there are six stamens ; in the allied Wild Plantain {Heliconia Bihai) the sixth stamen is more like a petal than a stamen. In most species of Musa, however, the sixth stamen is wanting. The parts of the flower of the banana which correspond to the sepals and petals in ^ore regular flowers are so combined that the larger piece of the floral envelope, the perianth, consists of three sepals and two petals, all united together, an in- dication of which is given in the five lobes at the apex (Fig. 6, C, p). The third petal, which in orchids is the lip, is not attached to the rest (free. petal), and is shorter than the combination of sepals and petals (Fig. 5, C, c). The ovary (Fig. 5, C, ov) is one-third or one-fourth the whole length of the flower. If the flowers which later on become the banana fruits are examined as soon as they " shoot " (Fig. 5, A, B), it will be seen that they have the same general structure as those already considered, but are larger : the ovary (Fig. 5, B, ad) (later the banana) is much more developed, being two-thirds of the length of the whole flower ; the stamens (Fig. 5^ B, st) are defective. These are the female flowers which in the wild species of Musa produce seeds. In plants related to the banana {Musa) the flowers are hermaphrodite, having both stamens and pistils perfect in each flower, and from this fact and from the structure of the flowers in the species of Musa there is no doubt that the original plants from which they are all derived had all the flowers hermaphrodite, and that the pristine character has developed into the modern condition where some flowers are only female and others only male, while a remnant intermediate in position are apparently her- maphrodite or more probably neuter. The significance of the evolution in structure is that cross-fertilization is of use to the plant. Moreover, the female flowers being 1 mature before the male on the same plant shows that this is a case of necessary cross-fertilization from another plant '■\ — ^that the pollination of the female flowers under natural THE PLANT 15 conditions in the wild state is carried on by insects carrying pollen from one plant to another. As part of the ovary, namely, the pulp, is of value for food, it is advantageous to those who want the food that there should be no fertilization and consequent formation of seeds to which all the valuable constituents of the sap would go instead of to the pulp. It is, therefore, fortunate from the point of view of a food-supply that there appears to be some diflSculty in the way of insects pollinating the female flowers of the banana plant. The neuter flowers may be compared to the vestigial structures occurring sometimes in nature, which have lost their utiUty under modern conditions and have become more or less atrophied. The Fruit It takes from two and a half to four months after shooting before the fruit becomes " full," i.e. attains full size before ripening (Fig. 4). For local use it is considered that fruit has a better flavour if cut when " full " and allowed to ripen hung up, rather than if it is left to fully ripen while still attached to the plant. For export, consideration has to be given to the time that will be taken on the voyage, and naturally fruit must be cut much earlier for a voyage of twelve or thirteen days than for one of only four or five days. The earlier it is cut before becoming "full," the greater the want of flavour and ripe consistence. The aim of in- ventors of methods of storage of fruit should be directed towards arresting all chemical change in the fruit ; if such a method could be perfected, the fruit need not be cut until it is " full," and the true flavour would be developed on ripening. Origin of Seedless Varieties The fruit does not produce seed in the cultivated ^varieties, and on this point several questions may be raised for consideration : What was the origin of seedless 16 THE BANANA varieties ? Do the cultivated varieties ever produce seed without the intervention of man ? Is it possible for cultivators to make their plants seed ? Could varieties be raised from seed with fruit of improved flavour or better keeping quality, or varieties immune from disease ? As to the origin of seedless varieties of fruit, there are several species of Musa of which the fruit has no pulp, but consists merely of the outer shell and large seeds filling up the shell like a pea-pod and its seeds, the peas ; other varieties have a small amount of pulp. The pulp is of greater value in this case as food than the seeds. Primitive man, whose food was precarious, was always keen in the matter of selecting food-plants and preserving varieties that were promising, and no doubt took care of the suckers of a banana which yielded pulpy fruit, just as the Arabs grow suckers from date palms that are known to bear good fruit. The selection would be continuous, and whenever a variation occurred with a larger amount of pulp and a corresponding fewness of seeds, it would be carefully! treasured and the suckers planted instead of those with little pulp and many seeds. There is no difiiculty what- ever in understanding how the seedless banana has arrived, nor in imderstanding how varieties of the seedless type have occurred and been propagated from time to time. , An improvement on the ordinary fruit occurred in Martinique, and eighty years ago M. Jean Frangois Pouyat, although he may not have been the first to notice it or the first to propagate it, was yet sufficiently alive to its importance to introduce it into Jamaica.* This variety, called at first the Pouyat banana, or the Marti- nique banana, has become the only one that is cultivated in Jamaica, Costa Rica, and elsewhere for export, and is known now as the Jamaican or Gros Michel banana. Quite lately specimens of a sport of the Canary Banana {Musa Cavendishii) have been received by the writer from Dr. G. V. Perez, of Teneriffe. The sport is about double * Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, vol. viii. pp. 165-6 {1901J. THE PLANT 17 or treble the height of the ordinary dwarf kind ; the flowers have been examined by the writer and are identical with those of the typical plant ; but Dr. Perez considers the fruit somewhat larger and better. This sport appears here and there in the plantations without apparent cause, and is called by the natives the " male " banana. Suckers grow up like the parent sport. It is possible that many or all of these tall bananas are from suckers of the original sport, which have been planted inadvertently with the ordinary kind, but there is no explanation of the first a{)pearance. At the_suggestion_Qf. Dr. -Pere2rthe~sp'ort may be known^ as J^^Ma £avmdisMLiazma. Sagotiana,* after Dr. Sagot, his friend and his father's, who wrote so learnedly on the banana many years ago. Another sport of a different kind was reported from Grenada by Mr. W. Malins-Smith in the Agricultui*al News (vol. vi.) : " A few days ago I picked a bunch of ' claret ' bananas which contained two hands of green- coloured fingers and one hand of both claret and green fingers. There was one finger which was half green and half claret. The green fingers ripened yellow. The bunch when ripe presented a very cm"ious appearance." Many botanists have supposed that plants that have been propagated for immense periods of time without having recourse to seed have thereby lost the power of producing seed,")" and it was important to ascertain if it was so with the banana. It would be of considerable interest, and possibly of very great commercial importance, if the cultivated banana could be induced to produce seed like the wild species. Instead of having to wait for the uncertain chance of sports, one of which might possibly occur in a cycle of * Characterized by its remarkably tall stem. t " It is notorious that many cultivated plants, such as the banana, pineapple, bread-fruit, and others previously mentioned, have their reproductive organs so seriously affected as to be generally quite sterile." — " Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication," by C. Darwin, vol. ii. p. 268 (1868]. B 18 , THj: BANANA 1000 years, numerous varieties could be continuously raised, and a selection made of such as seemed promising. -^ Numerous experiments were carried out at Hope Gardens, Jamaica, with this end in view. Cross-pollinar tion is easy enough to carry out, and the experiments were made under varying conditions in soil, in water supply, &c. No success was obtained in a great number of experiments by using the pollen of the Jamaican banana, and at last the pollen of the red banana (var. rubra), dusted on the stigmas of the ordinary cultivated banana, led to the production of seed. Unfortunately the hurricane of 1903 levelled the banana plantation before , the seeds were ripe, and the experiments were for the time abandoned. It was thus definitely proved at Hope Gardens that the female flowers which produce the com- mercial banana have not become sterile after ages of vegetative reproduction of the plant, but are capable of producing seeds. If experiments are made again, it is suggested that, pollen be used not only of the cultivated varieties, but also of distinct species with edible fruit. As far as could be ascertained, the pollen of the common Jamaican banana was quite inert on female flowers of that variety. But it was not proved that this was due to sterility in the pollen itself. Experiments might be made to determine whether this pollen is fertile by using it to pollinate the^ female flowers of some of the seed-bearing species. It is well known that pollen is inert in many species on flowers of the same plant, although fertile on flowers of another plant of the same species. This may be the case with species of Musa. Now, as seedless cultivated bananas are propagated by off-shoots (suckers) they are practically all derived from one individual, and many varieties are only sports from the same individual stock ; if the pollen is inert on the same individual, it would naturally be also inert on all plants derived, however remotely, from that individual, even although they may have sported. THE PLANT 19 On the other hand, the plantain {Musa paradisiaca) is no doubt descended from a diflferent individual. Hence the pollen of the plantain might be effective in producing seed in the banana. Pollen from species producing an edible fruit might also be tried. A description is given in Chapter XXXIV of the species of Musa, indicating those which bear edible fruit ; pollen might be used from any of these to pollinate the female flower of the banana. It is not much more than a quarter of a century ago that Messrs. Harrison and Bo veil discovered in Barbados that sugar-cane produced seed. That discovery came most opportunely about the time that the Bourbon cane became so subject to disease, and the selected new varieties raised from seed were to a great extent immune, and also ' in some instances gave larger yields of sugar. This shows the importance of experimenting similarly with the banana. O. W. Barrett states * that " the following directions for causing a banana to produce seeds were given by a Porto Rican native : Get a stool of bananas growing rapidly in shallow soil by the addition of artificial fer- , tilizers ; let one bunch of fruits ' set,' but before that ripens cut down all but one of the stems in the clump ; the remaining shoot, ' thinking it has but one more chance , to perpetuate its kind before being killed,' on account of the tremendous shock to the more or less connected stem bases in the clump, at once produces a small bunch of somewhat abnormal fruits some of which will contain genuine seeds. As a matter of fact, it is a usual thing to find seeds in the commonest of the Philippine bananas, the Saba." * PhiUpp. Agri. Rev., v. 383 (1912). t A paper by A. d'Angremond on experiments in Surinam, appeared in Ber. Bot. Oes., xxx. 686, while these pages were in the Press, in which it is stated that while in the Canary, Jamaican, and Apple bananas fruita were produced without pollination, the use of pollen was necessary for the production of fruit containing seeds in M. iasjoo and M. ornaia. Most of the pollen of the Jamaican and Apple bananas was sterile, and only a few of the ovules in these plants have an embryo-sac. However, the dusting of the ovaries of these cultivated fruit plants with pollen of M, ^aajoo and M. ornata was sufficient to produce seeds. CHAPTER II CULTIVATION. GENERAL OPERATIONS. PREPARATION OF LAND. CLEARING. DISTANCE. DIGGING HOLES The chapters on cultivation that immediately follow con- cern the banana grown so largely for export in Jamaica. The experience summarized here extends only to its culti- vation in that island, but the soil and climate differ so remarkably in different districts that much of what there is to say on the subject in connexion with that colony will probably apply to its cultivation elsewhere. When the banana industry in other lands is under consideration, notes on the cultivation, as practised locally, are included. It will be observed that there are no hard-and-fast hnes,; no definite directions that can be formulated for the cultivation, but that the cultivator himself must thoroughly study the plant as well as the soil and the climate, and that he must be for ever experimenting in order to increase his knowledge of the behaviour and capabiUties of the plant in each field of his cultivation. These chapters must be taken only as suggestions for experiments towards acquiring an exact acquaintance with the plant under strictly local conditions ; the more completely these are carried out the greater will be the ultimate success attained. General Operations The following is a condensed general statement of operations on the north side of Jamaica where the soil is a heavy loam, 9 to 15 in. deep, with a stiff clayey subsoil and a rainfall of 90 in. : 20 GENERAL OPERATIONS 21 For plants, start in January, plough 9 in, deep, throwing a furrow 14 in. wide. This plough will require a team of eight cattle to pull it. Two ploughs will do three acres a ^ day. Harrow, and allow it to lie fallow till first week in March ; then plough and cross-plough 6 in, deep, and Fia. 6. A FuEEow Diso Plottgh used in Jamaica harrow. Line 14 ft. square. Dig holes 2 ft. 6 in. every way, and fill in with surface soil. Dig suckers, beginning first week in February, one month before they are wanted, and only digging each week what can be planted each week a month later. Plant the second week of March to the end of April. Keep stirred with the plough 3 to 4 in. deep in fine weather, say every eight weeks, but in wet weather simply cut down weeds with cutlass. Select the strongest shoot for the plant, which will fruit in the following February or March. Prune off all suckers until June, then leave one sucker just coming out of the ground, which will fruit in the following April. In October leaVe another on the opposite side of the stem, which will fruit the following spring twelve months. In February leave another, which will fruit in fifteen or sixteen months. On such an estate 66 to 70 per cent, of plants and 88 22 TliE BANANA to 90 per cent, of first ratoons should give bunches.* Taking a seven-year period, the yield should be 330 payable bunches per acre per annum. On the south side after lining at 15 ft. by 15 ft., the irrigation canals would be laid out and water supplied to young plants every five or six days, to ratooiil every ten days, at the rate of two to two and a half cubic yards to each acre. No plough is used for the first three years on this light soil, but instead the hoe and the Assam fork. Preparation of Land Cleanng.— In ground covered with forest or woodland some are content to cut down and burn, leaving the stumps to decay ; but it is better, if it can be done, so to cut the trees that they will tear up their roots in their fall. The trees should be carefully selected, marked and cut up for their special uses — ^timber, posts, piles, tramway sleepers, firewood, &c. The underwood and brush can be used to burn up the roots and the trunks of useless trees such as Guango, Bastard Cedar, &c. The ground should finally be carefully stumped. Machines, e.g. Trewhella's "Monkey Winch," can be obtained which facilitate the work of stumping. Even if the land is virgin soil and does not require ploughicffljl it is better to stump at first. The plants can then be put in at regular distances at once, an important matter in many ways ; and if ploughing is accessary at a later period, there is no delay caused by digging out stumps. Stumping also facilitates cutting and carrying the fruit. If the land is not the virgin soil of a forest, and especially if it be old cane land or pasture, it should be first thoroughly ploughed at least 9 in. deep and harrowed. If the situation is on hill-sides where the plough cannot be worked, the pick-axe for stony ground and the fork for soft ground should be used. * "Bunches," "payable bunchea," and "Btraights" are terms used to signify bunches of nine hands and over. PREPARATION OF LAND 23 ' Distance. — The usual distance is 15 ft. by 15 ft. or 14 ft- by 14 ft., but these distances are modified according to circumstances, and planters are continually trying experi- ments with other distances. One planter stated that a hill-side of fifteen acres on the north side, planted 8 by 8, yielded 8000 straight, or more than 500 to the acre. Another in a hot flat district on the south side found it advantageous to plant 8 by 8 in order to shade the ground as soon as possible. It is stated by the advocates of close planting that the crop comes in sooner, that it can be regulated with greater success so as to come in during the five months of high prices, and that less weeding and less water are required. On the other hand, it will be found necessary to remove every alternate row for first ratoons, and probably for third ratoons to reduce the field to stems at distances of 16 ft. by 16 ft. Where there is too much shade, the tubers are apt to grow gradually higher out of the ground with less hold against the wind, and the plants run up with a weak stem and irregular bunch. Another system is to increase the distance between the rows> and decrease it between the plants in the row, making the wider intervals run north and south. A planter /(«rho reaped 330 payable bunches per acre, planting 14 by 14, got a yield of 400 per acre when he has planted 10 ft. by 10 ft. It is, however, generally advisable to keep to a distance of 15 ft. by 15 ft. or 16 ft. by 16 ft., but experi- ments with other distances may be made on a small scale. In utilising the banana for shade for cacao, the plants may be put in 15 ft. by 15 ft., or perhaps better still 16 ft. by 16 ft. with the cacao in the same line. If the cacao were planted in the centre of the square, ploughs and cultivators could not be worked either way, but by planting in the same line as the banana, they can be used for two or more years without apparent injury to either plant. H. Q. Levy writes * : " I would advocate the following distances, either of which will give good results : 14 by 14 ft., planting two separate suckers to each hole, * Journ. Jam, Agric. Soc, xvi. 74, 24 THE BANANA which gives 222 holes or 444 suckers ; and 11 by 11 ft., with a single sucker to each hole or 361 p^r acre. If an attempt be made to grow over 450 suckers per acre, although the land may be so fertile that there is a good proportion of straights, and there might be a chance of reaping the plant crop during the months of high prices, it will invariably be found that the ratoons are away oiit. Planting at 10 by 10 ft. I could never recommend, but 15 by 15 ft. or 16 by 16 ft., carrying three suckers per stool, may be practised with success on the St. Catherine plains, but with the aid of irrigation." With reference to the subject of distances between plants, a friend writes : " In wide planting there is less risk of a falling tree carrying another with it. The roots of the banana appear to require a radius of at least 8 ft., and wide planting has always commended itself, in my experience, as the best agriculture ; that is to say, sufficiently wide planting to give the plant or tree space admitting of its full and best development. Among other advantages cultivation is easier ; and beyond question the higher the cultivation the better is the fruit obtained." JD*gg*«g HolesJ — Some planters are content with shallow holes about 1 ft. deep. But better results are obtained when holes 2 ft. 6 in. every way are dug ; the roots get a better start and a better hold on the ground, so that the plants are more forward and are not so liable to be blown down. A planter who prepares holes 3 ft. to 4 ft. wide and from 2 ft. to 2| ft. deep, writes : " It is not always possible to get the labour to make these holes, but I am convinced of the advantage and ultimate economy of making them large and deep : among other reasons, the plant gets a start at once ; a good root is formed in the loosened earth which practically ' anchors ' the tree, and enables it to resist high winds, and when planted in this way the tendency of the root to come to the surface is greatly obviated." CHAPTER III PLANTING. TIME OF YEAR. SEED- SUCKERS. PREPARATION OF SUCKERS Planting Time of Year. — ^There is no doubt that, . in districts favoured with rich soil and good seasons, March is the ideal month for planting. All vegetation is then springing naturally ; showers during the following month help to start the eyes of the bulb in putting out leaves and roots, and when the May rains come the yoimg suckers rush along faster than at any other time of the year. In districts not so favourably situated, planting is done in January or February, for the American market from March to June. Seed-suckers. — ^The best .for general purposes in planting are " maiden suckers," * that is, suckers about eight months old which have taken on adult foliage, and passed beyond the stage when the leaves are narrow in proportion to their length — "sword-suckers." They are cut^own to within 6 in^ of the bulb, where they measure 8*to 14 in. across the cut surface. The heart eye should be destroyed, all the outside eyes cut away with the exception of the laxgfist and fullest, and the old roots cleared off. If the heart eye is not destroyed, there is a tendency to form a new bulb on the top of the old one and the plant is then very easily blown over ; besides there is the risk when the sucker is from eight to ten months old that the bunch is already formed, in which case it will probably turn out to * H. Q. Levy in Jawrn. Jam, Agric, 8oc„ xvi. 74, 25 26 THE BANANA be only of six or seven hands. A maiden sucker should be planted, upright, and the hole must be of sufficient depth to allow the eye to be buried at least 8 in. below the surface. Sword-suckers are used in supplying " gall " spots in established fields, and for planting the outside rows of land adjacent to woodland. They should be between 6 and 8 ft. high, planted in an upright position, with all the leaves trimmed oft except the unopened heart one. On moist soils "sword-suckers," cut down to within 8 in. of the bulb, may be used. The bulb is placed flat on its side in the hole. Suckers to be used for planting should be most carefully gathered, and this is not always easy, when they are dug from stools growing in stiff clay soil. ^ The utmost care should be taken not to bend the soft part of the sucker just where it joins the bulb, for any sucker injured in this way is worthless. Preparation of Suckers. — Some planters put the seed- suckers in the ground at once ; others leave them to dry for three or four days, and then plant. Others again find tha;t they get better results by piling them in heaps 8 to 10 deep, then trash is thrown over them to keep off the sun, and they are left a month. The best way to pile them is to erect fences 3 ft. 6 in. high to enclose a con- venient spot 6 ft. wide and of any length necessary. It is, however, better to plant at once, if the suckers are in good condition. The real reason for leaving them for a month is when they are inferior, and it is necessary to determine which have growing-eyes. CHAPTER IV IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE Irrigation The water channels should be close to the suckers when first planted, but when the plants are well established the channels should be made in the centre of the rows, for if the water is applied close to the base of the stem it en- courages the production and growth of suckers, and in this way unnecessarily weakens the plant. As already stated, water is supplied to young plants every five or six days, to ratoons every ten days, at the rate of two to two and a half cubic yards to each acre. Drainage Perfect drainage is absolutely necessary for bananas. It is even niore important to elaborate a system of drains for an irrigation district than to provide water channels, for more harm is done by haying too much water than too little. If there is too little water the processes of life go slow, growth may cease for a time and be renewed when water is supplied again without damage being done other than delay in the formation of the bunch. But with too much water the soil becomes water-logged, decaying organic matter in the soil produces a harmful acidity and sourness, and air is prevented from penetrating amongst the interstices of the soil, which is necessary not only for the production of food material, but for the welfare of the root system. For these reasons drains are equally im- portant on clayey soils or subsoils where the water is 27 28 THE BANANA supplied by the natural rainfall, and they are quite as important on hill-sides as on flat ground. It might be thought that on sloping ground the rain will drain off naturally without leaving any water to accumulate and become hurtful ; but even so, the soil becomes saturated, and unless drains are made air cannot reach the roots. Forking alone on hilly land will not suffice, for there is the danger of heavy rain carrying off the soil. The drains on a hill-side should be made across the slope, with only just sufficient fall to carry off the water towards that part where the soil is least fertile, and at that part the drains should be deepened and widened, and made horizontal, so as to act as catch-pits for soil and dibris, which can be dug out and spread as a most valuable top-dressing. If possible, the overflow from such catchments may be got rid of in natural gullies, but care must, of course, be taken not to lose any of the washed material down the gully ; where there is a risk of this, another catch-pit may be made at a slightly lower level than the first, and the overflow taken into it. In making drains it is a great mistake to make them too shallow, from motives of economy ; they should be not less than 2 ft. deep, and sometimes the depth should be more than 3 ft. If the soil of the hill-side is loamy or sandy, catch-pits only will probably suffice. CHAPTER V CULTIVATION AFTER PLANTING. MULCHING. EARTH MULCH. DRY MULCH. GREEN MULCH. PLOUGHING Cultivation after Planting Mulching. — Keeping down weeds, maintaining a surface mulch, and loosening the soil are all important matters in the cultivation of bananas, as of other plants. Mulching has, during the last ten or t^velve years, been strongly advocated by agricultural authorities in the West Indies.* The dust or earth mulch, the dry mulch, and the green mulch are the forms most commonly employed. The earth mulch is the form that is advocated in America, the surface layer of fine loose soil varying from 3 in. in the eastern United States to 6 or 7 in. in California and the arid regions ; the dry green mulches are the forms that have been chiefly used in the West Indies. The principle is that where there is no mulch, the compacted surface layer forcibly abstracts the moisture from the layers below it, and evaporates it from its surface ; while the mulch of loose surface soil or of -decaying vegetable matter is unable to take any moistiire from the denser subsoil, which is therefore protected from evaporation. This is well illustrated by the familiar fact that while a dry brick will suck a wet sponge dry, a dry sponge (corresponding * See BvMetin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, viii. 54 (1901), and elsewhere ; Bulletin of the Department of AgricuUmre, Jamaica, i. 126 (1903), and elsewhere ; Hon. Dr. P. Watts, in Agricultural Beport on Dominica, 1905, and in many Beporta since ; J own. Jam, Agrip, 8oc, ia many articles and notes. 29 30 THE BANANA to the mulch) is unable to take any water from a wet brick. A friend wrote a short time ago : " I have been practising the dry earth mulch (see Macdonald's ' Dry Farming '*) for some time in suitable soils, i.e. free sandy loam, and alluvial, which can be ploughed and harrowed at all times except after heavy rains. The principle is sound, and, so far as I can judge, the earth mulch is effectual as far as it can be so. I know others who are trying it with good results." Earth Mulch. — Svffface mulching, which consists in keeping a deep layer of the top soil in a dry, loose, granular state, has two effects. First, by rendering the top layer more porous, or rather by rendering the surface pores larger, it lessens considerably the run-off in the case of heavy showers. Its chief object, however, is to make evaporation difficult by destroying the capillary pores and tubes through which the soil moisture is brought under the active evaporating influences of the atmosphere. "The height f to which at ordinary temperatures water rises in capillary tubes depends entirely on the diameter of the tube. If the diameter is loo^ooo °^ ^^ inch, water will rise about 100 ft. ; if the diameter is ^^ of an inch, the water will rise 1 in. ; if the diameter is ^ of an inch, the water rises about ^ of an inch. Now in compact soils the pores form the equivalent of continuous tubes which may be within the range of the foregoing figures. The American experts in their soil surveys have determined the number of particles of many loamy soils. In an ordinary loamy soil they find from two to four billion particles per cubic inch. It is easy to compute from this that the size of the particles may be as low as ij ^qq of an inch, and we may assume consequently that the pores are of the same order of magnitude. The theory of * "Dry-Farming in America: being a Eeport presented to the Transvaal Government." By W. Macdonald. Pretoria, 1909. t "Rainfall in Relation to Dry Farming." By Rev. B. Goetz, S.J., Director of the Bulawayo Observatory. Bhcdesia Agric, Jomrn,, it, 487 (1912). CULTIVATION AFTER PLANTING 31 c^pilljarity shows that in tubes of that diameter water will rise from seven to eight yards. . . . This upward movement of the lower moisture, though sometimes injurious owing to the accumulation of saline substances, may in a great many cases be beneficial, provided it be stopped before it comes into contact with the surface air. This is what is done by the surface mulching, which for the small pores of the soil substitutes pores of large dimensions through which capillary ascent is insignifics^nt. This mulch acts as a surface covering- The soil should be cultivated after every rain that has been heavy enough to puddle the surface. This cultivation should be re- sorted to as soon as the implements can be passed over the ground without clogging. If the ground has become so dry that rain falling on it goes only to increase the water film round the soil particles, and does not start a downward percolation, capillary ascent of soil moisture from the lower layers is so certain that soon after such rain the deeper soil has become measurably drier than it was before, while the surface foot is found to contain more water than had fallen upon it. This will in most cases be an 'advantage, provided surface evaporation be checked as soon as possible." " A leading question * in connexion with cultivation is the depth to which the soil should be stirred for the best results. Many of the early students of the subject found that a soil mulch only one half inch in depth was effective in retaining a large part of the soil moisture which non- cultivated soils woxild lose by evaporation. ... In general, however, the deeper the cultivation, the more effective it is in reducing evaporation. Fortier, in the experiments in California, showed the greater value of deep cultivation. During a period of fifteen days, begin- ning immediately after an irrigation, the soil which had not been mulched lost by evaporation nearly one-fourth of the total amoimt of water that had been added. A mulch four inches deep saved about 72 per cent, of the evapora- * " Dry-Fanning." By J. A, Widstoe. 1912. 32 THE BANANA tion ; a mulch eight inches deep saved about 88 per cent., and a mulch ten inches deep stopped evaporation almost wholly." The Principal of the Lichtenburg Dry Land Station in the Transvaal, according to United Empire (February 1918), has just reaped a crop of wheat which has been grown this season without a drop of rain from seed-time to harvest. This result is advanced as signal testimony to the possibility of successful dry farming in the more arid parts of the Union. • Dry Mulch. — Dry mulching is a covering of cut grass or suitable "bush," and Dr. Watts has proved that the prevention of water evaporation from the soil by this means is more important than any system of artificial manm-ing. It takes * three or four acres of good Guinea grass to mulch one acre of bananas. The grass should be wilted in the sun for a few days before handling. Wherever the mulch rots down so as to expose the soil, it must be immediately renewed. Mr. Barclay writes in Journal of the Jamaica Agricultwrat Society (November 1910) : " There are bananas now being grown on soils and in climates that a few years ago would have been deemed absolutely imsuitable to grow bananas commercially. Bananas of as good grade as anywhere else are grown now in the red soils of St. Ann, and in the rather dry soils of Trelawney, with a low rainfall. These soils are first thoroughly forked, and then immediatdy mulched heavily with Guinea grass. It costs about £2 10». per acre per annum to keep the plants niulched all through ' to the depth of a foot or more, but then there is little, if any, weeding to be done, and no forking for as long as two years. Only when the bananas are grown out of the soil forking has to be done, and the mulch tm-ned in. The surface mulch keeps the ground soft, and cool, and moist, so that in these rather dry climates the expense of the production of bananas is not greater in the enni*than' in districts of heavy rainfall." * H. Q Levy in Jowrn, Jam, Agrio. Soc„ xvi. 248 (1912). CULTIVATION AFTER PLANTING 8» Green Mulch. — " A great deal of the expense of weeding and forking in wet districts can be avoided by growing heavy green mulches, as a dry mulch does not last long nor act as well there. Then there is the additional profit in growing or adding a mulch, in the land being constantly made richer rather than becoming poorer. Jerusalem peas [Phaseolus trmervis] can be planted immediately the plants appear and the ground is thoroughly forked. The vines will soon cover the ground, and they do not run so much as the velvet bean or the Bengal bean, so causing expense in keeping the vines within bounds, and at the same time the Jerusalem peas last longer than cowpeas, so are found to suit better as a more permanent mulch. No matter when planted, the Jerusalem peas only blossom about October, so if planted in February or March, when the bananas are just in, they will cover the ground till December." In the Journal for April 1910 he writes : " For ten years we have patiently written of the various legumes which ought to be utilized for the triple purpose of (1) covering the land with a plant under control to keep down and crush out weeds ; (2) providing a cheap mulch, as mulching material which has to be cut and carried on the land is often difficult to get in quantity, and is expensive to apply — this thick covering of vine should be cutlassed down when in blossom and let lie until it rots, when it can be forked in ; (3) supplying humus and nitrogen. In a tropical country where such heavy rains may fall and cake the earth mulch, beat even newly forked soil hard, and wash the soft top soil into the open drains, or away into water-com-ses, the green mulch is the practice that should prevail. As soon as the banana suckers are planted, get the soil covered, so that the rains will not beat it or wash it, or the sun bake it." Jerusalem peas grow well even in the shade of a banana plantation, and are very effective in keeping down weeds. The growth is thick and on an average 2 ft. high. Ploughing. — ^Various opinions are held by banana 34 THE BANANA planters about ploughing. Some who have planted in light, loamy soils have been reaping excellent crops for some years without any ploughing. Others, with heavy soil, plough every eight weeks with a 6 in. plough, alter- nately one way and across. Others, again, plough only once a year. With heavy soil in wet districts forking has now become the custom instead of ploughing. A friend who established a cacao walk with bananas, before planting, ploughed, cross-ploughed, harrowed, and, when necessary, trenched ; afterwards he ploughed with a small plough (with moon coulter attached) three to six times a year. On banana lines, where a plough cannot work, he forks occasionally and hoes frequently. He says that the plough is far more effectual in breaking up the soil than any other implement he has tried, and it keeps the land clean much longer. The plough works from 4 to 6 in. deep, and the cultivator 2 to 3 in. Another planter forks once a year, and uses the cultivator to keep the weeds down. When the grass is too high for the cultivator he uses hoes, and only substitute^ the plough for the hoe or cultivator when laboiir is scarce. Both plough and cultivator are kept to 2 in. in depth in order to avoid destroying roots. A judicious pruning of the roots by the plough is of great value, if done at the proper time ; for as the roots do not naturally branch, but grow straight out to great distances, pruning the roots induces branching at the severed ends and a further production of roots from the bulb. A planter, for whose judgment I have the greatest respect, writes as follows : " I do not think that ploughing close to the banana and cutting through the roots does any harm. On the contrary, I am certain it does good, principally, I think, because the cutting gives fresh impetus to the roots, and this activity increases the growth of the plant. Take, say, potatoes or turnips, which are usually grown in drills 27 in. wide ; so long as a horse hoe can work in these rows, it is good cultivation to keep working, CULTIVATION AFTER PLANTING 35 even to the damage of some of the leaves. Every time it is put through, all the roots crossing the drills must be cut, yet you see the greatest improvement in the growth of these plants." The following experiment, made at a banana plot in Hope Gardens, throws light on the subject of the formation of new roots induced by cutting them back. In planting the plots, holes 3 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep were dug, the soil was returned to the holes and the suckers planted therein. The surrounding soil was ploughed and cross- ploughed after the plants began to grow. The soil is deep, rich, black, and rather heavy. On November 19 a trench 1 ft. wide and 2| ft. deep was dug half-way round a one-year-old banana stool at a distance of 3 ft. from the stem that was about to fruit, and the soil returned. In doing this, the thick, fleshy roots, some of them 5 ft. to 6 ft. long, were severed. No roots were found below 6 in. from the surface. Ten days later the soil between the first trench and 8 in. from the stem was removed to the depth of 2 ft. 6 in. and returned, cutting off all the roots with the spade to within 8 in. of the stem. It was noticed when doing this that the roots that were cut off at 3 ft. from the stem had thrown out numerous fibrous roots down their entire length. A month later, on December 30, the soil was opened up from 3 ft. inwards in order to ascertain the effect of pruning the roots. New roots were seen to have grown out 3 ft. from the stem to a deptii of 2 ft. from the surface. These roots were carefully followed back to the stem. Some proved to be new roots direct from the stem, whilst others had grown out from around the cut ends of the original roots, one root giving rise to five or six vigorous feeders. Some of the cut roots did not grow at all, but remained just as they were, except that they died back two or three inches ; this was more noticeable near the surface, where they would come under the influence of dry weather. Some deeper ones had, however, rotted back a few inches, due, perhaps, to the ragged cut by the spade or to the root 36 THE BANANA itself being injured at its junction with the stem by the pull of the cut. The roots on the undisturbed side of the plant simply lengthened out a little and remained near the surface^ 5 in. being the lowest depth at which roots were found. The plant did not show any ill effects from the disturbance of its roots on one side. It is evident that the rather drastic pruning enormously and very quickly in- creased the root system, and thereby greatly multiplied the power of the plant to absorb food material. But ploughing, so as cut the roots close to the stem, should not be allowed when it is possible that the embryo bunch is being formed, for the cutting off of the food supply even for a short time, and even though much in- creased later, might come just when food material is most important in determining the size of the bimch. Further experiments are necessary, and probably it will be foimd that ploughing close to the stem may be done at the end of three months from planting, but not later. After that time, ploughing should be kept gradually further and further from the plant as the roots grow out, and be dis- continued in the sixth month. The cultivator may be used continuously, if the earth mulch is employed. Where ploughing is not the practice, the fork is used to great advantage when the young suckers are two months old. Where the rains are constant and the soil heavy, the cutlass is the best tool in weeding. The hoe, the assam fork, and the cultivator are tools used under different Qonditions. The disc harrow is an admirable instrument, and should be in constant use so long as the soil is suffi- ciently dry. If the ordinary plough forms a pan, a subsoil plough is used occasionally to secure good drainage. CHAPTER VI PRUNING AND TREATMENT OF SUCKERS. REASONS FOR PRUNING. METHOD. CHOOSING AND TIMING. PRUNING LEAVES Pruning and Treatment of Suckers Reasons for Pruning. — Pruning away such suckers as are not intended to yield fruit is a most important operation. It should be don§^when the sucker is not more than one or two feet high. The larger the sucker grows, the more food material it abstracts from the parent bulb, and the more its yoimg roots interfere with the root system of the plant, in both ways injuring the future bunch. It has been suggested that the plan of constantly pruning the banana, in order to suit the market, must do serious injury to the plant. But a little consideration will show that this idea is erroneous. Plants of the type of the banana throw out numerous suckers, and also produce fruit. Thus reproduction is provided for in two ways — by v^etative multiplication and by fruit. If the vegeta- tive energy is prevented from dissipating itself in suckers, there is all the more of that energy to be expended on producing new leaves for the plant itself. New leaves mean more food accumulated in the storehouse — ^the bulb — and available at the proper time for the production of an increased number of hands to the bunch. The suckers are rivals and competitors of the mother plant in getting food material from the soil. They do not help the mother plant, but are partly fed by it, and partly steal its nourish- ment in the soil. The more suckers there are in existence 37 38 THE BANANA the smaller will be the number of hands in the bunch for the mother plant, and the longer it will take for the suckers to fruit. Method.— Care should be taken when cutting away the Suckers to apply the cutlass, so that it does not point towards the plant, otherwise it is very easy to injure it. If the sucker is not cut away quite down to the white, hard part, it will soon spring again, and therefore time and labour are saved by doing it thoroughly at first. Choosing and Timing. — Suckers shoot from the newly planted bulb from eyes all round, and sometimes from the centre. Some planters cut away the central sucker ; others leave it, as it gives affair bunch if the i)ulb is vigorous. On the south side, in irrigated land, two or three suckers may be left at equal distances round the bulb. It is well to take those that start from eyes placed low down, so that the roots have a good hold on the ground. One sucker takes the lead, as a rule, and becomes the plant, fruiting in ten to f otirteen months ; another comes in as a second^ sucker, giving a finer bunch four or five months later. Occasionally all the suckers will bear at the same time, when the bunches will not be so fine. It is the practice With some planters on the north side, after planting in March and April for fruit in February or March, to prune ofE all suckers till June, then to leave one just coming out of the ground which will fruit in the following April ; in October another is left on the opposite side of the stem, and in February another which will fruit in' fifteen or sixteen months. On the south side two suckers would be left instead of one in June, October, and February. Plants vary, according to soil, situation, tillage, &c., in the time they take to produce fruit ; the usual time is ten months to shoot (from time of planting), but often longer, and two and a half to four months more to ripen. Ratoons {i.e. suckers which take the place of the parent plant after fruiting) usually bear in fifteen to seventeen months. Judging from experience of his own estate, the PRUNING AND TREATMENT OF SUCKERS 39 planter may by careful pruning, if the rains are seasonable, so regulate his banana walk, when once established, that a large proportion of the crop shall come in during the months of high prices, from March to June. In reckoning the time it takes suckers to fruit, plant suckers and ratoon suckers must be distinguished. When the bulb is planted, it grows into a plant sucker, and in tTieTowIanSETof Jamaica fruit may be ready to cut from it in twelve months, or even less, from time of planting, although unfavourable conditions, such as a poor sucker, drought, wind damage, may prolong the time ; but, generally speaking, a plant sucker produces fruit fit for harvesting in twelve months from planting. It is quite different in speaking of ratoon suckers ; first ratoons may take fifteen or sixteen months, or more, to mature fruit, but the older the banana and the thicker the shade, the longer the ratoons take to come into bearing. There is no discrepancy here, but the age of the plant sucker is not added to the twelve months. ^As a matter of fact, a plant sucker really takes longer to bear than a ratoon sucker, if the time is reckonedTErom the date of removing"from the mother plant, but there is a period of rest after removal, a check to development, and new roots and new leaves have to be formed. The whole subject is so important that no excuse need be offered for dwelling on it at considerable length, and adding observations by H. Q. Levy from the Journal of' the Jamaica Agricultural Society (xvi. 305, 1912) : " I offer advice on this part of banana cultivation with a certain amount of diffidence, for so much depends on the size of sucker to be pruned, and its situation to other suckers, that it is hardly possible to lay down any hard- and-fast rule. There is no part of banana cultivation that needs as much individual attention, supervision, and judgment as the priming. The retaining of wrong suckers may mean the loss of hundreds of pounds to the large cultivator. If the planter is fortunate in growing a fairly even field of plants, then all is plain sailing, as one size 40 THE BANANA of follower * may be left throughout the field, but other- wise, then each sucker must be treated on its own merits, " I have observed more mistakes in priming, entailing more or less loss to the owner, than I care to recollect : some from ignorance, but more often from greed. It is hardly possible to grow more than 450 stems per acre and get your followers right. Yet some persons try to get as many as 600 to 700. These speculators usually wind up by marketing not more than 200, and most of these in the bad months. It is quite possible to grow 700 suckers to the acre, but the followers and fruit take so long to mature, that not more than the above amount can be cut in one year after the plant crop is harvested. If the suckers be correctly spaced, and the land fairly fertile, 300 payables per acre may be considered a probable return, and no cultivator should attempt to produce more, "The object in suckering is not only to obtain size of bunch, but primarily to meet the months of highest prices, A ten-hand bunch marketed in October fetches only Is,, one containing seven hands sold in April or May realizes the same price, and sometimes more to the grower, with lower cost of marketing and less chance of rejection ; therefore size of bunch is of secondary consideration. When a cultivator learns to prune correctly, then he can turn his attention to produce ' straight ' bunches, " The consumer abroad wants bananas during the spring months, and wants them badly, but what is more im- portant, he is then not so particular as to quality, but in the later part of the year when his own fruits are in season, he gets fastidious, and will purchase only the best, and not much of that either. The fruit companies are there, to supply the consimaers' wants, and they of necessity, so long as fruit is plentiful, select only good fruit ; it is, there- fore, good policy from all standpoints to prune so as to market the bulk of your crops as near the month of March, April, May, and June as possible, * " Follower," a sucker left at the root of the parent plant to produoa the succeeding crop. PRUNING AND TREATMENT OF SUCKERS 41 "It is somewhat difficult to explain on paper in a manner so that the beginner may grasp the details, the essential operation of pruning, but I will see what can be done by introducing dates. There exists a diversity of opinion as to the correct time and manner of pruning ; still there are certain tried and proved systems which, if followed, will be found fairly correct. But at the same time I must state that it is a known fact that even on the same property different fields require larger and smaller peepers* to be left according to the exposure or conformity of the land ; this therefore calls for individual experiment. It is well to remember this, as a mistake once made need not be repeated. " I will deal with Plants first, and I will suppose that the cultivator is planting in a new field so as to reap his crop in the spring months of 1913. If the seed suckers have been planted, say any time between October 1911 and March 1912, and the weather conditions and soil fertility have been at all favourable, the plant suckers should have attained their full size by the end of October 1912. From the time of planting to August all followers should have been removed from the root of the parent plant. After August I would not advise any suckering until October 1, when a peeper 4 to 6 in. high should be left on each sucker if planted 14 by 14 ft., making two to each stool ; if 11 by 11 ft., only a single peeper would be retained. In the higher mountains and cold valleys I advise leaving a peeper 12 in. high at this time. Any backward sucker whose growth indicates lateness for spring prices should have a correspondingly large peeper or sword sucker left, if such be present. The parent plant will represent your spring crop for 1918, and the peeper the 1914 crop, these latter taking eighteen to twenty -one months from peeper to crop. "On Batoons, peepers, instead of being selected in * " Peeper," a small pointed sucker, of about 4 to 12 in. high, starting below the level of the ground and sprouting through the earth, developing later into a " sword-sucker." 42 THE BANANA October, must be left from June to July, as they take from twenty-one to twenty -five months to mature a crop, and if the field be a closely planted one, even longer ; in fact it would be hard to tell the age of a sword sucker or peeper in such fields. On the plains, if ratoons are well grown, August peepers are safe, whereas in the colder altitudes of the interior regions May peepers one fopt high are sometimes found to just answer. " As I explained before, each planter at the start must experiment for himself, but after having once hit on the correct time to leave peepers, do not neglect even for a week to prune out those followers not wanted, as it is very difficult to tell the exact age of a sucker after it has passed the peeper stage. "It is better to prune for an early crop rather than a late one, for if even 25 per cent, come too early, you can pick, choose, and refuse your followers ; whereas if an equal quantity happen to be late, the peepers in nine cases out of ten will also be late in starting from the bulb and showing themselves above ground. If you should be unfortunate in getting two successive late crops, it is extremely difficult, even for an expert, to bring back your field into correct fruiting. "Do not make the mistake of leaving more suckers than I have advised, because they look stout and pretty. The earlier you remove the superfluous ones, the less temptation and heartache you will have. Too many suckers rob the parent plant, and later retard the maturing of the crop. "Never leave a peeper on a stump,* except where ab- solutely necessary, or a water sucker will result, producing for certain either a six or seven hand bunch. I have seen fertile land growing banana suckers that were strong and the picture of health, but the fruit from which graded nearly all sixes and sevens. The cause could easily be * "Stump," the lemaining portion of plant after a bunch has been harvested, and the top containing the leaves and upper part of the trunk cut o£F, PRUNING LEAVES 48 traced to leaving most of the peepers on the stump instead of on the maiden sucker followers, as the operation of suckering was just proceeding, and the same system had been practised to produce the crop in sight." Pruning Leaves As the first leaves decay, they hang down all round, protecting the stem from the full glare of the sun. If they are cut away, the sheathing leaf stalks, which form the outside of the trunk, dry up and do not perform their proper functions. It is well to leave them, even in the shade of a banana walk, unless it happens that the plants are clustered closely together, when too much shade causes the stem to^ lengthen out and become' weak and brittle. In such a case some of the dead hanging leaves may be pruned away. The hanging dead leaves must not be allowed to trail on the ground, as they encourage the production of roots coming to the surface, which are killed in dry weather, unless green mulching is practised. Some planters prune away even some of the living green leaves, but this cannot be recommended, as it interferes with the food supply. If, however, a leaf is seen to be growing through a bunch, and as it would, if left, cause some deformity or 'discoloration of the fruit, it is carefully removed from' its position with the pruning tool. This tool is a semicircular instrument mounted on a long handle, with the convex side uppermost. CHAPTER VII HARVESTING AND REPLANTING Harvesting When the bunch is to be cut, the stem is partly cut througfe 5 or 6 ft. from the ground, and the bunch, with the whole top of the plant, topples slowly over. Care is taken that it does not fallagainst and injure any other plant. The usual custom is to cut fruit by the hundred stems, each' cutter by himself, without help, cutting the fruit with a cutlass and catching it. This is, perhaps, a doubtful practice, as owing to want of method cutters running through the walks miss or roughly cut much of the fruit.' A better plan is to employ a cutter and a helper who work together. The cutters with their helpers, twelve or four- teen in number, work in line, each cutter having three rows assigned him, or in close planting only tv/o rows. On some estates particular care is taken in harvesting ] one man with his pruning tool cuts and manipulates the fall of the head, while another catches the bunch and, when the stalk is cut, hands it to one of the women who are employed to carry it to a particular spot. This is necessary when we remember that a bunch weighs from 80 to 100 lbs. Here a bookkeeper enters it in his book; under its proper denomination as a bunch, or one of eight, seven, or six hands ; or he may reject it as vmmarketable' for any one of several reasons — ^it is not " full " enough or too " full," the fingers are too small, there are not enoiigh-; fingers on the lowest hand, badly shaped, straggly fruit; rat -eaten or otherwise damaged. Several bookkeepers on a large estate will thus be entering the bunches, while the 44 •"^i^jj»»inlj HARVESTING 45 owner or the manager, riding from one to the other, con- trols the number cut for deUvery that night or in the early morning at the wharf. The bunches are wrapped in trash and handed up by two men to another in a wagon, who packs them in carefully so that there shall be no bruising. Wrapping is not necessary when the station or wharf is near at hand. It is singularly picturesque to ride through the shady rows of bananas, with here and there, all roiuid, majestic heads falling and figures moving swiftly at their work, to note the quick movements of the men with keen upward glances, the stately walk of the women with a bunch balanced on their heads, all accompanied by the noise of the large leaves in their descent, the cries of the men, and the pecuUar call for the women when they are wanted. When the fruit is " caught " it is simply severed with a cutlass and removed. As soon after as possible men are sent into the fields to chop up both stem and leaves, leaving a stump of the cut stem of 3 to 4 ft. on the root, which benefits the suckers by the moisture it contains. If cut down to the root, undoubtedly the suckers would suffer. The stump withers, and can be pulled out and cut up later. When fresh cut, a man can easily chop 100 stems a day. The chopped-up stems are spread over the land, which can then be ploughed without obstruction, while they help to manure it. The Baraton. — Instead of leaving the stump to wither, it is sometimes dug out by a special tool, described by Dr. James Neish * as follows : " The baraton is a digging tool used in Nicaragua and other States of Central America in the cultivation of bananas. It is specially employed in the Central American countries for digging out and separating from the living stool the dead portion of the underground stem of a banana plant which has borne its fruit. This portion of the plant when allowed to remain in the soil hinders the growth of the parent stool by preventing it from throwing * Journ. Jam. Agric, 3o6„ v. 195 (1901), 46 THE BANANA out additional roots. It is claimed by cultivators of the banana in Central America that by the use of this imple- ment or tool stronger plants can be grown, which are more firmly rooted and fixed in the soil, and are thereby better able to withstand and resist the force of strong winds. The plants so treated are also held to be more vigorous and to produce superior bunches of fruit. " The name baraton (plural, baratones) is Spanish, and signifies a long lever. In Central America this implement is often termed a macana, which is a Mexican Indian term denoting a wooden weapon made use of in war by the Indians. In shape and appearance the tool resembles somewhat a long-handled spade, but the blade, instead of being flat, as in the spade, is made in the form of a vertical section of a cylinder, being curved or hollowed laterally. Its form thus adapts it to the circular contour of the stem, and it is forced into the soil pretty close to the decaying stem, and the adjacent earth is loosened by moving the long handle as a lever. It is then withdrawn and applied to the stem in a similar manner on the opposite side. Finally the mass of dead and decaying stem is removed by using the implement in front as if it were a spade. The soil is then filled in. " The steel part of the implement is about 5| in. wide ; its height or depth is about 19 in., and the' handle is very long in order to be used as a lever." Replanting It is considered advisable to replant a banana walk after an interval which varies from three to six years. A certain proportion is replanted each year, so that every year some planting is going on. Advantage should be taken of this interval to increase the humus in the land. This can be very well managed by sowing some leguminous crop (such as Bengal beans, Jerusalem beans, velvet beans, or bonavist beans) in the field that is to be thrown up. If the lapd can be ploughed, two furrows may be run up REPLANTING 47 the rows and the beans sown in them ; if the land is un- suitable for the plough, make holes with the hoe for the seed four feet apart. The leguminous climbers will in two months' time be climbing all over the old suckers. Cattle may now be tiu'ned in to feed down the dense vegetation. It may be considered advisable to plant another crop of beans and to have these fed down before it is time to prepare the land for planting again. In this way humus and manure have been added to the land, there has been feeding for cattle of better quality than if the fields had been abandoned to bush, and troublesome weeds have not been able to get hold of the land. Some planters have tried planting between the rows of first rdtoons, as it is easier to regulate plants and first ratoons for the American market than later ratoons. The question of replanting must be decided from various considerations : the field may be getting out of shape from the various ways in which the suckers have sprung from the parent plant, making it difficult to cultivate ; the bulbs may have got too high above ground, inviting destruction from high winds, and danger from dry weather ; the soil may require rest or a more thorough ploughing than can be given while stems are growing ; and the commercial question of paying better to plant for the American market. CHAPTER VIII BANANAS AS NURSE-PLAsNTS AND AS A CATCH-CROP Many crop-plants require to be shaded from the sun and protected from drying winds in the early stages of their existence, and for this purpose various " nurse-plants " are recommended. Many plants also take several years before they yield a crop, and it is important from the financial point of view that quick-yielding intermediate crops be grown between the permanent plants which will give an annual return while expenditure is going on without any return from the permanent plants ; some of such intermediate " catch-crop plants " are also excellent nurse- plants. Bananas are an ideal nurse-plant in the tropics. The ample leaves give good shade and protection from wind) and they can be so trimmed, if necessary, as to give just the amount of shade required. A dwarf variety or a very tall one can be chosen as seems best. The roots scarcely branch, they are not aggressive in the search for food, and therefore are not liable to interfere with the roots of plants near which they are growing ; moreover, they do not exhaust the soil, rendering it unfit for the development^ of other plants in it. Bananas are readily propagated by the suckers, and can be easily and quickly raised in large numbers. When planted in favourable situations, they grow without requiring much attention, though any care and cultivation bestowed upon them give good results in fruit, and indirectly benefit the main crop. 4S BANANAS AS NURSE-PLANTS 49 Although easily blown over by high winds from an unusual quarter, they adapt themselves in a wonderful manner, by putting out strong anchoring roots, to resist a considerable force of wind if blowing fairly steady from one quarter. The fruit is produced in about fifteen months, and yields an abundant supply of food. It is very remunera- tive, if there is a market for it, and, at any rate, can be utilized for the estate labourers. Coco-nuts. — ^Although coco-nut palms do not need nurse- plants, it is desirable that the long period of about seven years before they yield a crop should not be wholly un- remunerative for the waiting planter, and that some paying catch-crop should be grown. If there are estate labourers to be fed, it is often essential to have a supply of food ready to hand. It may even be necessary to attract labour by providing the supply, even if nothing is actually charged for it. If there is a market for the fruit, bananas will give a handsome profit, and it will not be necessary to live on capital while waiting for the coco-nut crop. If coco-nuts are planted at a distance of 30 ft. by 30 ft., a banana plant may be put in between each pair of coco- nut palms and one in the centre between every four palms. They may be removed at the end of six or seven years. Cacao. — Cacao requires niu'se-plants to shade it in the young state "and to protect it from drying winds, and nothing is better for the purpose than the banana. They should be planted and allowed a start before the cacao is put out. Stakes or pegs should mark where the cacao plants are to go, and the bananas planted in the rows, one between each cacao stake, so as not to interfere with the ploughing, before and after the cacao is put out. The bananas may be kept growing for about five years, and then thinned out very gradually so as not to expose the young plants of cacao suddenly to the sun's heat. If high winds blow down some of the bananas, it may D 50 THE BANANA happen that some will Jail against the cacao trees and injure them, but the chances are against more than a small percentage being injured in this way. Rubber, Coffee, d;c. — Bananas may also be used as nurse- plauts for rubber, coffee, &c., and similar consideratiofts apply to these plants. CHAPTER IX FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND PROSPECTS FOR BEGINNERS. COST OF CltLTIVATION AND RECEIPTS. PROSPECTS FOR TJHOSE STARTING CULTIVATION Cost of Cultivation and Receipts In considering the cost of preparing land and of cultivation afterwards, certain expenditxu-e — foi instance, that on buildings, roads, fences, tramlines — may well be entered as charges to be spread over a certain number of years. In the irrigated district of St. Catherine, Jamaica, a fair amount that should be allowed f oj;- preparation of land and cultivation until the bananas begin to bear, is £15 an acre, and the annual expenditure afterwards would be £10 an acre. The yield ought to be at the rate of 225 to 230 payable * bunches per acre, and taking the contract price all the year round at £8 15s. per 100, the receipts would average £20 an acre. Whether the same price is paid for bananas throughout the year, or whether it varies as it does for the American market, the total annual receipts for a number of years average double the amount of the expenditure. In the banana districts on the norJ:.h side of Jamaica, * " Payable bunches " or " payables " mean nine hands and over ; eight hands bring only three-fourths the price ol nine hands, seven hands one-half, six hands one-fourth. These are calculated into " payable bunches " — ^for instance, 400 eight hands mean 300 " straights " or nine hands, 500 seven hands mean 250 " payables," 100 six hands mean 25 "payables." 51 52 THE BANANA taking the average of the whole run of estates from Port Antonio westward;; to Rio Bueno, the cost per acre to bring an estate int 3 bearing would be about £10, and the maintenance after yards £7 10«. The yield may be put down at 175 to 180 payable bunches per acre. The cost of cullivation per acre differs, of course, in every locality. Much higher wages can be, and are, paid for banana work near a shipping port or the railway. At a distance of, s£,y, ten to twenty -five miles from either, where road-transport is so heavy and costly as to render it impossible to sl4p fruit except for a few months in the year, wages are, and must be, lower. I have been favoured by a banana planter with the following abstract of accounts for one year. It refers to an estate of 200 aorps in an irrigated district on the south side of Jamaica. ' Total Expenditiire . . . £2038 14s. 4§d. Bnncbes Eights| Sevens Sixes Total cut Payable 24,356 16,016 12,778 4468 57,618 43,827 Average of payables out of total cut — 76 per cent. j Receipts Bananas SuokeiB ■ I ■ Miscellaneous i . . . . £ s. d. 3589 13 5 35 15 5 10 1 lOJ Total 3635 10 8J The following figures derived from a banana plantation situated in a non-irrigated district on the north side will be useful by way of comparison. The soil is loose and gravelly without clay, rain 150 in. Thirty-one acres were planted to produce a crop the following year. There were besides 135 acres yielding fruit, of which fifty acres were plants, and eightyffive ratoons. Total Expen4iture .... £1250 COST OF CULTIVATION AND RECEIPTS 68 Payable bunches amounted to 40,916, or 808 to the acre. The receipts were £458 from miscellaneous sources, coco-nuts, cacao, and £2210 15s. 3d. from bananas. The following is an example of the expenditure and receipts on a portion of woodland fifty acres on a pen, which has been utilized for cultivating bananas. The operations were commenced in October 1899, and the expenditure to December 1901 amounted to £1812, which includes interest at 6 per cent., barracks of six rooms, purchase of suckers, and cutting down forest land. The receipts month by month were as follows : 1900 December 1901 January February March April . May June July . August September ' October November December Total A word of caution is necessary in considering the receipts. Every one who has had experience of growing bananas knows how a sudden " blow ' may level hundreds of acres of stems, and this may happen just when the bunches are ready for the harvest, and a year's work and expenditure are lost beyond redemption. The planter should therefore -insure himself in some way so as not to be left stranded without money to carry on cultivation for another year. In the general review of banana cultivation in other lands, various estimates are given of expenditure, which may be compared with those stated for Jamaica. i 1. d. 2 19 1 7 17 11 31 19 9 154 4 11 526 2 7 425 15 6 367 5 185 12 6 97 3 84 9 11 128 18 11 76 68 2155 6 4 54 THE BANANA Prospects for Those Starting Cultivation A writer in the Times a few years ago gave such excellent and wise advice to those thinking of going to Jamaica to plant bananas, that it is well worth reproduction here for the consideration of emigrants to any tropical country : " Banana growing is undoubtedly a very risky business. Its profits are great when realized, but a violent north wind, such as occasionally blows in Jamaica, may destroy the whole growth of a year in a single night. There is no guarding against these ' blows ' as they are called, and no anticipating them. The planter must take his chance. The wind bloweth when and where it listeth, and it may ruin one planter's crop, and leave that of another un- scathed. On the other hand the profits, when realized, are very great. Good agricultural land may be bought in Jamaica for from- £5_±Q. £10 an acre. For agricultural purposes the very best land barely sells for £20. The future of the fruit trade is now assizred, so far as the opening of a i>ew market in Europe can assure it. This being so, the question will naturally be asked, can a young man of energy who commands a moderate capital, say from £500 to £2000, and is prepared to work hard, be re- commended to go to Jamaica and embark his capital in tropical agriculture ? There is only one answer to be given to this question, and it cannot be too widely known. No man should dream of engaging in agriculture in Jamaica on his own account without having first studied the situa- tion carefully and cautiously on the spot.i The climate may not suit him, the nature of the occupation may not suit him, in a word he may not for one reason or another be the right man to succeed. That he must determine for himself. Jamaica is no El Dorado, it is no place where a man can plant his capital in the ground and then sit down and wait for it to grow. Tropical agriculture is not a trade to be learnt in a day. It requires an apprenticeship ; like any other, and the best thing for a young man to do' who thinks it may suit him, is to seek a subordinate PROSPECTS FOR BEGINNERS 55 situation on some plantation for a time, and judge for himself how he likes the life and what he thinks of the prospects. Such situations are not difficult to obtain by those who go the right way to work, ahd a young man who takes one will very soon find out, or be told, whether he is likely to succeed. But I repeat with all the emphasis I can command that a young man who goes to Jamaica without experience and without training, possibly with little aptitude for hard work of any kind, and with none at all for hard work in the tropics, and expects to turn his capital into a fortune in a few years, had much better stay at home." CHAPTER X BANANA SOILS IN JAMAICA The following facts about banana soils in Jamaica may be helpful in showing how much can be done to improve and make productive even the most unpromising , soils. " In the early stages * of the industry in Jamaica ' banana land ' was accepted to mean a soil in which without drainage, without tillage, and by a superficial process of clearing and, perhaps, burning, before the suckers were planted a good yield of commercial fruit was obtainable by the grace of Nature alone. Where fine alluvial deposit has been reinforced with the humus from a prolonged growth of forest or ruinate, and the district is a seasonable one, suc^ old-fashioned ' banana land ' is still to be found in Jamaica, but in rapidly decreasing lextent. To a superficial observer of the initial conditions of the banana industry in Jamaica it might have seemed as though tihe banana was pre-eminently a product of virgin soils, and that as the first flush of the stored fertility of these soils became exhausted the growing of bananas would be difficult, if not impossible. Under these con- ditions the vast area of virgin soil on the Spanish Main would appear certain to displace the resources o|fs6 small ,and long settled an island as Jamaica for the profitable cultivation of the banana. " Jamaica, however, in starting the banana industry had behind its resources the traditions and enterprise of many generations of English and Scottish agriculturists of * Bidl. Dept. ofAgric., New Series, i. 221 (1911). 56 BANANA SOILS IN JAMAICA 57 the first rank who had created the lucrative sugar industry in the old days, and had battled with adversity when that industry was so seriously prejudiced by the opera- tion of the Continental bounties on beet sugar. To planters of this grade, the cultivation of the banana soon became more than the voluntary bounty of Nature in smiling on the favourable conditions of soil ahd of climate. " To men who had grown cane on the dry plains of St. Catherine by the use of irrigation, it was but a natural sequence to attempt the cultivation of the banana under the same conditions. Now every drop of water available from the resources of the Rio Cobre System is being utilized in this manner, and bananas are being produced on 10,000 acres of land that was formerly of nominal value for grazing purposes. These soils would be classed as natural banana soils, and the only condition required to make them productive is irrigation. Had they been in Portland and St. Mary these soils wotdd have been found capable of growing magnificent crops of bananas with very little modification of the forces of Natiure. " It was ascertained very early in the history of the industry in Jamaica that the banana could not stand stagnation of soil. It was assumed that this crop could not be grown on the rich clays of the St. Mary hUls, and that the banana land in that entire parish was restricted to the alluvial bottoms and glades of rich, friable soil. During the past decade the pioneers in St. Mary have demonstrafed th^t from the very summits of the hills to the deepest glades, from the undulating^ folds of the upland hills to the flat clays of the coastal region, there is hardly an acre of land that cannot be made to produce good bananas. A bird's-eye view of this parish may now be likened to a vast expanse of baiianas, and as new roads are opened out into the outlying areas, an ever-increasing spread of this cultivation is steadily taking place. The chieL^ultural problems in St. Mary have been drainage. 58 THE BANANA o >n lO to 1 'i 1- .s K (-> •^ 1-1 CO © to !2 to ■=2 .3 8 « a « g i-H to CO CO ^H to CO CO CO ■* eo to Comb Wal an Orga Mat ? >o !£> on IM O IN o e4 m to Vi OS 8 o CQ OS CO I-H l-H CO >> g gl lO o -* ■* ■* 00 00 -* to B 1^ o f— ) f-H i-H 1 O o fH l-H l-H s H O in OS i_^ CO r~i on to I-H ■* l> l-H i» g T o 05 I-H lO p-4 ■* P 00 ■* l-l S l-H CO o r^ OS r^ OS -* OS to IN nn -^ o ■* l-> 00 "S as (N OS 00 OS CO IN © t> «5 CO ' CD t~ 1— i o o o I-H I-H Tt. ■* O o M r^ ^ E 9 '-' CO CO t- CO l-H lO o S o CO i-H o o o O IN IN I-H l-H l-H 1 ^ : ■S S tl4 1 ^ 1 „ „ ^ ^ 1 < a 1 i fsi CO ^ & CO ^ i 0) 6n & "3 1 ^^ • Q) "B ^ , S) 1 o ^ % ca =§ ^ t 1 o -73 o 1. 1 1) • 1 1 s> 1 1 i CO 1 1 1 1 i II T3 o 1 »H N ■* in to t^ 00 OS o J IN ^^ ^^ ^,^^^ __ l-H p-H l-H ANALYSES OF BANANA SOILS 59 B-S Ii ©fl ~®" a> 00 »o III § ^ eo CO i-H s 1 ^ ^ 00 !! ■? o o © © o P © ^r 8 o P4 6 o 6 © 6 © -6' © 6 6 S o pH t~ lO CO CO ^ e<5 I-H CO I-H t* S § © 8 CO © g § 3 3 © § 8 o 6 6 ©. © © 6 6 6 6 © ■5 (k 1 a" «o o (M CO tH CO 1-4 >o CO CO OS 1 & CO OS I-H IN >o 1 10 © 5 S (N I-H I-H a Pi a S rH 00 50 I-H 00 I-H OS IN © IN 10 © 8 ® p-H OS t-H I-H 00 CO eo t- 10 FH £ ° t- i-H ^H ep CO CO I-H «s CO 1 OS OS sill ^ •= CO t- (N 1-- (N 10 Vi 1 OS CO i; (N 1-1 r^ t~t I-H IN fH (K Ii Ii 1— 1 co © Oi © CO ■* ■* © CO 00' (N o eq (N S ^H t- 10 CO OS ■* s3 (-1 tM S 6 O o 1— 1 © CO ^H 6 CO 6 I-H © 1C 6° h CO ■i« ■g o r-H 00 s o in la 00 CO CO 00 OS Bs § s CO M C ■* eo IN I'S T l-H p^ © I-H © © IN CO IN I-H e<) §■'' u cSl 6 O © © © ® © »4 fn t^ s S i-H CO (N ^ I-H IN tH ^ ^H ■^ a 00 ei ■* OS >o lO OS op CO N ^ N »-H. IN 10 OS "^^ s 8 i-H P4 '^ r^ / 6 do I-H 6 I-H rM © es) © FH ^- «o Oi t- .C3 "S O" 04 -* © i-i 94 eo r-* 1 S t~ ri G<1 OS OS t- t- IN " CO Ul OJ ? 52 3 ■g^ § °p ip © IN fH IN © 10 r^ OS © _ l> i^ 00 •* CO ■* ■* 00 00 IN CO t^ <2J " CO CO lO ■* 10 CO t- I-H CD CO 10 o ^-1 &4 00 ■* U3 CO t- 00 05 © I-H IN. Iz; T-H 1— 1 r^ 60 THE BANANA both on the flat and on hilly lands, and a lack of humus on the old lands which in some cases had grown canes continually for over a century before they were planted up in bananas. These problems have been tackled by the planters in that parish with the most remarkable success, and the results of contour drains on steep hill-sides and of deep mains in the flat clay lands have shown that the heavy soils, when properly treated, are the best and most productive banana soils in the parish, while the growing of green crops and implemental tillage have restored worn soils to a pitch of full productivity. " In the parish of Trelawny are found some of the richest soils in the island, but owing to the droughts that periodically occur the bananas were found to be apt to dry out. The Trelawny sugar planters have long led the way in the art of mulching, and by the application of the grass mulch on a liberal scale on these old sugar lands it has been demonstrated that profitable crops of bananas can be grown despite the most adverse conditions of rain- fall. Even on the ' red dirt ' derived from the limestone it has been shown that good crops of bananas can be grown in such a parish as St. Ann by the judicious use of the mulch. "It is gradually dawning on our agriculturists that there are few cultivable soils in Jamaica below 1500 ft. in elevation where bananas cannot be grown by suitable methods of cultivation, drainage, mulching or irrigation where that is available. " In 1901, the writer commenced a study of the banana soils of the island, the results of which appeared in the Bulletin from time to time, but as the years roll by, so the range becomes wider and wider, until to-day it is hardly possible to classify any particular grades or types of soil as ' banana land.' If the working basis of the latest and most progressive cultivators be regarded, it would appear that a ' banana soil ' and a ' cultivated soil ' will soon be synonymous in Jamaica. It would appear highly probable that many soils that have been tested under BANANA SOILS IN JAMAICA 61 inadequate conditions of drainage or of tillage may in the near future yield success to planters with more enterprise and knowledge than their predecessors who have tried and failed. *' For present purposes, a few soils typical of different classes and types of land on which bananas are grown with success have been selected and their composition and analysis set forth [on pp. 58 and 59]. Observations " No. 1 represents a very rich deposit overlying the limestone on an estate in Portland where magnificent bananas were grown year after year. This might be taken as an ideal banana soil — ^rich in humus and available plant food and of a rather retentive but not impervious consistency. " No. 2 is an average alluvial soil in Portland that has been long under cultivation and is on the limit of pro- ductivity as firs^-class banana land. This is a light soil from which the humus is rapidly abstracted under cultiva- tion with a high rainfall. The present standard of humus is low and the nitrogen also below par. Chemical fertilizers when tried on this soil were inoperative. The provision of vegetable matter to restore the humus is clearly the protlem to be faced in this case. " No. 3 is a representative of a non-calcareous alluvial soil in St. Mary where excellent bananas are and have been grown for many years by good tillage and green dressings. " No. 4 is a type of the heavy banana soils of this parish. Forking and deep drainage have worked wonders on this material. " No. 5 is a representative of the alluvial deposits rich in calcareous matter that are largely found in St. Mary. This soil failed to respond to the most generous applications of chemical manures, but at once yielded a full grade of fruit when subjected to thorough implemental tillage and top dressings of cowpeas. 62 THE BANANA " No. 6. This is a sample of the hill-side clays in St. Mary that were formerly regarded as hopeless for the growing of bananas. Forking and drainage enabled excellent results to be obtained, whereas fertilizers were inoperative in the absence of such special aids to cultivation. " No. 7. This is a light, alluvial soil from St. Mary that had probably been worked for a century as cane land before being put into bananas. In its present state it is rather below par in fertility. The humus, nitrogen and potash are all low. Trials with fertilizers proved dis- appointing. Measures for increasing the humus appear to be all that is necessary for enabling such land to yield full returns of bananas. "No. 8. This is an average sample of the irrigable alluvial soils in St. Catherine as served by the Rio Cobre Irrigation System. The mechanical composition is an ideal one for bananas under irrigation, and the employment of implemental tillage. During ages of dry conditions these soils were reinforced by the growth of the guango and other leguminous trees. They are of a full standard of fertility, and on some of these soils over 90 per cent, of straight bunches are obtained over a large acreage. The * Galls ' that occur here and there in some fields are generally small areas of coarser sands devoid of humus. Experiment has shown that fertilizers have no beneficial effect upon these abnormal spots. The reserves of fertility in the St. Catherine soils are very great, and if due care be taken to avoid stagnation from the excessive application of water, these soils should hold their own for many years to come as first-class banana lands. " No. 9. This represents a typical red soil from the limestone as existing in the uplands of St. Ann. Such a soil has been found to be generally lacking in^ humus and to be subject to drying out during a period of drought. " Fertilizers were found quite inoperative, but recent experience on a fairly large scale has indicated that if liberally mulched with grass and other vegetable refuse BANANA SOILS IN JAMAICA 63 fine crops of bananas can be grown on such soils. It would appear that the practice of mulching would enable a large extension of banana cultivation on the red soils to be successfully brought about. It is noticeable that although derived from the limestone, the red soil has a very moderate content of this material now remaining. The process of weathering frequently removes almost the last traces of lime from these soils, and in some cases the addition of lime has a marked effect on its productive powers. " No. 10. This is a sample of the soil from that magnifi- cent alluvial flat at the eastern end of St. Thomas that was formerly of enormous value for the growing of cane, and is now in bananas. These soils are excellent banana lands, and magnificent crops are obtainable if the exposed situation of the lands does not result in the loss of the crop by breeze as has too frequently been the case during the past ten years. It would appear to the writer that the wisest policy would be to utilize the bananas for establishing cocoa and coco-nuts on these lands,' and eventually to abandon the banana in favour of these crops that are not so subject to damage from wind. The fertility of these soils and their adaptability to cultivation are even greater than the bare figures of the analysis would indicate, while the rainfall is liberal and the climate hot and humid and favourable to the growing of large crops. " No. 11. This is a soil that has been found to grow bananas well in Vere. The recent developments in the modernization of the sugar industry in that parish have, however, encouraged the planters to grow more canes, and this would appear to be a more suitable and satis- factory crop for this, the most fertile alluvial tract in the island. " No. 12. This is a good specimen of some of the abandoned cane lands of St. James, which are rich but rather retentive soils requiring only thorough tillage and ample drainage to yield fine crops of bananas. There are great possibilities for the extension of the banana as a 64 THE BANANA cultivated crop of this parish, but in many cases special methods and treatment of the soil are required to ensure success. The ' Sugar-cane climate,' associated with a dry spring, is a difficulty which may require in some districts special measures for securing a good tilth and mulching to secure a good return of early fruit when the prices rule high." CHAPTER XI HUMUS. FARMYARD MANURE. LIME It is evident that, in every single particular, experiments should be made by the planter in order to determine what method is best for the special soil and climate where the cultivation is carried on, and in no respect is this more necessary than with manures. The old theory, founded on Liebig's teaching, that, having analysed the plant and the soil, it was a simple matter of cal- culation to find out what fertilizers to apply, is now discredited. It is very difficult to estimate correctly what proportion of any particular element in the soil is actually " available " for the use of plants ; and again, it does not follow that all the substances found in analysing a plant are necessary to its well-being. The physical and mechanical condition of soils appears to be more important , than the chemical composition. According to the Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural Intelligence and of Plant Diseases for December 1912, modern research into the physical properties of the soil in different parts of the world leads to the conclusion that in studying soil nutrients, the crude form of chemical and mechanical analysis of air-dry soil does not give results that are truly representative of the nutritive potentialities of the soil investigated. For instance, liquids of different composition can be obtained from the same soil by pressure, washing (trituration), and leaching by rain ; and it is held that in nature two soils of similar chemical com- position may give rise to entirely different plant conditions 65 E 66 THE BANANA as a result of continual alterations in the concentration of the soil waters.* Humus For bananas it is important that there should be decayed vegetable matter, "humus," in the soil. According to Voelcker, " the principal effects of humus on the soil are of a physical character, and it exercises particular benefit through its power of retaining moisture. Humus, how- ever, has a distinct chemical action, in that it forms combinations with iron, calcium, and ammonia. It thus becomes one of the principal sources of supply of the nitrogenous food of plants, and a soil rich in humus is one rich in nitrogen." Farmyard Manure Farmyard manure is to a large extent composed of humus, and contains all the constituents required by crops ; but the physical condition of the soil is also im- proved by its use, inasmuch as the land is kept porous, and air is allowed free access. It may be spread fresh on the banana fields and ploughed in at any time. The great difficulty is to get enough of it, but whatever there is should be applied as soon as the plants are put in, or, generally speaking, at the earliest stage possible in the life- history of the plant or ratoon. Green manuring should be used as a substitute, if farmyard is not available. {See paragraphs on Mulching, p. 83.) Lime The use of lime is of the greatest importance, as it increases fertility, chiefly by improving the pfaysicd texture of t^e soil. It is natural to suppose that any soil derived from limestone must have abundance of lime in it. But natural agencies, chiefly the carbonic acid and water in the soil, * Agric. News, xii. 104 (1913). LIME 67 remove the lime. Professor A. D. Hall states that lime is disappearing from the unmanured plots at Rothamsted under arable cultivation at an approximate rate of 1000 lbs. per acre per annum — a rate which is increased by the use of manures like sulphate of ammonia, but diminished by the use of nitrate of soda and of dung. He says that " failing the renewal of the custom of chalking or liming, the continuous removal of calcium carbonate thus indicated must eventually result in the deterioration of the land to the level of that which has never been chalked at all, and even a state of sterility will ensue if much use is made of acid artificial manures." Dr. Phipson has shown that, on a sugar estate in British Guiana, in fields which have been rnider cultivation from ten to fifteen years, the percentage of lime in the soil was -44 to -64, but the percentage in fields cultivated for sixty years had fallen considerably, amounting only to 0*11 to 0-40. The action of lime on clay is to cause the minute particles to become grouped together to form larger grains with wider interstices, so that both air and water can percolate more freely. Lime binds sands together somewhat, so that in both cases it improves the tilth and the capillarity of the soil. However, there is a danger of rendering sandy soils too light and open. Lime is also of much value when applied after ploughing into the soil the cut stems and leaves of the banana, or the green manuring, as it helps to decompose the organic matter, or humus, and thus encourages nitrification and makes the nitrogen and other constituents of the humus available to the crop. If, therefore, there is only a small quantity of humus in the soil, and it is not renewed, lime does more harm than good, as the humus is speedily used up, and the soil becomes sterile. It improves sour land by neutralizing the acid materials. By combining with certain constituents of the soil, it sets free potash and other useful food material, and so, although not exactly a manure in itself, the effect on the land is that of a manure. 68 THE BANANA Quicklime is suitable for use on stiff clays and on rich soils, while marl and chalk are better for light soils deficient in organic matter. The quicklime should be slacked before spreading. One ton per acre every four or five years has been recommended, and better results may be obtained by applying 4 or 5 cwt. every year. CHAPTER XII FERTILIZERS " It is generally recognized that the great practical problem confronting the soil chemist is the proper use of soil amendments or fertilizers. The farmers of the United States now spend annually for fertilizers upwards of $100,000,000. It is estimated by various authorities that a large fraction, perhaps as much as three-fourths, of the material represented by this expenditure is misapplied for lack of intelligent direction. Yet all of this enormous mass of fertilizers can be used to advantage." * Experiments have been carried on in various places with fertilizers for bananas, and perhaps the most useful account of these that has been published is of some undertaken by the Government of Queensland. In Fiji also manurial experiments with China bananas have been carried on from 1907. The aim of the experiments has been to test the effects of manures in general, and to see if land on which bananas have been cultivated for some years can be made to give payable returns by the use of manures. The results, according to Mr. C. H. Knowles, Superintendent of Agriculturejf tend to show that the application of nitrogenous manure and superphosphate is beneficial, and that potash appears to increase the total weight of the crop, but has little or no effect on the number of hands of the bunches. With reference to the application of fertilizers in Queens- * " The Soil Solution." By F. K. Cameron, in charge Physical and Chemical Investigations, Bureau of Soils, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1911. t Report on Agriculture for the year 1910, KjL 69 70 THE BANANA land, Mr. A. J. Boyd* informs us that in May 1909 Mr. A. W. Benson, then Instructor in Fruit Culture in Queensland, was deputed by the Minister for Agriculture, Queensland, to proceed to Buderim Mountain, and select suitable sites on which bananas had been grown, for experimental work in manuring. He selected two plots of land, both of which were so exhausted that to attempt to grow bananas on them in that condition would have been to court failure. After consultation with the Agri- cultural Chemist, Mr. J. C. Briinnich, thecomposition of a complete manure was decided on. The ground having been thoroughly prepared, the planting of bapajias was done in September 1909 ; and the whole work was carried on by the growers under the personal supervision of Messrs. Benson and Briinnich. Mr. Benson was ap- pointed Director of Agriculture in Tasmania, but the experiments were continued by Mr. Briinnich, who gives the following Fourth Progress Report and table "j" on page 73, as the result of the first harvest of fruit : " The first harvest of fruit from the Banana Manuring Experiment Blocks has just been completed and the results are quite satisfactory. The experiments show that exhausted banana lands, as long as the soil is in good physical condition and contains a fair amount of humus, may be made to yield fair profitable crops with thorough cultivation and heavy manm-ing. " Our manurial basis, the minimum quantity of fertiliz- ing materials necessary which have to be applied annually, is — 160 lbs. of Potash, 80 lbs. of Phosphoric Acid, 40 lbs. of Nitrogen per acre, when the stools are planted 12 ft. apart, giving 302 stools' per acre. With ordinary artificial fertilizer this amount Works out to an application of 3^ lbs. of manure, at a cost of about S^d. per stool. * Queensland Agric. Journ., xxix. 48 (1912). f Ihid. xxvi. 317 (1911). FERTILIZERS 71 " On very poor, exhausted lands, this quantity of manure has to be applied twice a year, about March and October, so that at the end of the first harvest, in March, when the plants are eighteen months old, the plantation will have just received its fourth application of manure, and the second harvest would be obtained with five dressings of manure, at a total cost of about Is. 6d. per stool, and with a probable harvest of about ten dozen the first crop and twenty-five dozen the second harvest, under favourable weather conditions. " With regard to the actual artificial fertilizer to be applied, the experiments so far teach us that phosphoric acid should be applied in the form of superphosphate, nitrogen in the form of dried blood or of nitrate nitrogen (nitrate of soda or nitrate of lime). The stools which received nitrates gave by far the best-cooking and heaviest fruit. Ammonium sulphate does not appear to do well as a source of nitrogen." The following * is the Fifth Progress Report by Mr. J. C. Briiimich : " Last year, on account of long dry spells, was exceptionally trying to our banana crops, making the crop particularly late ; still the results of the experimental plots on Buderim Mountain are highly satisfactory, and prove clearly the great advantages of thorough and deep cultivation, combined with a liberal application of artificial fertilizers. " The harvest from the first series of experiments, representing the second year's crop, as the plots were planted in October 1909, is quite up to expectation, as seen from the results tabulated on pp. 76-78. The table gives both the number of dozens of bananas and the number of bunches (in brackets) for each plot, and also calculated yield per acre. " On Mr. Foote's plot the yield agrees, with almost mathematical accuracy, with the quantities of artificial fertilizers ; and the high yields of experimental plots B, F, and I, on which double quantities were appKed, with * Qrieensland Agric, Jown., xxviii, 349 (1912). 72 THE BANANA 54, 50, and 48 hundred dozens of bananas per acre, are easily picked out, and form a striking contrast with the result of the unmanured plot D, on which the stools are practically dying out. On Mr. Guy's plots, first series, the results are not so striking, and in most cases the bunches were very much later, so that, in order to get a fair comparison of the second year's harvest, which, as a rule, was taken in our experiments up to December in each year, we estimated the crop up to March (figures on the table in italics). The poorer results of Mr. Guy's plots of the first series are partly due to heavy washaways in the earlier stages of growth. " So far no definite conclusions can be drawn from the first series of experiments with regard to the advan- tages of either superphosphate (P) or Thomas' Phosphate (Pt), but the superiority of dried blood (Nb) and of nitrate of lime (Nn) as a source of nitrogen over ammonium sulphate (Na) is quite apparent. " With regard to the second series of experiments, which were planted in September 1910, the lateness of the crop, due to a rather dry season, is particularly noticeable on Mr. Foote's block, and only on plots E, M, and N, on which, prior to the planting of bananas, a very heavy crop of pigeon-peas was grown and ploughed under, the majority of the bunches was harvested by the end of December. The crop itself is not quite up to the results of the first year's crop of the first series. The stools, however, look particularly well, and the growth of the second suckers is quite phenomenal, resembling the healthy vigorous growth of bananas on virgin scrub land, so that the second year's harvest should be a very heavy one. On Mr. Guy's block, second series, the bunches matured earlier all round, and the yield was quite as good as that of the first crop of the first series, experimental plots 12 and 14, with the double amount of fertilizers, giving again the best results. " On all the experimental plots green manures were grown between the bananas, and the crop of small FERTILIZERS 73 Plot No. 1 Plot No. 2 (J. Foote, Esq.) (W. H. Guy, Esq.) MaDiires applied per acre KPN .^^ 2(KPN) 1 1 i(KPN)J "^ Nil . i(KPN) 1 2(KPN) KPN J' KPN 1 d 2(KPN)ll KPN }$ 3-3 is 61 12i 3i 3i 14 61 12J 55 "S 96 120 76 49 88 101 94 104 106 94 9 10 84 Si 8 8i 84 9i 8i Si S Pi 1^ 32 36 27 27 33 33 34 33 34 34 73 83 70 (poor) 48 (v. poor] 57 (poor) 75 72 71 70 66 Ho 55 66 47 44 56 57 54 61 63 44 Number of Stools for each Experiment, 36 Number of Stools for each Ex- periment, 26 Note.—K — 160 lbs. K2O - 320 lbs. Sulphate of Potash. P — 80 lbs. P2O6 — 470 lbs. Superphosphate or Thomas' Phos- phate. ^ N «= 40 lbs. N, as 286 lbs. Dried Blood, or 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, or 200 lbs. Ammonium Sulphate. 2 (KPN) means double quantities. ^ {KPNj means haU quantities. Mauritius bean and cowpea on Mr. Foote's block were very heavy, covering the ground well. These crops are being cut down, as the season of many thunderstorms is pretty well over, the stools mulched with the green 74 THE BANANA 3 (^ Cq i-H CO m ■># CD tH S "O "* .-I -^(MiMinOMMlN^OeO ^ (M00i-ii-(0-<*00>-i.-H ■*t-tDm(N tt>m«(Ncp'^r^tt>5ptp COFHCSlOilO-^CO ' c^o (N ■— I CO i-H m^^ 0»05005-*©OOt-Ortt- £HMrt t~r— l(N-H«0>nr-OC0(NO OOt-N-H I— I CO '"' • t. • • ^ o a. 5 3 es a to c8 CO N IN O * *0 t^ CO lO ' m CO to ii CO IN (N K3 •« 03 CO l> IM a O O IN O C •* 00 o ©•« eg CO 6 co« 00 IN lO ^ ^ 00 009 ■-H O IN O A. ^ is I I II a cQ O 1 •a O . § a S3 o . o f^ n3 "3 o « o>"«5 0312; .3 J '^ -E! o ©-a Mill I i5 o o 3 ja 3 g S 02 P-l CQ P4 o fe5 I op p CO 9 10 ■^ 10 t^ rt » 10 ■* CO M ^ i-l M 00 lo CO 10 e 10 t^ ■* M « (N O ■* o rt o -s FERTILIZERS 75 •< g s i ■< 1 3 d ^ 1 04 M-i>oeOrttoioo>ooco e0-*(N a 1 i I2 CO © © -M 00 CO i-H 00 (N M 1 16 lbs. 460 72-75 27-25 •92 Mt-^.^OOtOMKSKS-HOO'* COMQrtlO0(NO>01000050Q (Ni-<©(MnO Qp(N«JlrHqs Is i! M .* (N CO IN CO r-( (N -H ■«)< 1 ™ lO 00 (N OS - g o» 6 ■ CO OC>00<90«pOOi7i(N Si an t- ir- © CO It- OS rt CO (N 00 (N CO 0©W50lO SeOi-((N05f-llO.*r-lt^ OSOOi.;a 1:.. t;- t^ op .^ CO CD OS t^ © 1 00 2 (N (35 rf r-C = 3 lO -* -H (Nmrta5F-i«)TH>~-e<5oo(N 00«©COt-CO«)rHOO©rH Op©©0©t;-0©'7iffl rH 00 CO r^ CO r-l tH © © -H © Weight of bunch .... Approximate number of bunches per acre Moisture .... per cent. Dry Material ... „ Pure Ash .... „ Lime, CaO Potash. KaO Nitrogen, N containing — Silica, SiOg Iron and Alumina, FegOj AlgOj Manganese Oxide, MnO Lime, CaO . . . • . Magnesia, MgO . Soda, NaaO Potash, K2O Sulphuric Acid, SO3 Phosphoric Acid, PjOj Chlorine, CI . . . Nitrogen, N . . . ' ^ re THE BANANA n to n o o 09 8 S f ©o^ 00 IT* a> g ej_ej_M 9 >«i«HOoooi>oo»»eoooxs I-H 03 U9 ^3«0'5s'!H«0°00» eo TO KS fH '~iS^'«('^>0>O^H*^<>» a> o 00 a 2 o3o4'-5lM'aiCOr'30it^ I-H £4 i-i i tH ^.^ S3 i »< 1 ^^.^_^^MoS'S"S'm' >O»OlnU500Q0-H(NIN0O M r- t- to ® 1-1 IN N ^02_r^ iH 1 1 1 O O •^»0-^000(N>OeOi35t- OOOtOIT-t-WJt-MOSQO TH'9i(N«eOt-cOi-< rH O^ rH rt -^ fl H % 3 *-^ ■S o C8 £t i^ 50 Ml *-^»5 --*»<3 t^ C<1 ws «3 2 at at ot i «at»'-H'-sojea(Mijj>og t» 00 JC IMW'-t i~t'<*iwse'SO0-H o 1— ( p— ( PH 1— t I-H D (S"s 1 GQ FM iJ •< i S i > < ■ c ? cw 1 • *-4 ^ Gf Ear ' ^ 25 ri .g - si i-J IN eo I-H I-H I-H FERTILIZERS 77 CO ^ on Ol o> © 1^ to I-H lO «5 nn eo (N C4 W £i. * (M Tt< (N OS ^ eq 19 ^ Sn s on ^^ »< i-( I-* i-H I-* 1—1 I-* 1— t I M M I 1 «i-ie<5(NO0(N-*i-l ' N I— * — H I—* *<4nHh ' — *! — ' 'HP* ^"^t^BT l>»Ht-tON«>300OS O CO t- <— .00 >o ■* «o © t^ »nip©t-i>'^eo©-<*i»H»OO»N© oo-*©t>i>©eoeoeoir- CQia(N eocqcS'^cq (Mco-^ffioooooaoaoo tooouioai>t-t>i>i>t- (Ncqeqi-<(M(N(M(Me »< e* ^ oo CO 55 :s f-l •»( 1*4 ■ Poor crop of Narioo - Beans ' c3 '!? CO ■ ■ "3 'S' QQ OQ O ID 01 0) ' a a a s ^1010COOSO l-lF4_|rHi-l>-li-lO(MCDC:io)(Neqe4C>i I I I I I 1 I i I LI I I -^t- «D —..— CD ,—,.-^05 © ^loeii-iioxSNi-iiJiw ■^ ^-^ "^-^ — H CO ""^ ^ ^ *"^ '^'^ *'■*' Hel He* ^"^ "^^ i-(« ^"^ """^i-tor*! o»iNrt05>Oi-ienb-->»i!0 oooo«ooo^«ejie3:^5P ^ xs oo o» m ws «5 S5 S «s oo oo tH !0 IM CO «o ■* ft ^--^1— 1 H © CO IM g ©os«ot-e^eoo>io»i— 1 O 00>O(M-<#©©00i-li-lCO C4coe4i- s» xs <» >o ►1 o» <3> fN t*! »»l Ol ji 1^ >»< 0* la^ en «3 on >~( ^ I-i en VI ""I «s '~( V^ ^» •"H ev> c> ■^ >>< ■^i »-) ""t »-( 1 I i & 8 _^^_,^c?,^?C" CO OS »» OS l •^^ O ^^ ""^ '"^ """^ H« """^ H« OS OOOS^'<5'^JO»>- r-( l~i I»1 I-i •>• f-t g lO lO I-H J a O O M N S'^ and it is preferable, according to the authoritative advice of Semler, to make composts of them in mixing them with ashes, lime, farmyard manure, &c., and jto allow them to rot during a year^-still it will be necessary to add potash and phosphoric acid in which they are deficient. The guanos, generally employed at the Azores and in the Canary Islands, the oil-cakes and the fish-manure em^ ployed in India, are equally insufiicient, and ought also to be made complete by the addition of potassic and phos- phated manures. " Some excellent results have been obtained in Madeira, in a volcanic soil, poor in potash and in phosphoric acid, but rich in nitrogen and better provided with carbonate of lime than the greater part of tropical soils, by the application of a complete manure, testing : Nitrogen .... 13 per cent. Potash . . . . 20 „ „ Phosphoric acid . . 16 „ „ " This manure, which is a mixture of very concentrated and very soluble products, is applied in the proportion of 50 grammes per plant, equal to If oz., in a trench made about 18 in. around the stem. The application of FERTILIZERS 81 this manure is made twice a year, so that each plant receives in all 100 granmies of the mixture (3| oz.). " To us this quantity appears too little, also that it would be to the interest of the planter to strengthen still more the proportion of potash in the complete manure by giving the whole of the nitrogen under an organic form, as oil-cake, guanos, fish-manure, farmyard manure, composts, &c. , " We advise the trial of a manure testing Potash . . . .20 per cent. Phosphoric acid . . 10 „ „ " This manure can be very easily prepared by mixing, fbr manuring a hectare planted with 1500 plants (equal to 600 plants per acre) : 400 kilos of sulphate of potash, containing 50 per cent, of potash, and 600 kilos of mineral superphosphate, or the same quantity of basic slag, which would fiurnish at the same time lime and phosphoric acid. "To reduce the expense of transport, there would be equally an advantage in giving the phosphoric acid in the form of superphosphate containing 45 per cent, of phos- phoric acid ; there would then be required 240 kilogrammes per hectare. "(These quantities, reduced to English weights and measures, would be as follows : 400 kilos of sulphate of potash per hectare are equal to 880 lbs,, and this is equal to 344 lbs. per acre. Six hundred kilos of mineral super- phosphate are equal to 1300 lbs. per hectare, and this is equal to 530 lbs. per acre ; and 240 kilos of the stronger superphosphate, generally known as Professor Wagner's 'double phosphate,' are equal to 528 lbs. per hectare, represented by 211*2 lbs. per acre.) " The mixture can be easily made without there being any fear of loss of fertilizing materials. It should be employed in the proportion of 400 or 600 grammes per plant, according as the preference may be given to the double superphosphate or to the common kind. (Equal to 14 oz., and to 1 lb. 5 oz., respectively.) Care must 82 THE BANANA be taken to place the manure in a trench made around the stem, avoiding placing it in direct contact with the latter, so as to prevent accidents. "This manure costs at the maximum 200 francs per hectare, about l|d. per plant, without counting the nitrogenous manures. It is a very small expense, which will be largely compensated by the regularity of and increased yield in the crops." The Director of Agriculture in Jamaica states in his Annual Report for 1909-10, with reference to that colony only, that " some recent experiments with manures have confirmed our former conclusions, that bananas do not require fertilizers, and that humus, lime, and drainage are the chief factors that are of practical importance to the cultivator of this crop in Jamaica. If it be remembered that the drain on an acre of land, by the removal of 300 stems of bananas, is less than that of the crops of wheat grown at Rothamsted for sixty years on the same soil without manure, it is not a matter for surprise that the banana should be so little responsive to chemical fertilizers." CHAPTER XIII FUNGUS DISEASES 1. Diseases of the Bulb and Leaves Panama and Costa Rica. — ^McKenny, in May 1910,* gave an account of a disease in Panama and Costa Rica. The disease was first noticed among the various plantations in Panama, in 1906, in fields five to six years old. From certain spots it spread all rotmd, affecting at last a con- siderable area. The fields when ten years old were absolutely worthless. Thirty miles from this district the disease makes its appearance, but only sporadically. In Costa Rica it is serious in certain localities. " Commonly the first external sign is a rapid yellowing and subsequent browning and wilting of one or more leaves. Sometimes there is a striking curvature and yellowing of the terminal part of the leaf blade whilfe the remainder is still green. Eventually all the leaves die and fall back against the trunk, leaving a crop of suckers which in turn are killed and give place to still weaker shoots. The fruit of diseased shoots rarely matures, and even when mature is worthless, with blotched, somewhat shrivelled surface and dry, pithy interior. Shoots which develop after one or two suckers have died rarely reach the] flowering stage ; when they do, however, weak, distorted, worthless bunches are produced. On cutting the pseudo-stem [trunk] across and longitudinally many of the bundles are found to be of a yellow, reddish or reddish-purple colour, the colour deepening towards the root-stock. In the last stages the colour of the bxmdles may be almost black. While in * Science, sad, 750, 83 84 THE BANANA recently affected plants the vessels of the upper part of the stalk and the leaves may be normal, those of the root- stock [bulb] are always coloured. ... A nauseating odour is often given off when leaf stalks which have been diseased for some time are cut open, though there may be no sign of rotting in the trunk." McKenny found both bacteria and fungus hyphse in the gummy substance blocking cells and vessels of the xylem- portion of the vascular bundles, but did not determine the cause of the disease. H. Levy described the disease in Costa Rica in 1910.* He points out what seems to be a characteristic of this particular disease, that the sheaths of the trunk of young plants split from the bul)b upwards for a distance of one to two feet, sometimes right through to the heart, in which case the young embryo leaves push out through the aperture and develop. "With the older plants the first sign of infection is manifested in a different way : a fringe of yellow will appear on the lower leaves of the plant. . . . After a few days the entire lot of leaves turn yellow ; at this stage it is often confounded with suckers suffering from drought or lack of drainage, but in a few ^ays the disease puts on another symptom which is peculiar to it. All the leaves suddenly turn a brown colour and hang quite limply down the side of the sucker, the heart, leaf, and bunch, if young, turning black. ... In a 'sick' bunch the tips of the fingers present a pinched-in appear- ance, something like dry-weather fruit, when it starts to ripen in the open. It will not do so evenly as a healthy bunch would, but one finger here and there all over the bunch, the yellow fingers showing up in contrast to the green ones \ " The leaves have not such a crisp feel as those that are found on dry-weather bananas or from the natural shedding of the leaves, but a soft damp feel, which con- tinues until all the moisture dries out ; it is only a matter of time when the whole tree rots to the ground, giving off * Jium. Jam.. Agric, Soc., xiv. 241. FUNGUS DISEASES 85 a very offens ve smell. At all stages of growth, if the bulb of an infected sucker be split open, the heart will be found rotten and composed of a putrid yellow mass ; further out the fibres will be found to be firmer, but still in a decomposing state and having a yellowish tinge, until the outer part is reached, and here will be found, say about one inch from the surface, a bright red streak flanked to the outside and inside by a brighter yellow than occurs on the other part of the cut surface ; the red streak follows all the passages to the roots and continues all along these to their extremities. All the roots will present a sickly appearance, some quite dead, others partly so, but none quite healthy. The smell given off by a diseased banana sucker is offensive and peculiar, and if once experienced cannot be mistaken." Cuba. — ^Erwin Smith* reported that he had investigated a disease of bananas which occurs in Cuba, and from his material had isolated a species of Fusarium (F. cubense) which, when inoculated into the midrib, leaf-stalk, and trunk, gave a typical discoloration of the vascular bundles, and from these the fungus was again isolated. The experi- ments had to be discontinued before the bulb could be infected. Trinidad. — ^The " Moko " is a variety of plantain which was at one time commonly grown in Trinidad as a shade plant for young cacao. About twenty years ago, this variety was almost extirpated by a disease which was not investigated imtil 1910, when J. B. Rorer, the Mycologist of the Department of Agriculture of Trinidad, commenced a careful study of it. At first he supposed it was the Panama disease, many of the symptoms being similar, but the longitudinal splitting of the leaf-sheaths forming the trunk, which is so characteristic of the Panama disease, does not occur, and the common banana or Gros Michel, which is so susceptible to the Panama disease, appears to be practically immune from the " Moko " disease. The results of Rorer 's exhaustive study of this disease were * Scierwef xxxi, 750. 86 THE BANANA published in April 1911 under the title, "A Bacterial Disease of Bananas and Plantains," in " Phytopathology," and reprinted by the Board of Agriculture of Trinidad. The disease is caused by a bacterium {Bacillus musw). This organism was isolated from diseased plants, and used to infect other varieties and species of Musa. The red banana and the dwarf or China banana (Musa Cavendish^) suc- cumbed to inoculation. The Manila hemp plant {Musa textilis) proved to be quite resistant, and although some of the inoculated plants of the common banana (Gros Michel) died, the progress of the disease was slow, some remained apparently quite healthy, and the fact that this variety has never been found to be naturally affected leads Rorer to believe that it is, as has been stated above, practically immune from this particular disease. This disease has been easily kept under control in Trinidad on several small plantings of plantains and bananas by sanitary measures alone. As soon as a diseased plant is noticed, it is dug up and burnt on the spot, and all tools and instruments used in the work are sterilized by fire. All suckers are examined before planting. The symptoms of the disease, according to Rorer, are as follows : " The presence of the disease is as a rule first detected in the lower leaves. The leaf-blades droop a little more than usual and have a slightly yellowish tinge, symptoms very similar to those brought about by drought. Soon, however, the stalk of one of the leaves gives way just at the base of the leaf-blade^ and all the other leaves quickly break down in a similar manner. Eventually the terminal leaf too bends over, and the plant dies and rots down to the ground. " Transverse sections of the trunk show that practically all the vessels are discoloured, the colour ranging from pale yellow to dark brown or bluish black, and filled with bacteria. The discoloured bundles run back into the true stem and thence into the young suckers and buds. Some- times in badly diseased plants the tissues of the leaf- stalks and stems are broken down completely, so that FUNGUS DISEASES 87 fairly large bacterial cavities are formed. If transverse sections of leaf or stem are let stand for a short time, the cut surfaces soon become covered with bacterial drops which have been forced out from the ends of the bundles. If the sections, when freshly cut, are put in large covered dishes away from the air, pure cultures of the organism may be obtained directly from these drops. If the disease is not severe, or a plant does not become infected until it has just formed a bunch of fruit, it may remain perfectly healthy-looking, but many of the young fruits, or ' fingers,' do not properly mature : they remain small and eventually become black and rotten. In such cases it is found that there are some discoloured bundles filled with bacteria in the leaves, stem, fruit-stalk, or fruits. When diseased suckers are planted, the terminal leaf frequently turns black and drie^ up, so that the plant dies." Rorer states that the true Panama disease also exists in Trinidad. Surinam. — In April 1911 Essed published in the Annals of Botany* an account of a so-called Panama disease which is virulent in Surinam, and described a fungus which he believes is the cause of the disease. The disease appeared on fields only one year old, and the loss amounted to 25 to 75 per cent, of the second and third crops. On some fields the entire crop was lost. It is only since exten- sive fields of the commercial banana (Jamaican banana, Gros Michel) have been planted that this disease has attracted attention. This banana appears to be most susceptible ; the " Lady's Finger " banana, the common plantain, and the China banana are not subject to it. The first symptoms of the disease in Surinam, according to Essed, are a withering of the margin of the leaves and a discoloration along the midrib ; sometimes the youngest (unopened) leaf withers, the others remaining healthy ; sometimes the older leaves wither before there is any arrest of growth in the youngest leaf. Then development ceases, the leaves droop, the plant looks water-starved, * XXV. 343. 88 THE BANANA wrinkles appear in the sheath (trunk) and midrib of the leaves, which gradually dry up, and finally the trunk bends down along a line of least resistance. As soon as the disease becomes evident, the bulb when cut shows signs of putrefaction. Its whitish colour has turned yellowish with reddish-brown spots or streaks. The roots do not begin to decay before the tissue at their base is affected, proving that the germ does not enter by them. Essed has traced the starting-point of disintegration to an old wound-surface, and he says that there is " reason to assume that the fungus at the start behaves as a wound parasite or saprophyte, living at first on the exudation, and by degrees making its way up into the damaged vessels." The disease is caused by a previously undescribed fungus, which the author proposes to call UsUlaginoidella musceperda. The fungus at first attacks the flbro-vascular bundles, preventing the passage of water along the wood vessels, which explains the water-starved appearance of the plant, and then spreads outwards, forming numerous spores of more than one kind. In the rhizome (bulb) of a diseased plant the fungus is found chiefly in the wood vessels and adjoining tissue ; the vessels become discoloured and the sap is absorbed by the fungus in them. The first change in the parenchjriha is an unusual cloudiness of the protoplasm, apparently- caused by an enzyme secreted by the fungus ; the brown discoloration and the slimy degeneration of the walls of the vessels must also be ascribed to an enzyme. Gradually the cell contents are absorbed and replaced by the carti- laginous sclerotium. Transverse sections of the leaf -blade show that the hyphse in the vessels send out branches at right angles to the walls ; these end in the intercellular spaces among the subepidermal cells and produce oblong or irregular sclerotia. In the sheath special sclerotia are formed in the star-shaped parenchyma cells : the hypha which enter these cells send branches into the rays. FUNGUS DISEASES 89 where they form sclerotia which give rise to little spores. In the leaf-blade the fertile hyphae develop in or among the palisade parenchyma cells ; some of them reach the inner walls of the outermost parenchyma layer, forming sclerotia, which, after remaining dormant for a time, pro-' duce spores ; the spores may remain in the scletotium, or the pressure of the surrounding tissues may force them into the cells above ; they become free after the leaf has decayed. The hyphae may also penetrate into the sub- epidermal layers, filling the cells with sclerotia ; or they may emerge on the surface of the leaf as little brown gall- like swellings (Mycocecidia) ; sometimes they go back through the epidermis or through the stomata, or they ramify all over the surface of the leaf, producing numerous sickle-shaped conidia. Essed found bacteria, but proved by inoculation of healthy plants that the fungus, and not the bacteria, was the cause of the disease as it occurs in Surinam. He was not successful in finding remedies to prevent the spreading of the disease. Plants once diseased, of course, cannot be cured, and therefore remedies must be limited to a preven- tion of spreading. Spraying with Bordeaux Mixture the plants all round an infected spot and burning infected plants is the natural suggestion to make as a beginning. The United Fruit Company employ an expert agent to travel and collect every kind of disease-resistant commercial banana for their plantations in Jamaica and in continental America. They had great hopes at first of a variety which was called the " Congo " banana, and was reputed to have come originally from the West Coast of Africa. Although immune from disease, and planted to some extent as an experiment in Surinam in substitution of the Jamaican, the fruit has not found favour with the fruit merchants, as the fingers ripen irregularly and are apt to get broken at the neck and drop off before becoming fully ripe. {See under Surinam in Chapter XXIX.) Surinam Elephantiasis Disease. — Besides the " Panama 90 THE BANANA Disease " another disease has long been known, though never widespread, in the banana fields of Surinam and Colombia ; but it does not cause much apprehension among the planters. The disease* shows as a swelling, sometimes enormous, of the base of the trunk, hence called " bigie footoe " or "elephantiasis." The oldest leaves then begin to wither, owing to rupture of the tissue close to the trunk ; these leaves hang on during the winter, and do not look any different from the ordinary dead leaves ; but careful examination shows a number of little galls (Mycoceddia) on the sheaths and leaf-stalks, some of them projecting throiugh the epidermis. The end of the shoot may go on growing for some time after the outer leaves are dead, but the young leaves are always poorly developed and chlorotic, At this stage the upper part of the rhizome (bulb) can be broken off clean by a slight pull. Sections in the rhizome show that the fungus attacks first the outer and upper part of the parenchyma. The sloughing of the lower leaves is probably due to tension caused by the enormous quantities of hyphse making their way through the tissues to the outside of the leaf -sheaths ;' and probably also to a slow disintegration caused by enzymes secreted by the fungus. As the fungus extends horizontally just below the bases of the outermost leaves, it is probable that this is the region of infection i if it is only when the tissues at this point are young and thin that infection can take place, the slow spread of the disease receives a ready explanation. Essed obtained from the diseased plants pure cultures of a fungus, and has named it Vstilaginoidella oedipigera. The spread of the disease can be checked by spraying with Bordeaux Mixture. The latest information on the subject of the principal disease in Surinam is given by Drost in Bulletin No. 26 of the Department of Agriculture, Surmam.f The author states that this disease is different from that prevalent in * Eased in Ann. Bot., xxv. \ Agric. News, xi. 142 (1912), FUNGUS DISEASES 91 Panama and Costa Rica, though it has long been known as the Panama disease, and although it also attacks principally the Gros Michel variety. He bases this state- ment on a comparison of Levy's description of the true Panama disease with the symptoms of the Surinam form as observed by himself. He proposes the name " Surinam Panama Disease," to distinguish it from the form prevalent in Central America. The principal symptoms of the Surinam disease are given as follows : (1) The occurrence of yellow spots on the leaves ; this is best seen in young plants ; it cannot be taken as a definite symptom, as it may be occasioned by other causes. (2) The sudden appearance of one or more incompletely developed leaves. (3) Longitudinal splitting of the external leaf-sheath. (4) In the most usual form plants of six months or older, which have been previously healthy, show a softening, ribbing, and folding of the heart- leaf, provided no fruit is present. The older leaves break off at the junction of the stalk and leaf -sheath, turn yellow, and die in a few days. The plants are quite dead a few weeks later. When fruit is present, the trunk remains with the bunch at the top, but the fruit is without value, as even when it is apparently ripe it has no taste. The root systems of diseased bananas do not appear to be less strong than those of healthy plants. On cutting open a diseased bulb it is seen that the vascular bundles are discoloured brown, and that the dis- coloration extends into some of the bundles of the leaf- sheath as well as, in some cases, into certain of the vascular strands of the roots. The central portion of the bulb may commence to rot when the disease is in an advanced condition, but the outside remains firm for some time. The main differences between this description and that of Levy are that there are no external symptoms of disease in the roots, that the plants dry up and do not rot, and that there is no smell. The absence of rotting in the bulb is a particularly noticeable point of difference, except in the final stages of the disease. 92 THE BANANA Drost has shown by infection experiments that the Surinam Panama disease is due to a fungus named Leptospora musce, which has Cephalosporium and Fusarium stages in its life-history. It can penetrate the root-hairs, and thence spread into the central bundle of the roots, whence it passes into the root-stock and ascends the vascular bundles of the leaf-sheaths. Usually, however, it attacks directly the bundles exposed at the place where the suckers have been cut from the mother plant, under the surface of the soil. The fungus is not as a rule found in the leaf -blade or in the fruit-stalk. India. — ^A disease of bananas was reported in April 1911 by S. K. Basu * as occurring near Chinsurah, Bengal. The variety of banana known as Kanthali suffered much, but the most profitable variety, known as Martaman, suffered most, so much so that this variety of banana has become practically extinct in these localities. The varieties known as Champa and Kuncha (the latter being used green as a vegetable) are free from all attack of this disease. The chief symptoms of the disease are : (1) The turning yellow of some of the older though otherwise healthy leaves ; (2) the formation of one or more much reduced leaves at the crown ; (3) the gradual withering of the younger leaves ; and (4) finally the breaking down of the plant. The disease progresses so rapidly that in ten or fifteen days from the first appearance of it the plant is found dead. By cutting a plant transversely near the base of the leaf ■ sheath, the disease becomes noticeable either as black, brown, or yellow spots, varying in size from that of a cu-cle three or four inches across. In longitudinal sections these spots appear like streaks, which seem to pass from the roots upwards into the root-stock and the leaf-sheaths. In many places where a young plant is still attached to another plant the disease passes from the mother plant to the young offshoot directly through the point of contact. * Quarterly Journ. Dept. of, Agric,, Bengal, iv. 196. FtTNGUS DISEASES 93 Microscopic examination of the sections of the root- stock and the leaf -sheath revealed the presence of hyaline or slightly coloured septate hyphse in or about the fibro- vascular bundles. In some cases minute colourless, more or less oval-shaped spores of a fungus known as Cephalo- sporium have been noticed appearing in balls or clusters from short stalks or conidiophores within the vessels. In the course of a day the mycelium produced a new form of crescent -shaped spores of the fungus known as Fusarium, but no higher form of fructification than these two have been noticed. Jamaica. — ^A disease of the leaves in Jamaica was reported by F. S. Earle in 1903.* The disease causes the browning of the vascular bundles in the veins and midrib of the leaf, followed by the blackening and eventual decay of the whole leaf and its stalk. The disease does not extend into other parts of the plant, but as new leaves open out they also become affected. The diseased plants are stunted and do not bear fruit. The disease appears to travel slowly, and to have been introduced into the small field by suckers from neglected patches in the neighbourhood ; it did not spread later from the spot where it was first noticed into the district round. Earle obtained cultures of a bacterium from the diseased leaves which he sent to Erwia F. Smith, of the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, Washington, who stated that he inoculated leaves of bananas in Washington with this material, but without result. The mycelium f of Marasmius semiustus Berk, and Curt, penetrates the tissues of the trunk, and attacks the embryonic flowers and flower-stalk, as they grow up through 'the centre of the trunk. The fructifications (small toadstools) appear on the siu-face of the trunk ; the colour is white, becoming a yellowish|brown as they dry ; the pileus is J to 1 in. broad, attached to its stem eccentric- ally, at first convex, then flat ; gills wide apart and as they * J own. Neu) Tork Bot. Gard,, iv. t Jowrn. Linn. Soc. x. 1869 ; W. Ind. BuU., x. 244. 94 THE BANANA apptoach the stem connected by wrinkles ; stem |-| in. long, thin, compressed. It has been known in Jamaica aiid Trinidad for some years. A planter in Jamaica, who has had great experience, writes as follows : " I am of opinion that this disease only makes its appearance upon yourig plants that are growing on very poor or water-logged land. I have seen it in my fields repeatedly, but it has no detrimental effect on healthy plants. The sucker that it makes its appearance on is generally a weak one, which in any case would not be kept to come to maturity. The disease seems harmless, as I find it plentiful in my banana walks upon such suckers as have suffered injury, but it does not attack the strong, healthy ones. Personally, I have no fear of its doing material damage." Outbreaks of the Surinam Panama disease * occurred in Jamaica in 1911, but the disease was promptly suppressed, and has not made its appearance since. In one case the plants, after being cut down, were chopped up and treated with heavy dressings of lime ; in another case the plants were destroyed by fire. According to the Infectious Diseases of Plants Law all bananas within a distance of twenty-two yards of any diseased plant must also be destroyed ; and the infected land must be surrounded by a fence sufficiently strong to prevent people passing through, and to keep out straying animals. All instruments used on the diseased plants are disinfected by fire, and no banana plants may be grown on the land for a certain time until there is no risk from resting spores which may infect the land. Other diseases of the banana have been observed since January 1911 : one, a rot of the heart-leaves, was sup- pressed by cutting away the infected portion, and spraying with Bordeaux Mixture ; another, caused by a fungus attacking the roots and outer portion of the bulb, and carried by cutlass infection from plant to plant, was quickly put down ; a third, the " banana spot disease," Spread so rapidly that very prompt measures had to be taken, and the plants were destroyed by fire. No botanical examina- * Ann.'Bep, Dept, Agric,, Jamaica, 1912, FUNGUS DISEASES 95 tion of these three diseases was made. A fotirth disease, found in neglected cultivations and known locally as " saltpetre " and " black-head," has been determined by the Mycologist of Jamaica to be the well-known pine- apple disease of the sugar-cane {Thielaviopsis ethaceticus) ; but this disease is not considered dangerous, if remedial measures be promptly taken. It is supposed that the Surinam Panama disease had been present in Jamaica for five years, and possibly for eight or ten years, and yet only 5 per cent, of the plants on the infected area were diseased. The inference drawn by the Director of Agriculture is that the conditions in Jamaica favour a strong constitution in the plants, making them almost immune from this disease. Under the Infectious Diseases Law * no one is allowed to grow diseased bananas or other economic plants which , may spread disease to his neighbours. Any person having reason to believe that disease exists in land neighbouring to his own, may notify the person in charge to carry out the treatment prescribed under the law ; if no attention is paid to this, the matter is reported to an inspector. Inspectors may inspect plants suspected to be diseased^ and are empowered to carry out the treatment prescribed at the cost of the owners ; if it is impossible to cure the disease, the plants are to be cut down and burnt. 2. Root Destruction by Fungus Mycelia-j- (1) Stone Fungus. — ^The soil of banana cultivations in Australia is occasionally found to be compacted in irregu- larly shaped masses that have an almost stone-like density. These masses are due to the mycelium of a fungtis filling every interstice of that portion of soil, and enclosing root- fibres and other bodies. The outer surfaces of these masses are defined by a thin, dense, almost black layer, principally formed by iron that the organic matter present, in the * Journ. Jam. Agric. Soc., xv. 405 (1911), f H, Tryon in Queensland Agric, Journ., zzviii, 284 (1912), 96 THE BANANA form of this fungus matter, has caused to be segregated round it. When they involve the roots of growing plants, such as those of the banana, these succumb to their attacks, and the plants themselves fail to thrive. One of these stone-making fungi has been described, occxuring in South Australia.* When these masses are detected in the soil, they should be dug out and thrown upon a fire, so as to raise them to a high temperature. A solution of sulphate of iron applied to the soil in which they occur may destroy the fungus : growth. (2) Another fungus attacks the banana in Australia through its root system — a kind of toadstool, probably ArmiUaria mellea, that commonly occasions Tree Root Rot. In this case the plant ceases to thrive, the stems are short and slender, and the foliage yellowish and unhealthy? looking. On digging up the stool, white threads (strands of mycelia or rhizomorphs) are seen traversing it in all directions, and giving off a decided fungus odour. A section of the stool itself will discover these threads also occurring within the tissue of the older portions, small cavities now occurring, being white in consequence. These parts, too, are dead and of a brown colour, with numerous dark particles disseminated throughout them. When this trouble occurs, the plant should be dug out and burnt, and the soil for a foot or two around removed and sterilized by heat, or receive a generous application of fresh lime that is to be dug well in. As a rule this root-fungus only occurs where the bananas have been planted in newly felled land, and, originating in certain decaying roots that still lie in the soil, it passes to the root 'Stocks of its victims, being enabled to establish injurious relations with these when growth has beea interfered with by dry weather or other physical causes. It commonly persists for a long time in a spot in which it has once manifested itself, attacking plant after plant, as * MoAlpine (D.) and Tipper (T. G. 0.), " A New AustraUan Stone- making Fungus " : Trans. Roy, 8oc, Victoria, 166, 3 plates (1894). FUNGUS DISEASES 97 healthy bananas have been substituted for unhealthy ones. Some loss * is caused among banana plants in Fiji by a disease locally called the " banana disease." It shows its presence in the dwarfing of the plant and a rather sudden tapering ofl towards the crown, where the leaves are small and yellowish green. If the upper part of such a plant is cut open, the leaves which have not yet appeared above the plant will be found to be crumpled up, and will lengthen out considerably immediately on being released. There is doubt as to the exact nature of the disease, which has been in Fiji for eighteen years ; and although plants have been imported from different parts of the world, they seem to be as subject to the attack as the local plants. On digging up a diseased plant, many of the roots will be found to be black and rotten ; and on examining a little of the decom- posed root Tmder a microscope very many nematode worms are to be seen together with fungal hyphae. 8. Diseases of the Feuit Ripe Rot Fungus, Fruit Antheacnose or Blackening f {GlcEOsporium tnusarumJOiie. and Mass.) This disease chiefly affects ripe or ripening fruit, and its presence is marked by black blotches, which spread over the surface, causing rotting. It is due to the attacks of a fungus that occurs in the black areas in the form of a pinkish dust-like substance that is closely sprinkled over them. This matter is composed of the massed spores of the organism, that — ^adherent to one another — tissue through point-like orifices in the skin, and are connected with mycelium (spawn-threads) growing throughout the adjacent tissue. The dust -like spores are readUy detached, float about in the air, and promptly sprout when they settle on a damp siuface, sending their germ-tubes into the injured * " Report on Agriculture for the Year 1909, Fiji." ■(■ H. Tiyon in Queensland Agrie, Journ,, xxvjii. 286 (1912) ; W. Ind. BuU., X. 250. G 98 THE BANANA or ripe surface tissue. Sound fruit can be affected, and young immature bananas may be attacked if they are in the neighbourhood of rotting fruit or vegetable matter. All fruit should be handled as carefully as eggs, as the spores of the ripe rot fungus will soon find out any bruised surface. The Ripe Rot has caused much damage to bananas in the Canary Islands, and also in Australia. The Jamaican banana is not subject to this disease, but the Chinese banana easily falls a victim. Banana Scab The earliest stages,* as they occur on fairly well grown but still green bananas, such as would be cut for shipment, are as follows : A reddish-brown colom- appears on the green skin in the form of minute transverse markings. These markings soon merge into a uniform brown area, often of considerable extent, some parts of which may become black. In the midst of this dark-coloured area numerous shallow longitudinal cracks make their appear- ance. Following upon the appearance of the cracks, the skin begins to dry up and take on a greyish-brown colour, the cracks meanwhile assuming larger dimensions. The drying-up extends to the inner layers of the skin, and the pulp is affected, becoming discoloured and dry under the patches of affected skin. Pustules may be found on the diseased skin in the form of minute raised points, which give off spores, by which the disease is spread. Care should ybe taken to destroy all scabby fruit, and if the disease is prevalent, to spray with Bordeaux Mixture. * Agric, Gaz., N. South Wales, 1903, p. 683. CHAPTER XIV INSECT PESTS The Bana'na Weevil Bober {Sphenophorus sordidus) This borer, which causes so much damage to bananas, belongs to the ft^mily of weevils, the chief featiure of which is the rostrum formed by the continuation of the fore part of the head. It is nearly related to the weevil borer of the sugar-cane {S, nericeus), but is smaller and of a more uniform dark colour. The annual loss caused in Fiji * by the ravages of this insect probably amounts to many thousands of pounds. It is a most difficult pest to deal with owing to its habits, the whole life-history being spent in the bulb or in the soil. Effect on the Plant. — Young suckers attacked by the borer wither and quickly die. The &st indication that a sucker is attacked is the death of the young Leaves while still unrolled. The bulb, when cut open, is found to be riddled by the larvse. The plants attacked at a later stage in their growth have the appearance of healthy plants, and when a certain stage in the growth has been reached they produce a good bunch, and the presence of the borer does not seem to have affected it. The adult weevils are, abundant in the soil about the roots, and also are often found sheltering under dead leaves at the base.ci the stem. y Habits and Life-history. — ^The eggs have not yet been discovered, but it is believed that they are deposited singly upon the base of the stem about hajf an inch above • " Report on Economic Entomology,"^ by F. P. Jepson, Dept. of Agrio., Fiji, 1911. 99 100 THE BANANA ) the level of the soil, as the burrows of the larVse can be traced from minute spots there. The burrows widen in their course as the larvae progress, and terminate in V pouch near the sxirface in which the larva pupates. Thb larval period lasts about twenty days. A period of fr^m six to eight days from the time of pupation elapses befi^f e the emergence of the adult. The adults remain in tjh/soil Tor some time, and then come to the surface to dei[jOsit their eggs. The length of life of the adult is not known ; they have been kept in dry earth without food for thiree months. In all probability the borer continues to breed all the year round, so long as there is a plentiful food supply. A plantation lying fallow for a year would (^ause the beetle either to migrate in search of food or to be starved. The planting of crops which the borer would not attack upon land previously planted with banana^ would have the same effect. Larva. — ^The larva is a fleshy, footless, cream-coloured grub measuring 20 mm.* in length and 8 mm. in breadth. The head is light brown in colour, while the cervical shield is pale yellow. Adult. — ^The adult beetle measures 14 mm. in length and 4 mm. in breadth. The colour is black. The rostrum is 4 mm. long. The antennae are elbowed. The elytra, or hard shielding wings, are marked with longitudinal grooves. Prevention and Remedies. — ^The banana borer is a very difficult pest to deal with, and it is believed that the only effectual means of dealing with it is by the agency of natural enemies, if they can be found. There is no doubt that a system of rotation of crops would do much to diminish the number of borers on a plantation, as they would in this event either die from starvation or have to seek elsewhere for food. Clean cultivation and the destruction of. all old banana stems and roots would eliminate favourite breeding-places. Experiments have shown that in captivity adults will not live in soil without food for longer than foiu-teen weeks. * 2 mm. » olie-twelftb of an inch. INSECT PESTS 101 In a state of nature they might live a little longer, but as they have not been kept alive with a plentiful supply of food for longer than seventeen weeks, it is not thought that without food they will live longer than about four months. A rotation of crops which would prevent bananas being grown on the same ground for the space of at least a year after the harvesting of the last crop would probably rid the land of many of these insects. Care should, how- ever, be taken to see that no stmnps are left rotting in the soil, except as " traps " to attract the beetles. These should be destroyed periodically by burning or burying with carbon bisulphide. Mr. Jepson, the Government Entomologist, proposes to visit certain islands in the East Indies with the object of endeavouring to discover some efficient parasites of this borer which are supposed to exist there. H, Tryon * states that weevil borers belonging to this genus are found in various tropical countries. S. sordidus is found also in the Straits Settlements. The common species of the West Indies is usually named S. sericeus, though the Martinique species is S. lyratus. S. obscurus is found in Papua and the Sandwich, Solomon, and Society Islands, attacking the banana as well as other plants ; in Queensland, so far, it is only found in connexion with sugar-cane. S. muscecola occurs in Madagascar ; S^striatus in Guinea and Madeira. The Beetle Borer (Tomam's bituberculatus) The larva damages the banana bulb in the West Indies much in the same way as that of the weevil borer, and its attacks should be met in a similar manner. The adult insect is a large, shiny, black beetle of the typical hard-back form. I ' * Queensland Agric. Jo'^n., xxviii. 287 (1912). 102 THE BANANA White Fly (Aleyrodicus) Two species at least of this genus are known to attack the banana. A. cocois is a common pest of the coco-nut palm in the West Indies and tropical America, and often migrates in large numbers to bianana plantations. The colonies of this minute insect are recognized by the leaves being covered with short wax threads, among which are the immature forms, somewhat like scale-insects, and the winged adults. The wings are covered with a fine waxy dust, like flour. If the pest is at all serious, the best remedy is to cut off the affected leaves and burn them. The Larger Moth Borer {Castnia licus) This sugar-cane pest also attacks the banana, the larva boring into the trunk in South America and Trinidad. A Lepidopterous Pest causing Banana Scab The banana " scab " of Fiji is due to the destructive agency of the larva of a small moth; — ^as yet unidentified. Slight attacks of scab appear to have no detrimental effect upon the production or quality of the fruit. The way in which the fruit is marked, however, renders it unsightly, and consequently the retailer cannot dispose of bananas so affected as eas&ly as unmarked fruit. Appearance of Affected Fruit. — ^The first indication that banana fruit is affected by scab is the appearance of minute longitudinal cracks on the incurved side of the fruit. Later these cracks increase in number and run together, and the whole of this portion of th\e fruit becomes affected with a brownish discoloration. The skin now commences to dry and the cracks increase slightly in size. If unchecked, the cracks extend through .the skin to the edible portion, which then commences to -decay. Habits and Life-history. — ^When the small cracks referred to are first noticed, e.icamination will reveal the presence INSECT PESTS 108 of minute pale yellow larvae. The small strips eaten away by these larvae represent the cracks which are so con- spicuous in affected fruit. " As soon as the flowering stalk appears, the moth com- mences to lay its eggs upon the large encircling bract. The larvae upon hatching enter the bract at this spot^and commence to eat the skin of the young banana. The minute thread-like larvae can be seen in great numbers on the fruit as the bunch appears from the bract. Prevention. — Pyrethrmn dusted on to each " hand " by means of a " puff " ball before the bract has properly opened is recommended by Mr. Jepson as being a very satisfactory method of dealing with this pest. The Ripe-Rot Fly {Drosophila ampelophila) Major T. Brown, Entomolo^st to the Department of Agriculture, New Zealand, has described the fly : * " Length, 2'5 mm. . . . colour variable, usually brownish yellow . . . eyes bright red. Head as wide as thorax, with four black setae on the vertex and about six along the inner margin of each eye. . . . Wings large, hyaline, unspotted. . . . This little cosmopolitan fly has become a great nuisance, especially during warm weather, when it attacks all sorts of fruit, more particularly bananas, oranges, and pineapples which have been bruised or begim to decay. ... It also commits havoc with good fruit that has been cut." Fruit Fly (JDacus Tryoni Frogt.) Mr. H. Tryon writes of this fly f that it punctures the skin of the green banana before it is of full size and deposits its eggs beneath in groups of a few individuals. The position is marked by a small black spot contrasting with the green skin, which widens out later to form a blotch of dis- * Bulletin No. 4, Div. of Biology and EorticuUvre, New Zealand Depf, of.Agric, 1905, pp. 5 and 6. Quoted in Jepson's Beport. f Queensland Agric, Journ,, xxviii. 360 (1912). 104 THE BANANA coloration. The maggots burrow into the pulp, which becomes soft and brown and soon decays. When the larva is only a few days old it passes out of the fruit and drops on the soil, which it enters to pupate. In due course the pupa gives rise to the fly, which is generally brown coloured with conspicuous pale yellow glossy blotches on the mid-body, the clear wings having two smoke-coloured bands — one all along their fore-borders, the other extending slantingly across them. Mr. Tryon's recommendations for the prevention of the Fruit Fly are as follows : (1) The destruction of breeding-grounds adjoining banana plantations. Mangoes, oranges, loquats, peaches, guavas, &c., that are found to be infected should be gathered and destroyed ; if such fruit trees are practically wild, and not a soiu-ce of income, they should be extirpated as sources of danger. (2) Formerly the southern States — or Victoria at least — required planters to protect the fruit destined for their markets from fly attack by covering it with Hessian or stocking net, and a special tubular net was manufactured for the purpose. The use of the net is not now compulsory, but it is certainly effective if applied at the time the fruit is two-thirds grown. The natives of Papua wrap their banana bunches with " tapa " or other suitable material to prevent the attacks of injurious animals. (3) Avoid leaving damaged or defective fruit on the plantation, as it may serve as breeding-ground for the fly- (4) Learn to recognize the " fingers " that have been " stung," and detach and destroy them. This procedure is an object of careful provision on the part of inspectors under the Diseases in Plants Act of Queensland. Fruit Fly (Dacus curvipennis) Mr. W. W. Froggat, Government Entomologist, New South Wales, has bred out this fruit fly from banana, INSECT PESTS 105 shipped from Suva, although no specimens have ever been actually found in Fiji.* This is a handsome dark yellow and black fruit fly, 6 mm. in length, head yellow, eyes purplish black, the dorsal surface of the mid-body covered with a dark shield-shaped black patch, the centre with an elongate double bar of silvery white. Nematode (Flask-worm) Disease Dr. Joseph Bancroft investigated "f a disease of the banana in Queensland in the year 1879. In the course of the > rootlets, and also of the main roots from which these spring, are formed gall-like swellings that ultimately are the sites of decay. The symptoms are the yellowing and death of the older leaves while the suckers are sttmted, with a tendency for their leaves to be small and crowded together instead of being large and widely expanding. This disease is due to the development in the root-galls of certain minute worms, and the subsequent decay of the galls and of the roots themselves. Dr. Bancroft named the disease the " Flask- worm Disease " from the form of the worm when mature. The worm is a species of nematode { which was also found attacking the China banana at Cairo, as well as other species of plants. The disease may be combated by ploughing up the; fields and leaving them fallow for some time. But the disease is very insidious, as it may be brought from surrounding districts by various agencies, and it is very difficult to eradicate when once started. A black smut fungus {Olceosporium musarum) was also reported. It covered the leaves and spread rapidly. Burning the plants and liming the soil are effective remedies. ' * " Report on Parasitic and Injurions Insects," Dept. of Agric, N.S.W., 1909, p. 93. t H. Tryon in Queensland Agric. Journ., xxviii. 178 (1912). X TyUnchms radicicola. 106 THE BANANA Bees In Surinam small black bees visit the banana flowers as they open, and in their attempt to obtain the honey exuded by the flower they scar the young fruits. As the fruits grow the scars enlarge, and the bunches are rejected by the inspectors as unsaleable. One estate lost over 15,000 bunches from the effects of the bees in one year, and had to spend a considerable amount of money to destroy all the bees' nests in and around the cultivation. These bees also attack plantains and cacao pods. Geasshoppers A somewhat similar scarring of bananas in Jamaica, affecting a large acreage of fruit, was found to be due to attacks by young grasshoppers secreted in the young bunches. The only remedy considered practicable was to hunt for the insects in the bunches and destroy them. CHAPTER XV BANANAS AS FOOD Valuable as Food. — Dr. Robert Hutchison in his classic work, " Food and the Principles of Dietetics," * says : " That only is to be adjudged a ' good ' food which contains an ample proportion of nutritive constituents, which is easily digested and absorbed, and which can be obtained at a reasonable cost." Mr. Eustace Miles adds to this defini- tion that " a good food must be as free as possible from stimiilants and irritants ; and, moreover, a good food should for purposes of modern life, when everything tends towards over-acidity and clogging, have certain cleansing properties, or at least should have cleansing foods added to it — among the cleansing foods m;ay be classed many of the fresh fruits, salads and green vegetables." It would be difficult to find words more appropriate to use in describing the claims of the banana to a large share in our diet, whether eaten as fresh fruit or cooked in various ways, or as banana flour, or dried like figs. In the course of a speech delivered on his return from a visit to Jamaica, Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D., F.R.S., said : "I wish all our school-children could have bananas from time to time. . . . The banana is not a flavoured fruit, that is to say, a little sugar and water with a drop of some essence thrown in, but a food fruit contain- ing, in an agreeable form, all the essential elements of nutrition. ... As an adjunct to our other foods it is of great value, being at once acceptable to all — ^for it is not ah acquired taste—- giving variety to the domestic diet * Third edition, 1911, p. 19. 107 108 THE BANANA table aftd mingling well with other comestibles. ... I am quite sure that the Jamaican banana, than which there is none finer or better flavoured when it is of the proper degree of ripeness, is, in the guise of a cheap luxury, a substantial addition to our food supply which is certain more and more to commend itself to the working classes in om- large towns." In a communication to the author, dated December 1912, he writes : " Extended experience of the banana has deepened my conviction of its food value. It is a great boon to the masses of our people, and while retaining its place on the dessert table of the rich, has found its way into the hands of the poor. Its portability, palatability, digestibility are immense advantages, and I am glad to see that it is largely taking the place of the stale sand- wich on railway journeys. When in good condition, it is microbe-proof, and it assuredly suppUes wholesome nutriment." The universal experience of mankind, wherever the fruit can be obtained, confirms the opinion of physicians and food experts as to its merits. In some regions the banana and plantain are amongst the principal food- stuffs of the native population. For instance, in tropical America " they are so extensively consumed as almost to take the place of cereal grains as a common article of diet," and in the unripe state, cooked, they supply the staple food of millions ,of people — " about 6| lbs. of the fruit or 2 lbs. of the dry meal, with a quarter of a pound of salt meat or fish, form the daily allowance for a labourer " (Johnston and Church). The celebrated buccaneer and navigator, Dampier, who was an " under manager " on an estate in Jamaica in 1674,' in his " New Voyage round the World " (1679-91), , speaks as follows of the value of the banana and plantain as food : " When this fruit is only used for bread, it is roasted or boiled when it is just full grown, but not yet ripe or turned yellow. Sometimes, for a change, they eat a roasted plantain and a ripe raw plantain, which is instead BANANAS AS FOOD 109 of bread and butter. They eat very pleasant so, and I have made many a good meal in this manner. Sometimes our English take six or seven ripe plantains, and, mashing them together, make them into a lump, and boil them instead of a bag-pudding, which they call a buff-jacket, and this is a very good way for a change. This fruit makes also very good tarts ; and the green plantains, sliced thin and dried in the sun and grated, will make a sort of flour which is very good to make puddings. A ripe plantain, sliced and dried in the sim, may be preserved a great while, and then eats like figs, very sweet and pleasant. The Darien Indians preserve them a long time by drying them over the fire, mashing them first and moulding them into lumps. The Moskito Indians will take a ripe plantain and roast it ; then take a pint and a half of water in a calabash, and squeeze the plantain in pieces with their hand, mixing with the water ; then they drink it all off together ; this they call ' mishlaw,' and it is pleasant and sweet and nourishing, somewhat like ' lambs' wool ' (as it is called), made with apples and ale ; and on this fruit alone many thousands of Indian families in the West Indies have their whole subsistence." Dr. William Wright, in his " Account of the Medicinal Plants growing in Jamaica," * wrote as follows, more than 120 years ago, of the plantain and banana: "Plantains are cut when full grown, but before they are ripe. The green skin is pulled off, and the heart is roasted in a clear fire for a few minutes, and frequently tm-ned ; it is then scraped, and served up as bread. Boiled plantains are not so palatable. Ripe plantains, sliced and fried, resemble pancakes. The banana is never eaten green ; but when ripe it is very agreeable, either eaten raw or fried in slices as fritters. Plantains and bananas are eaten by all ranks of people in Jamaica ; and but for the plantains the island would scarcely be habitable, as no species of provision could supply their place. Even flour, or bread itself, would be less agreeable, and less able to support the * London Med, Journ., vol, viii. 1787, p. 272, 110 THE BANANA laborious negro, so as to enable him to do his business, or to keep in health. Plantains also fatten horses, cattle, swine, dogs, fowls, and other domestic animals." Mr. H. H. Cousins, now Director of Agriculture, Jamaica, gives * the following percentage analysis of banana flour, prepared by a local firm : Moisture, 10-88 ; albuminoids, 0-71 (containing nitrogen, 0'114) ; fats and oils, 0-22 ; sugar, 3-48; starch, 60-42; pectin, 20-93; fibre, 0-72; mineral matter, 2-64. He continues : " From the chemical composition of this banana flour it is clear that practically the whole of it is readily digestible. The mineral matter contains soluble phosphates such as occur in wheaten flour. This flour consists almost entirely of carbohydrates of a readily digestible nature. The high proportion of pectin imparts to it the mucilaginous properties of a fruit extract. I consider it a well-prepared article of high dietetic value." But it is not alone in the tropical countries, where the banana plant grows, that it is appreciated. The fact that the fruit ripens after harvesting, that its thick and close-fitting skin is a perfect protection against contamina- tion, and that it is portable over immense distances are all factors which have led to its introduction and use on a large scale in temperate and sub-tropical climates. Its value as food to the teeming populations of large towns is of the greatest importance. Dr. WiUiam Tibbies, in his recently issued work on foods,f says : " The supply of pure food is a means of establishing the health of the people and the betterment of the human race." Microbe-proof. — When a fruit such as the banana becomes ripe, and still more when it reaches the pulpy stages of over-ripeness, it might well be supposed that micro- organisms are at work, and that very likely the over-ripe fruit might be harmful on that account. This is, however, • Journ. Jam. Agric. Soc, v, 322 (1901). t " Foods, their Origin, Composition, and Manufacture." 1912. Pre- face, BANANAS AS FOOD 111 not the case. Dr. Giuseppe Tallarico * has done some very elaborate and exhaustive work on the subject, publishing his full papers upon " Gli Enzimi ideolitici e catalizzanti nel processo di maturazione delle frutta." His main conclusions t are twofold: First, that the pulp of the banana remains absolutely free from microbes so long as the skin is intact ; cultivations upon bread, agar, gelatine, &c., remained completely sterile. Secondly, that the maturation of the fruit is due to ferments, of which there are three main kinds — ^amylotic, inyertiye, and proteolytic, each of which is present in quantity in the ripe banana. It is perhaps on this account that the fruit is so beneficial in many cases of simple dyspepsia. Digestibility. — ^It is necessary, however, to utter a note of warning that bananas when eaten as fruit should be perfectly ripe, otherwise they may be difficult of digestion with some people. It is easy enough to ascertain whether bananas are ripe, for when really ripe there is no longer a trace of green, even at the ends, and the skin has begun to shrivel and darken. The British Medical Journal says : " In their native countries they are seldom eaten before the skin is discoloured, and the pulp so soft that it can be scooped out with a spoon." Dr. Wm. Tibbies J says : " The banana is fit to eat as jpoij as it- has - lost, all the green colour, and remains fit, no matter how black it may be, so' long as the skin is unbroken; for until the latter occurs, there can be no admission of air and no ^decomposition." The Journal of the American Medical Association puts the necessity of perfect ripeness very plainly as follows : " It has been stated that thie "banana is difficult of diges- tion, and may be the cause of alimentary disturbance. -The reason why the banana has achieved this reputation would appear to be that it is often partaken of before it is ripe, and the fruit is imported green, and is ripened by artificial i * ArcMvo di Farmacologia sperimentale e seienzeaffinio. t Tropical Agriculturist, 1908, ii. 79. X " Pood and Hygiene," second edition, 1910. ^ 112 THE BANANA heat, a process which may be hastened or delayed to some extent according to the demands of retail trade. The green banana contains, after removal of the skin, about 1-5 per cent, of protein, and 20 to 25 pen cent, of carbo- hydrate, which is almost entirely starch. In the ripe banana, the ripeness of which is evidenced by the yellow- brown peel, there is from 16 to 19 per cent, of carbohydrate, almost entirely in the form of sugars, and the remainder of the edible pulp is mostly water. Bananas are usually eaten uncooked, and the ingestion of the amount of raw starch contained in the unripe fruit or the fruit which is not completely ripened is often the cause of irritation in the alimentary tract. (TYet many people eat the partially ripened fruit and decline the ripe toit with the brown skin on the supposition that it is rotten| Another point which has contributed to the reputation of the banana is that, owing to its shape, there is not the necessity for that efficient comminution which is desirable, and this has led to the food being often gulped down in a manner prejudicial to digestion." Dr. Tibbies, in " Food and Hygiene," says : " Raw fruit is very wholesome, and is especially beneficial to those who dwell in towns, but is not so easy to digest as cooked fruit." Cooking Bananas. — ^There are many methods, as Dampier has told us, of preparing the banana as food besides the usual way of eating it as a ripe fruit. It may be interesting to note also those mentioned by P^re Labat as in use in the French West Indies two hundred years ago : " Bananas may be roasted on the grill, then the skin is removed and they are eaten with sugar and the juice of an orange. Or they may be cooked in a stew-pan like pears with wine, sugar, cinnamon and cloves, when they assume a beautiful red colour and have a delightful and delicate taste and smell, very good pour la poitrine and very nourishing ; they are cut in two according to their length. Sometimes they are cut into thin slices, dipped into a ready prepared batter, and fried as fritters." Messrs. Elders and Fyffes (Bow Street, Covent Garden, London) have pub- BANANAS AS FOOD 118 lished an elegant little booklet of recipes for cooking bananas. " Paper-bag Cookery Manual," by C. Hermann Senn, also contains many useful recipes. A selection of these is given in the Appendix. Preserved Bananas. — ^P^re Labat continues : " To pre- serve them like figs, raisins, and other dried fruits, they are allowed to ripen thoroughly in the house, in which condition the skin is very easily removed ; they are then cut lengthwise into four, and dried on a trellis-like stand in the sun or in an oven after the bread has been baked ; the fruit becomes covered with white sugary powder deposited from its own juices. In this conditi on they will keep for years ." " Banana ngs " are now prepared in Jamaica and exported in increasing quantities (see Chapter XXXI) ; they are also dried in India to supply a local demand {see Chapter XXIII). Their special value, as Labat points out, is that they keep well. It has been stated that experiments are being made in Austria with banana figs as part of the army rations ; and for all purposes where it is of consequence to have food in small compass, which keeps well and is available for eating as bought, or when cooked, banana figs form an ideal provision. A housekeeper with a store of them has always the material at hand for toothsome dishes. They are packed in pound cardboard boxes which contain fifteen to twenty of the fruit. The price, sixpence a box, is within the reach of all. Banana Flour. — ^Again, Pere Labat says : " The Indians make a paste from the fruit, which they carry with them on their voyages, serving them as nourishing food and drink. Those who wish to make this paste with more care, dry the bananas at first in the oven or in the sun, then they grate them, mix them with powdered sugar and a small portion of powdered cinnamon, clove and ginger, ever so little flour and the white of an egg to bind all these things together ; this mixture is made into small cakes which are dried in the oven or sun, and are very good and nourishing." 114 THE BANANA Fig. 9. A Baitana Plant From "Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de TAm^rique." Par le P6re Jean-Baptiate Labat. Paris, MDCCXXI. Banana flour is made from the fully grown unripe banana, that is, before the starch is changed into sugar in the ripening. It is difficult to peel green bananas^, but if they BANANAS AS FOOD 115 are first put into scalding water (176° F.) for four or five minutes, the peel is easily removed. The peeled fruit is dried in the sun or put into a dryer of some kind to reduce the percentage of the water which it contains from 70 to 15. The drying is more readily effected if the fruit is cut up small. Steel knives should not be used as they turn the banana black ; nickel blades are better, and very effective knives can be made from bamboo. The peasantry in Jamaica, after taking off the skin, cut the bananas into thin slices and lay them on stones in the sun. One day's hot sxui is sufficient to dry them, after which they are put into a mortar, pounded, and then sifted. Two bunches make ten quarts of flour. In the factory at one time in operation at Montpelier, Jamaica, belonging to the Hon. Evelyn Ellis, the bananas were dried in a vacuum, the interior of the vacuum apparatus being heated. The bananas enclosed in this dryer were stirred continuously by means of paddles which alternate and move between fixed knives. The paddles were moved by a system of belts and pulleys. The drying was com- plete in two hours ; by this time the bananas had' been reduced to the appearance of somewhat coarse flour with only 15 per cent, of water. The mass was removed from the dryer, and passed through sieves containing 120 meshes; to the square inch. Whatever remained on the sieve was passed through a simple mill and sifted afresh. The flour was packed in boxes or barrels lined with paper. The odour was that characteristic of the fresh banana, the flavour agreeable, and the taste somewhat sweet. It has been found, however, that the result is more satisfactory if the bananas are simply dried and exported as " banana chips," as the making into flour, sifting, &c., can be better done in England. Dr. Robert Hutchison * says : " The unripe banana is dried and used to produce banana meal or flour. A sample of such a flour had the following percentage composition : * "Pood and the Principles of Dietetics," By E. Hutchison, M.D. Edin. Third edition, 1911, 116 THE BANANA CSsrbo- Ulnanl Moiatnia Protwid Fat hydntsi Mattti Banana Flour . 13-0 4-0 0-5 80-0 2-5 Wheat Flour . . 13-8 7-9 1-4 76-4 0-5 I have placed alongside of it the composition of good wheat flour, compared with which the banana meal is rich in carbohydrates and mineral matter, but very poor in proteid. If rice, on the other hand, had been taken for comparison, it would have been found that banana flour was about equal to it in nutritious value." The Lancet * says : " For some reason not yet explained, the starch of the banana is much more digestible than are the cereal starches, besides which the fruit contains a notable proportion of nitrogenous material." At the meeting of the British Medical Association in July 1910, Dr. Eric Pritchardf recommended the use of banana flour in infant feeding. He stated it was cheap and wholesome, rendered the milk more digestible, and pos- sessed a high nutritive value. He has for many years recommended the addition of mashed banana to the milk mixtm-es with which babies are fed when the natural som-ce is unavailable. As the result of further experiments, he proposes the substitution of banana flour, made into a gruel or decoction, for the more expensive proprietary infant foods. It is of great importance that infants should be trained early to digest cows' milk. This cannot be done by giving them artificial substitutes which are pre- digested. The use of cereal decoctions and sol)ition of gum or gelatine undoubtedly makes the digestion of cows' milk easier, and Dr. Pritchard finds that a decoction of banana gruel has many points of recommendation. It can be made in a few minutes by rubbing up a heaped table- spoonful (1 oz.) of banana flour with a pint of water, and then boiling for five minutes. A gruel made in this way has excellent colloidal properties when added to milk in equal quantity ; it thickens the milk and prevents forma- \* The Lancet, February 1900. t Brit. Med, Journ., Oct, 15, 1910. BANANAS AS FOOD 117 tion of a leathery coagulum of casein, and satisfies the appetite of hungry infants more effectually than simple milk dilutions. Banana flour can be obtained under the name of "Bananine," of which the Lancet* speaks highly in the following terms : " There can be no doubt of the nutritious character of banana flour, and the starch in it is peculiarly easy of solution and digestion in the alkaline digestive juices of the body. Banana flour is readily dissolved, for example, by the saliva. Our analysis of ' Bananine ' gave the following results : moisture, 14-60 per cent. ; mineral matter, 2-20 per cent. ; proteid, 19-22 per cent. ; fat, 2 per cent. ; and carbohydrate, 61-98 per cent. The flour has the peculiar flavour and odottr of fresh banana fruit. We have received also a sample loaf, made with ' Bananine ' flour. The flour proves to make a very acceptable loaf, uniform in texture and permanently moist, and of a golden colour." It has been found difficult to make banana bread unless the banana flour is mixed with a large proportion of wheat flour, but bread of an agreeable taste has been obtained by making a paste of the banana flour, and then submitting to the action of steam under pressure. " Bananine " is prepared by a Liverpool firm, the Banana Bread Flour Food, Ltd., 16 Brunswick Street. Banana flour and other banana preparations, are also manufactured by Pattinson's Banana Fruit Foods, Ltd., Anerley, London, S.E. The banana flour is vouched for in their circulars as follows : " Dr. Conrad Stich, the food expert, of Leipzig, writes : ' I have carefully analysed and tested your banana flour, and have noticed how peculiarly soluble it is. By the addition of hot water the whole of the flour is made perfectly soluble and in a form very suitable for digestion. Four-fifths of the flour consists of soluble carbohydrates. It is particularly suited for patients recovering from typhoid fever, and is excellent in cases of choluria, dysentery, and similar stomachic complaints. In * The LaiMet, Oct. 17, 1903. 118 THE BANANA cases of chronic dyspepsia and gastritis, the banana flour properly prepared is easily digested. I consider that as an infants' and invalids' food the flour properly prepared with milk has a great future. The nitrogenous portion of the flour is of great value, being of a fruit nature and remaining quite soluble in the flour.' " Pattinson's banana and flaked oats, another prepara- tion for a breakfast food, is recommended as follows : " The chemical analysis and general examination of this product proved eminently satisfactory. It bore every evidence of having been carefully blended from choice bananas and Scotch oats of high quality. The addition of the banana not only confers valuable anti-scorbutic proper- ties, but it increases the digestibility of the combination, so that those who cannot ordinarily take oaten preparations can take ' Banana Oats ' with the best results. Being pre- cooked it is more easily assimilated than dishes made from raw oatmeal, and when prepared according to directions, it contains all the essentials of a perfect diet. — ^J. Grant- Stephens, D.Sc, Ph.D." The Journal of the Society of Arts * reports : " An alimen- tary product of the banana is now announced, consisting of the pulp of the banana ground to flour and mixed with triturated cocoa, milk powder, and extract of malt. The process of manufacture consists in volatilizing the essential oil from the peel, adding it to banana flour, and mixing with it a proportion of dried milk powder and pure extract of malt, and also the paste prepared from cocoa, and finally adding a sufiicient quantity of sugar for flavouring. This composition is said to possess all the essential elements of a complete food in a concentrated form, namely, albuminous matters or proteids, fatty substances, and hydrocarbons." Composition of Bananas. — ^Dr. Wm. Tibbies, in his latest work on foods,t gives the results of his study of the banana as follows : " The fact that the fruit wiU ripen after separation from the plant, and loses little of its real value * Journ. Soc. Arts, March 1907. t " Foods : their Origin, Composition, and Manufacture," 1912. BANANAS AS FOOD 119 by being separated, has led to its being transported long distances from the place of cultivation. . . . They are largely used for food wherever they grow, and in some regions they constitute one of the principal foodstuffs of the native population. They are very prolific, and an acre of land set with bananas will produce more food than the same area set with potatoes or wheat. . . . Bananas are among the most nutritious fruits, but consist chiefly of carbohydrates, and especially sugars. The starch consists of long, narrow granules with indistinct striae and hilum. The proportion varies according to their condition. Ricciardi * found that green bananas contain 12 per cent, of starch, which mostly disappears during ripening, along with the tannic and organic acids. Doherty f found 6 per cent, of starch in ripe fruit ; but other observers find less than this, most of it being converted into sugars and other soluble carbohydrates. The woody fibre does not exceed 2 per cent. The sugars in ripe fruit average about 20 per cent, of the edible portion, but Doherty found as low as 3 per cent, sugar and 11 per cent, of other carbohydrates. The proteins are small ; in ripe fruit they average 1 per cent, of the edible portion, and consist of albumin and gluten. The acidity equals 0-8 per cent., reckoned as sulphuric acid. The ash varies from 0-5 to 1 per cent. {see the second table on p. 120),J being 0-70 per cent, in Nino, 1*08 in Orinoco, and 0*83 in Colorado bananas. "In some countries the banana and plantain form a fax more important , article of food than in Europe. To an immense portion of the human race it occupies the place of wheat, rye, barley, and potatoes, used by inhabitants of temperate regions. A reference, however, to the analysis given below shows that the banana is deficient in proteins and fat. It contains less of these elements than the cereals do. The proportion of protein and fat places it on a par vjith the potato, but with the advantage that it is unneces- i i ? *" * Biedermann's Gentralb. f. Agrik. Chem., xiv. 18. '■^y I ^ t Chemical News, 1892, Ixxiv. 187. ^ t Bureau of, Chemie^y, Bulletin 87, V.8, Dept. of Agric. 120 THE BANANA Composition of the Ash Percentages Nifio Orinoco Colorado KgO ... 46-46 52-41 51-47 CaO ... ■95 1-02 -37 MgO •42 1-90 -65 P^Ob . . . 10-36 5-16 3-25 SO3 . 2-36 3-32 2-77 CI . ... 6-59 8-48 7-63 Composition of Bananas — Percentages Water Protein Fat Carbo- hydrate Fibre Ash Authority Edible portion : All analyses . 75-50 1-26 -50 21-70 -81 -76 Tibbies rAtwater Average 75-30 1-30 -60 22-00 -80 -! and iBryant Plantain 73-90 4-80 -63 19-66 -20 — fCoren- \winder CFarmers' Dried Fruit . 29-20 5-30 2-30 55-80 — 5-30 - Bulletin . 293 Banana Flour : All analyses . 11-10 3-56 -83 81-70 1-50 2-23 Tibbies sary to cook it. The fresh fruit is too bulky, however, to form a satisfactory ration, for one must consume 1400 grammes (nearly 50 oz.) in-order to obtain 300 grammes of carbohydrate; which, moreover, would contain but 21 grammes of protein and very little fat, and would yield only 1400 calories. It is true the protein and fat deficiency could be made up by drinking milk, whereby more carbo- hydrate would also be taken. Weight for weight, it is somewhat inferior in nutriment to potato, ... A com- parison of banana flour and wheaten flour or oatmeal is also to the disadvantage of the fruit, and shows it to be BANANAS AS FOOD 121 deficient in protein and fat as compared with the cereal products, but it is a more valuable source of carbo- hydrate." Nutritive Value of Banana and Other Foobs Compared Eaoana Banana Mour Wheat riour Oatmeal ;Potatoea Moisture Protein .... Fat . . Carbohydrate Mineral matters 75-50 1-26 •50 21-70 •76 11-10 3-65 •83 81-70 2-23 14-0 11-4 1-0 75-0 1-7 8-9 15-5 10-1 54-8 4-0 78-3 2-2 •1 18-4 1-0 Dr. R. Hutchison * says : " The food-fruits are not to be despised as sources of real nutriment. Of this group the banana is a good example. In the fresh state this fruit contains a fair amount of carbohydrate and an appreci- able amount of proteid as well ; while bananas dried in the sun compare favourably with dried figs in nutritive value." He continues later : " Weight for weight, dried figs are more nourishing than bread, and a pint of milk and six ounces of dried figs make a good meal." Of dates he says : " The date is as much a staple article of diet to the Egyptian as rice is to the Hindu, but the carbohydrate of rice is mainly in the form of starch, whereas in the date it is almost solely present as sugar. ' A half-pound of dates and half a pint of milk make an ample and satisfying meal for a person engaged in sedentary labour ' (Dehs- more)." The table on p. 122, taken from Dr. Tibbies' work,t shows how much alike these three fruits are in their composition. The quick growth of an appreciation of the importance of the banana as food among those who have not known it hitherto as a common article of food like the cereals and * " Food and Dietetics." ■f " Foods : their Origin, Composition, &o." 122 THE BANANA Average Composition— Pebcentages Dried Fruits Water Protein Fat Carbohydrates Ash Fuel Values : Calories per pound Nitrogen- free Extract Crude Fibre Bananas . Figs Dates (refuse 100) 29-2 18-8 |l5-4 5-3 4-3 21 2-3 •3 2-8 55-8 68-0 74-6 2-1 6-2 3-8 6-3 2-4 1-3 1240 1475 1615 potatoes is very well illustrated in the following statement * by the United States Consul at Port Antonio, Jamaica : " While Jamaica exported nearly twice as many bananas last year as any other country, the United States imported more than five times as many as any other country. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912, the bananas imported into the United States reached the enormous total of 44,520,589 bunches, valued at $14,368,330, an average of 32.3 cents a bunch, as the market value shown in American consular invoices certified at the shipping ports. Great Britain imported during the calendar year 1911 a total of 6,714,479 bunches, value $8,943,099, an average of $1.33 cents a bunch, the value fixed at the importing ports. Dm-ing the same year the value of bananas (including banana food products) im- ported into Germany amounted to $1,974,046. It should be stated that some of the bananas imported into Great Britain are sent to Germany and other countries of Northern Europe, and that Hamburg, which is a great distributing centre, ships bananas arriving at that port to Scandinavia and elsewhere. . . . Estimating the average number of bananas at 140 to the bunch, it appears that the people of the United States consume over 6,000,000,000 bananas a year, or more than five dozen for every man, woman, and child in the United States, including Alaska * United States Daily Conaular and Trade Reports, December 26, 1912, BANANAS AS FOOD 128 and Hawaii. As indicating the rapid increase in the consumption of bananas in the United States it is interest- ing to observe that the value of this fruit imported during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1900, was $5,877,835 ; in 1905, $9,897,821 ; in 1910, $11,642,693 ; and in 1912, as already stated, $14,368,330, which shows an increase of 23-4 per cent, in the last two years and of 144 per cent, in twelve years. The gain in Great Britain last year was 8*4 per cent., in Germany last year 24 per cent., and in the last two years 111 per cent. Owing to direct ship- ments of bananas from Caribbean countries now being made to German as well as to British ports, the Hamburg- American Steamship Company having, it is said, acquired a substantial interest in the Atlantic Fruit Company, and a concession of banana lands having been made by Colombia to a German company, it may be regarded as certain that the imports of this fruit into Germany will show a large advance from year to year. The increased facilities recently provided for direct shipments of bananas to British ports justify the belief that the consumption of bananas in the United Kingdom will show substantial gains in future years. " The increasing consumption of bananas in a number of countries naturally raises the question of an adequate supply to meet the coming demand. In Jamaica, where the immense banana crop is produced on about 3 per cent. of the total acreage of the island, there is yet plenty of suitable land available. In Mexico, Central America, Panama, and Colombia, not to mention the large possibili- ties of Haiti and the Dominican RepubUc, there are vast tracts of land where fertile soil, -a warm climate, and abundant rainfall favour the production of bananas on a large scale. Not only is there land enough, but the profits of the crop are sufficiently remunerative to attract the investment of ample capital to meet the world's demand. " As all the conditions seem to be favom-able for a greatly enlarged production of bananas, and as the highly 124 THE BANANA nutritive qualities of this fruit are becoming more generally recognized, it is encouraging in this day of high cost of living to have good reasons for believing that the banana is destined to play no small part in meeting the world's insistent demand for a larger and cheaper supply of whole- some food." CHAPTER XVI BANANAS IN MEDICINE In considering the claims of banana flour, it has been shown how valuable it is for patients buffering from gastric troubles. Sir H. M. Stanley in ^' Darkest Africa " (ii. 239), gives his testimony as follows : " The Awamba understood the art of drying bananas over wooden gratings for the purpose of making flour. ... If only the virtues of the flour were publicly known, it is not to be doubted but it would be largely consumed in Europe. For infants, persons of delicate digestion, dyspeptics, and those suffering from temporary derangements of the stomach, the flour, properly prepared, would be of universal demand. During my two attacks of gastritis, a light gruel of this, mixed with milk, was the only matter that could be digested." In India, the native home of the banana, medical men prescribe not only the fruit, but also many other parts of the plant, as remedies. The " Dictionary of the Economic Products of India " contains numerous extracts from the opinions of medical men in India on the value of the banana plant in medicine. Civil Sm-geon R. A. Parker, M.D., states : " A com- bination of ripe banana, tamarind, and common salt is most efficacious in dysentery. I have used it in many cases, both of the acute and chronic forms of the disease, and seldom failed to effect a cure. It may, in fact, be said to be a specific, and I can confidently recommend it to the profession as well as to the public. It is simple, easily procurable, and may safely be administered to a 125 126 THE BANANA child. It is not disagreeable to take, has no bad eflecti, and is on the whole preferable to ipecacuanha. In simple cases a single dose is sufficient ; as a rule, three or four doses are required to effect a cure. The patient should be kept quiet and placed on low diet. The dose for an adult is : Ripe bananas one ounce, the pulp of ripe tamarind half an ounce, common salt quarter of an ounce ; well mixed and administered immediately. It may be given two or three times a day." Civil Surgeon J. H. Thornton, B.A., M.B., says : " The juice of the tender roots contains a large quantity of tannin and is used with mucilage for checking haemorrhages from the genital and air passages. The ashes produced by btirning the plant contain a large amount of potash salts, and are used as an antacid in acidity, heartburn, and colic. The tender fruit is used for patients suffering from haemoptysis and diabetes." C. T. Peters, M.B., says : " The ripe fruit is useful in chronic dysentery and diarrhoea. The dried fruit of the larger varieties is a valuable anti-scorbutic. The dried leaves, and in fact the entire plant, are burnt, and the ashes, dissolved in water and strained, yield an alkaline solution, containing chiefly potash salts, which is used in curries, especially as a cure for acidity and an anti-scorbutic." Ainslie writes that the banana is "one of the safest of fruits for such as have delicate stomachs, being entirejy free from acidity ; it is, moreover, very nourishing, and is always prescribed as food by the Hindoo practitioners for such as suffer from bile and heat of habit." CHAPTER XVII WINE, WHISKY, AND ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS Loss on Small Bunches. — ^In countries that produce bananas for export there is a very considerable number of bunches that are too small or are otherwise commercially unfit for export. In all the exporting countries put together there are probably as many as eight million bunches that annually fail to come up to the high standard rightly insisted upon by the shippers. In Jamaica alone, it has been calculated that over three million bunches are produced annually which cannot be profitably exported.* * Note, for instance, what the Secretary of the Jamaica Agricultural Society says below {Journ., x. 164, 1906) : " It is instructive to visit one of the buying depots for bananas where the sellers are mostly small culti- vators. All through the day and night long lines of carts an^ drays, donkeys, and mules arrive loaded with bananas, and carts holdmg up to thirty bunches, the drays up to forty, the donJseys carrying four and the mules six, generally. What is peculiarly depressing is the tremendous amount of waste that occurs. The number of rejections shows clearly enough how much instruction is needed by the small cultivators not only in the growing of bananas, and in the timing of them for the season, but of the cutting of the right grades. Just at this time (end of March), when full three-quarter fruit is wanted for the United States, we noticed a whole cart-load rejected, all for being too thin. The fruit wanted three weeks to fill. Another cart-Ipad had ten stems out of twenty-five rejected, another seven out of thirty, and so on. None of these rejections were for bruises, all for being too thin fruit, and yet these cultivators have been cutting fruit every season for years. In many cases the cause of thin fruit, no doubt, is greed — the same spirit that actuates men to offer unfit oranges, half -cured cofiee and cocoa, and so on — but at least in an equal number of cases it is the want of knowledge, and here we find men coming fifteen to thirty miles hauling fruit for which they get nothing, and over and above have had the wear-and-tear of their beasts and cart, and thei time IB lost, when by waiting two weeks their fruit would have been chear- 127 128 THE BANANA Some of these may be consumed or given to cattle, but it is impossible to utilize the great majority in this way and great loss results. The value of the eight miUion bunches, reckoned at sixpence each, is a matter of £200,000 per annum, and about £80,000 to Jamaica alone, which reptesents a considerable loss to planters in the aggregate. Various attempts have been made from time to time to make use of this fruit and avoid the loss. It had already been demonstrated very many years ago that bananas can be made into flour or dried like figs, or utilized in making alcohol, and the knowledge has been, to some extent, turned to account in the present day. Banana Wine. — Consideration has already been given in these pages to the preparation of flour and banana figs, but only a small proportion can be utihzed in this way, and it remains to consider the use of bananas in manu- facturing an alcoholic spirit. It is well known that an excellent fermented drink can be made from bananas and plantains. Ligon, in his " History of Barbados " (1657), gives the following account of the preparation: " But the drink of the planline is farre beyond all these ; gathering them full ripe and in the height of their sweet- nesse we pill off the skin and mash them in water well boyl'd, and after we have let them stay there a night, we straine it and bottle it up, and in a week drink it ; and it is very strong and pleasant drinke, but it is to be drunk fully bought. And at this particular time of the year, waiting can by no manner of means be a loss, because if the price alters at all it wiU be a rise." A writer in the Philipp. Agric. Rev. (March 1912) bears witness to the loss on the largest estates : " It is said the demand is rapidly increasing for all kinds of banana products. The source of the material for these products is the small or over-ripe bunches discarded at the dock in loading the fruit steamers for the United States and Europe. Bunches having less than six hands are considered too small for the regular trade ; any bunch showing even a few fruits that are beginning to turn yeUow are also discarded in the warehouse at the time of loading the cargo. The writer has seen this deplorable waste of material at Port Morant, in eastern Jamaica, where the United Fruit Company has one of its largest plantations ; bunches are flung overboard, or fed to the cart oxen, with apparently no thought for the real food value of the fruit." ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS 129 sparingly for it is much stronger than Sack, and is apt to mount up into the head." Dampier, in his " Voyages," tells how banana wine was made in Jamaica : " When they make drink with them, they take 10 or 12 ripe plantains and wash them well in a trough ; then they put two gallons of water among them ; and this in two hours' time will ferment and froth like wort. In four hours it is fit to drink ; and then they bottle it,' and drink it as they have occasion ; but this will not keep above 24 or 30 hours. Those, therefore, that use this drink, brew it in this manner every morning. When I first went to Jamaica, I could relish no other drink they had there. It drinks brisk and cool, and is very pleasant." Speke mentions that plantains in Ceiitral Africa yield " a wine resembling hock in flavour." Stanley in " Darkest Africa " relates that " two large troughs — equal in size to small canoes — were stationed in the village, in' which the natives pressed the ripe fruit and manufactured their wine." Dr. Parke, in his " Personal Experiences," says : *' Nelson treated us to some pomM (banana wine) to-day ; it was really very good, although made from bananas which were not at all ripe. This beverage is prepared by cutting two or three bunches of ripe bananas into pieces of half an inch in length, adding two gallons of water, and leaving it to stand. On the third day it is really a delicious drink. At first it has a sweet tart taste, which after four or five days becomes very acid. In a day or two more it changes to a fluid, having qualities very like those of vinegar." Banana Spirit. — The possibility of utilizing the banana fruit in the production of alcohol has been more than once under the consideration of the Academy of Sciences of France, and the following information is taken from a paper read before the Academy of M. B. Corenwinder.* It had already been shown by Buignet that during * " Oomptes Eendus," vol. 88, 293, 1879. 130 THE BANANA ' the whole growth of this fruit the saccharine matter is constituted entirely of cane-sugar, but the propbrtioa varies considerably. From results of analyses by Coren- winder himself, it appears that a soimd ripe banana fruit contains as much as 22 per cent, of its weight of sugar, 16 per cent, being crystallizable and the remainder un- crystallizable. In the mature sugar-cane the proportion ' of cane-sugar present is, according to Payen, 18 per cent. After the banana has become quite ripe, there is a rapid diminution in the proportion of crystallizable sugar and an increase in the proportion of inverted sugar, but not to the same extent. An over-ripe fruit, the flesh of which had become very mellow, contained only 2-48 per cent, of crystallizable and 11-84 per cent, of uncrystallizable sugar, being a total of 14-68 per cent, or two-thurds of the original quantity. Analyses were made by Corenwinder on bananas {Musa Cavendishii) received from Brazil, on the edible portion of the fruit deprived of its rind. Analysis of a ripe banana gave : Water ..... Ciystallizable sugar . Inverted sugar Cellulose ..... Nitrogenous substances (0-342 N.) Pectin ..... Fatty matter, organic acids, &c. Inorganic matter 72-450 15-900 5-900 0-380 2-137 1-260 0-958 1-025 100-000 Estimates of the sugars made day by day until rottenness began to set in gave the results shown on p. 131. Corenwinder concludes his paper as follows : " Ainsi \ que MM. Marcano et Mimtz, je pense que la banane pourrait 6tre I'objet d'une importante exploitation in- dustrielle, notamment pour produire un alcool excellent. En France, on met souvent en fermentation, dans les usines, les melasses avec du jus de betterave. Dans les pays ehauds, pour regulariser les fermentations de mdlasses ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS 131 Crystal- Uncrystal- Day Condition of the Fruit liiable Sugar lisable Sugar Total 1 Ripe, sound, flesh still firm 15-90 5-90 21-80 2 >f >> • ■ 16-72 6-34 22-06 ' 3 ,» )j . • 15-10 6-43 21-53 4 » 39 ' • 14-28 6-69 20-97 5 Riper, flesh soft 12-25 8-95 21-20 6 Very ripe, flesh soft . 10-16 8-92 19-08 7 „ ,> • • • 9-26 9-76 1901 8 „ flesh sleepy (blette) 4-51 11-70 16-21 9 » >» • • 3-13 12-90 16-03 10 „ flesh very sleepy 2-84 11-84 14-68 de canne, il y aurait peut-6tre avantage a faire un pied avec du jus de banane qui fermente spontanement et a faire couler dans ce pied pendant qu'il est en fermentation, la m61asse etendue de la quantite d'eau convenable, en prenant la precaution, bien connue des distillateurs, de faire les additions du liquide fermentescible par inter- mittence et avec lenteur." Banana Whisky. — ^Experiments * conducted at the Central Laboratory of Guatemala in association with the director of a distillery at Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, led to the production of a very good spirit, which is said to be something like whisky, from bananas which were about to be thrown away. Samples of this spirit were sent to the St. Louis Exposition that had only been in barrel for six months, and were recognized to be of superior quality. After analysis by the laboratory of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, the producers were awarded a gold medal. Alcohol ages so rapidly in tropical countries that one year in the barrel is sufficient to make the product very fine. Corn whisky must be kept in casks for several years before being offered for consumption, and at least five years to obtain the best qualities. Banana whisky is ripe at the end of one year. The cost of manufacture is said to be much less than that of ordinary whisky. The * Jqurn, d'Agric. Trap, and Cuba Review, 132 THE BANANA yield may be estimated at 4| litres (about one gallon) per bunch of bananas. A memorandum of expenses made for a plant capable of producing 150 casks of whisky daily aggregated 827,500 francs; this included buildings, machinery and apparatus, fuel, labour, administratioJ|,f general expenses for two years, cases and bottles for the preparations of one year, and raw material for manufacture; for two years (270,000 bunches at 75 centimes each). The manufacture of banana wine has lately been under- taken by MM, Guerin and d'H^erille in Saigon, Cochin China. The bananas are crushed, mixed with a small amount of water, and then, upon the addition of yeast, allowed to ferment until the starch and sugar are changed to alcohol. The wine, " besides being much cheaper than ordinary spirits, is said to have a delicious perfume." Bananas in Brewing. — ^In 1894, experiments * on a larger scale were carried out by Herr Kahlke, at his Manufactory of Yeast and Alcohol at Konigsburg, on the use of banana meal in brewing, and an acco\mt of them was published in the weekly paper Alcohol. Herr Kahlke wrote as follows : " Banana flour without doubt, from its richness in starch and its good flavour, is particularly suitable for the manufacture of yeast. This floiu- is easily rendered saccharine. The yeast obtained by adding banana flour to the other ingredients has a good colour, all the requisite properties of an excellent class of yeast, and moreover keeps well. The alcohol obtained from it leaves nothing to be desired, so that this flour may be introduced as an article of commerce, and employed without any special: preparation." Satisfactory experiments have also been made in some breweries, where 20 per cent, of malt has been replaced by the flakes and flour of bananas. The flavour of beer was not altered, and the quantity of liquid was increased, and the malt was replaced by a less ex- pensive substance. One of the great Belgian brewers wrote : "These flakes were macerated in the vat with the malt, and the result was much superior to that of maize. . . • * Bvll, Bot, Dept., Jamaica, New Series, i. H5 (1894), ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS 133 Briefly, the uise of the flakes may be considered both advantageous and easy in brewing." Banana meal * from peeled unripe bananas is mashed with malt extract and then fermented with yeast, 100 kilogrammes of meal yielding 47-8 litres of alcohol. When mashing is carried out without malt extract, the diastase naturally present in the meal being used, the yield of alcohol is considerably lower. Denatured Alcohol from Bananas. — ^Any one interested in the manufacture of alcohol from bananas should read some such small and cheap treatise as " Distillation of Alcohol and Denaturing," by F. B. Wright, published by Spon, London and New York. It goes to show that an immense industry has arisen in Germany in connexion with the production of alcohol from potatoes, and it follows that mu(di might be done on somewhat similar lines with the banana. According to Mr. Wright, the common form of alcohol known as denatured spirit or methylated spirit consists of alcohol to which one-tenth of its volume of wood alcohol or other denatiu-izing agents has been added, for the purpose of rendering the mixture undrinkable through its offensive odour and taste. As it is sold duty free, it is applied to a variety of uses to which, from its greater cost, duty-paid spirit is commercially inapplicable. Mr. Wright states that " it is Germany which has led the way in the manufacture and use of denatured alcohol or spiritus, as it is there known. Germany has no natural gas or oil-wells, and gasolene and kerosene ai^e not produced there, hence the necessity of using some other form of liquid fuel. This fuel — ^in many ways better than any petroleum product — was found in alcohol." The agricul- tural districts of Germany produce abundant crops of potatoes and beets. " From the first, alcohol can be so easily manufactured that the processes are within the understanding and ability of any farmer " ; it is also made from the crude molasses from beet -sugar factories. " Under these circumstances and the great demand for * Journ, Soc, Chem, Ind., xxxi, 453 (1912). 184 THE BANANA liquid fuel for motor carriages and gas engines, alcohol for denaturing came rapidly to the front as one of the most important of agricultural products, as one of the most valuable crops which a farmer could T^ise" The potatoes are manufactured into alcohol in individual farm distilleries and in co-operation distilleries. "A recent exhibition in Germany gave a good illustration of the broad field in which denatured alcohol may be used. Here were shown alcohol engines, alcohol boat motors, and motors for threshing, grinding, wood-cutting, and other agricultural purposes. The department of lighting ap- paratus included a large and varied display of lamps, chandeliers, and street and corridor lights, in which alcohol vapom- is burnt like gas in a hooded flame covered by a Welsbach mantle. Under such conditions alcohol vapour burns with an incandescent flame which rivals the arc light in brilliancy and requires to be shaded to adapt it to the endurance of the htunan eye. . . . Similarly attractive and interesting was the large display of alcohol heating stoves, which for warming corridors, sleeping rooms, and certain other locations are highly esteemed. . . . Cooking stoves of all sizes, forms, and capacities, from the complete range, with baking and roasting ovens, broilers, &c., to the simple tea and coffee lamp, were also displayed." Much importance is being attached in English engineer- ing circles to the proposals for superseding petrol by alcohol produced within the country. It is contended that by the systematic cultivation of potatoes and other root crops, and the remission of the Government duty, alcohol could be retailed to the consumer at Is. per gallon. The retail price of petrol to-day is about Is. 'id. per gallon. The Pall Mall Gazette gives the views of an expert on the advisability of substituting alcohol for petrol as a fuel, " In the first place he points out that the two great oil fields of the world, the Russian and the Pennsylvanian, have practically become exhausted, though there may be reserves of heavy oil ' held up ' on the fields themselves in view of a coming shortage. In that case, the fractional ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS 135 distillation process might, and probably would, be em- ployed to keep up the supply of petrol for the market. But this, of course, could be only a temporary expedient. There would come a time when the stock of petrol thus obtained would be at an end. Then the turn of alcoholic fuel would arrive. This the authority in question regards as so far-reaching in its effects that the result of its intro- duction is described by anticipation as a social revolution. " To make this clear to the general reader it is necessary to observe that petroleum, the source of petrol, kerosene, paraffin, and the heavier rock oils, is a natural product. The supply, therefore, like that of coal, is limited. On the other hand, alcohol can be manufactured by a process of fermentation from vegetable products, such as beet and potatoes. " Quite clearly, one important result of a utilization of alcohol as a fuel would be an enormously increased demand for it. To meet this demand, it would be necessary to increase proportionately the sources of supply. This would have to be done by enlarging the area of potato and beet growing, to meet the necessities of which rural labour would undergo a material change for the betterment of the agricultm-al industry. Potatoes and beet would be grown for the industrial purpose of supplying alcohol as a fuel, and the question of ' back to the land ' would thus, to a considerable degree at any rate, automatically solve itself." The comparative fuel values of gasolene and alcohol, especially from the point of view of the motor industry, have, according to 'the Pharmaceutical Journal, been the subject of an inquiry by the American Bureau of Mines. Some two thousand tests were made to ascertain the comparative value of heavy fuel oils and alcohol for in- ternal-combustion engines. The heating value of one cubic foot of an explosive mixture of alcohol and air, having theoretically just sufficient air for complete com- bustion, is approximately equal to that of a similar explosive mixture of gasolene vapour and air, but the 136 THE BANANA alcohol mixtures can be compressed to much higher pressures without pre-igniting than the gasolene mixtures. For 10 h.p. to 15 h.p. engines of the usual type, a pressiu-e of about 180 lbs. above atmospheric pressure was found to be the maximum for alcohol, whereas only 70 lbs. could be obtained with gasolene. Although a different type, the alcohol engine can be constructed equal to the gasolene engine in adaptability to service. A gasolene engine having a compression pressure of 70 lbs., but otherwise as well suited to the economical use of alcohol as gasolene, will, when using alcohol, have an available horse-power about 10 per cent, greater than when using gasolene. CHAPTER XVIII DRYING BANANAS FOR FLOUR AND FIGS The manufacture of flour and figs from bananas is an industry which is abeady becoming important in Jamaica, and is carried on to some extent in several other banana- producing coimtries. It is necessary therefore for each individual manufacturer to consider the principles and the various methods of drying which have been in use for other fruits and for different materials, in order to decide on that system which is most appropriate for his own use. Drying in Sun. — ^The object of drying any material is to prevent deterioration by fungous growth, which can only do its destructive work in the presence of moisture. The simplest and most natural form of drying fruit, cocoa, coffee, &c., is that made use of in all parts of the world, namely, to expose them to the action of the sun and air- In cloudy weather and at night the material is put under cover to prevent a deposit of moisture by dew or rain. Small lots can be carried to cover, but where large amounts are dealt with, this is not convenient. Cocoa in bulk is often dried on wooden platforms, arranged one above the other on rails, so that they can be run out from under a roof, free from one another, and easily put back when necessary. Coffee and pimento are also dried occasionally in this way, but more often on large cement platforms, on which the berries are spread in thin layers, and from which they can be pushed by a rake-like wooden tool into air-tight huts at the sides of the platform. Fruit is often dried on a small scale in boxes or frames covered with glass, raised on posts above the ground, and provided with 137 138 THE BANANA hinged ventilators on the sides near the bottom «nd top, which can be opened at the bottom on the side from which the wind is blowing, and at the top on the opposite side ; so that the moist air above the fruit may be carried off, and the whole structm-e shut up tight in case of rain and at night. This method has also been successfully applied to the drying of coffee, as an aid to the ordinary method, by B. S. Gosset in Jamaica, but the glass structiu-e is of large dimensions — ^a modification of the horticultural hot- house. Artificial Driers. — ^Exposure to sun and air is most effectual, but frequently the sun is obscured by clouds for days or weeks at a time, and the wind may be already laden with moisture. The imcertainty of the weather has led to various methods of artificial drying by which the conditions can be kept under control. The easiest plan on a small scale is to apply heat from a stove or from waste steam. A high temperatiire may, however, be injurious to fiavom-, and a fermentation change may cause some deterioration. This has led to the adoption of the vacuum driers, where a moderate heat is sufficient, or to a system of drying by air deprived of moisture,* but not heated. Drying Closets or Booms. — K a high temperature is not injurious, a closet or room of any convenient dimensions may be used, and the stove placed either inside or outside. Ventilators are provided as in the glass receptacles. The higher the temperature, the greater is the amount of water which the air can take up, but the saturated air must be carried off by some means, or the material will simply be steamed, and the moisture re-deposited when the air cools. Full and free ventilation is of the utmost consequence. If a stove is used, the situation of the furnace some feet below the room may create a sufficiently strong ciurrent of warm air through the inlet pipe to enable it to pass out by a simple outlet, but this is only in case there are no sur- roundings and no down-blow of external air. If there is a chimney in the room, it may induce a natural draught, or * See Spon's " Workshop Reoeipte," iii, 455 (1909), DRYING BANANAS 139 the air may be extracted by a fan. In order to secure that the hot air penetrates in all directions, both inlet and outlet should start at the bottom of the room. The inlet pipe should come in as near the centre of the floor as possible. The outlet pipes, of which there may be two or more, should start near the floor at the greatest distance from the inlet, and conduct the wet air to one junction outlet pipe at the ceiling. This jimction pipe should be provided with a valve at its base, which may be opened to start the draught, and then kept closed. If steam is employed for heating, it is conducted by pipes near the floor on each side of the room. The inlet openings are arranged along the pipes, and the pipes are encased in partly grated casings so that the incoming air may be brought into close contact with the hot pipes. In this case the outlet pipes may have their openings above the shelves on which the material to be dried is placed. Spon * states that " the minimum size of fresh-air duct and outlet shaft should be one square foot area for every 500 c. ft. of space in the room (when empty), this being a room, say, 8 ft. each way ; and the outlet shaft should be at least twice as high as the room, say 16 ft. or higher. With a higher shaft a smaller area would suffice. These sizes are for drying rooms for a laimdry ; for substances of a drier natiu'e, smaller ducts and shafts, with a corresponding decrease in the air supply, may be used." BlachmarCs Fans. — ^The illustrations on p. 140 show a building suitable for use with Blackman's fans and hot air. The building is made of galvanized sheet steel ; one measuring 40 ft. by 20 ft. by 12| ft. will give a drying surface of 5000 square feet. The shelves can be drawn out on runners from one or both sides of the building, so that the bananas can be sun-dried when the weather conditions are favourable. In this type of drier the air is blown through the heaters ' into the drying chamber by two fans, and then over and under the trays on which the produce is spread. To * " Workshop Receipts," i, 492 (1909). 140 THE BANANA obtain the maximum drying effect, the air can be further circulated by means of a large fan placed near the roof of the building. The temperature of the incoming air can be regulated a Haater. using Coke or oth«r Tuel b. Blackman Fan. for cire ulatin.^ A ir. wilh driving pulley outiid* c.Pivoted Flap, controlling ousnttty of Air admitted or dischar^ad. d.Hinged Access Door% e.Trayft on which Produce IS spread Fig. 10. Plan and Elevation op Dbying House, with SHBLvma FOR USE WITH BlACKMAN'S FaNS AND HOT AlR by means of the valve provided under the heaters, whereby a certain amount of cold air can be mixed with, and so temper, the hot air entering the room, depending on the amount of opening. Further control is obtained by a second opening provided in the end of the rooms opposite to the fans. DRYING BANANAS 141 The amount of warm circulating air can be varied within wide limits, and the direction of the air current can be reversed if required. The trays are interchange- able, so that the material may be moved from one part of the drier to another if desired, or taken elsewhere for the bananas to " cool off " after drying, to prevent it forming mould. Such an installation can easily be erected and looked after by an intelligent person. The building costs £270. The Wolff system is worked either by live or exhaust steam for drying tropical produce — ^bananas, copra, cocoa, rubber, maize, coffee, ground nuts, &c.-^from two tons per day and upwards. By this system the material to be dried is carried in trays on skeleton trucks running on light steel rails through a long, low, cheaply built shed, in which the air is heated by steam pipes on the ground level. The condensed steam is automatically returned to the boiler. The temperature is lowest at the end where the trucks make their entrance through large doors. The process is thus continuous, beginning with a comparatively low temperature, which gradually increases as the line of trucks is moved forward, and as the front truck containing the fully dried material leaves the building, another is joined to the train at the cool end. The temperature is never so high as is necessary when the air has to be introduced so heated that it will be able to traverse the drying house without becoming too cool to be serviceable at a distance from its soiu-ce. It can be very easily controlled, so that it need never exceed that which is best suited to the material in hand. When the quantity to be dealt with is less than the full capacity of the drier, it is best to reduce the firing and give more time. There is no complicated machinery to require the attendance of an engineer. A simple boiler and fixed steam pipes, with no moving parts, can be looked after by an intelligent labourer. , The trucks have roller bearings, so that a whole train 142 THE BANANA of fourteen trucks can be easily moved by hand when necessary to advance them in order to take out a truck of fully dried material at one end and introduce at the other end one of fresh produce. Each truck has 144 square feet of carrying surface, and will contain from 5 to 10 cwt. of produce. The drier,' fully charged, would therefore accommodate from 18 to 36 tons. Taking a safe average of 20 tons, the plant would treat 10 tons of wet produce per day, allowing two full days for the passage of each car through the building. This would require a comparatively very low temperature — a great advantage when it is necessary to avoid as far as possible all risk of loss of flavour or essential oils. Any increase in temperature would, of course, increase the output by shortening the time occupied in drying. The building illustrated on p. 143 is 19 ft. wide and 6 ft. 6 in. high, to take five rows of trucks ; and if made 100 ft. long, to take fourteen trucks in each row, it would be large enough to turn out, easily, five tons of copra per day, and bananas, cacao, rubber, &c., in proportion. The whole plant is supplied complete by the Wirewove' Roofing Company, 108 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.G., including a foreman to supervise and assist the installation. Seventy trucks, containing 2500 trays, together with the steam pipes, weigh 30 tons, and the cost is £800. If a boiler is required, a sectional boiler is recommended— Handley's water tube boiler, which can be conveniently carried in sections ; it weighs in all 6 tons, and costs £250. An ordinary boiler would cost only £100, but it would probably weigh 20 tons, and is therefore inconvenient for handling. A man is sent out to put the plant in working order ; his expenses for the voyage and 165. per day would be charged to the purchaser. The present position of the banana-drying industry would not justify a large capital expenditure, but if it were possible to combine it with the drying of copra on a large scale, this system may well be adopted as being practical. 144 THE BANANA American Evaporators.—" Evaporators " are very largely used in America for drying apples, peaches, grapes, sweet corn, potatoes and other vegetables. There is a firebox below, and above are movable shelves. A stream of hot air passes through the shelves and out into a flue ; the smoke from the fire is conducted through the flue, and helps the draught . Spon * speaks of one kind of e vaporatdir as " a chamber running from the top of a large furnace in the basement upward, out through the roof of a three- story building. The current of heated air is kept as near as possible to 240° F. (116° C). The sliced apples are spread on galvanized screens and placed in the evaporator. The screens rest on endless chains that move upwards at intervals of three to five minutes, when a fresh screen is put in below, and one is taken ofl at the third story com- pleted. . . . The process of evaporation is so rapid that the fruit loses none of its freshness and flavour. ... In properly evaporated fruit there is no loss of pleasant or valuable properties, but an actual increase of fruit sugar, from the fact that evaporation is essentially a ripening process." Cocoa and Coffee Driers. — ^There are machines on the market for drying cocoa, coHee, &c., which might be adapted for drying bananas for the purpose of making banana chips for conversion into flour. In the ordinary machine the bananas become conglomerated into large masses, and the machinery would require some internal arrangement of paddles to prevent this accumulation. Vacuum Driers. — ^The Philippine Agricultural Review says : " The trouble in the past has been that bananas and plantains do not keep well unless dried by special processes and do not endure long storage without losing some of their flavour at least, if not some of their nutritious value. The advent of the new vacuum driers changes the entire commercial aspect of the banana-products industry, and we shall soon see a great variety of food products made from the 200 or more banana varieties. There is enough • Tom. cit. 503. DRYING BANANAS 145 waste ground adapted to banana culture in the Philippines to-day to supply a large portion of the food of 25,000,000 people, if the new methods of handling that wonderful crop were put into operation." The system of drying in a vacuum deserves consideration. Exhaust steam of low pressure is usually employed as the medium for conveying heat to the vacuum apparatus. The total heat contained in 1 lb, of steam at 212° F. is about 5 1 times more than that contained in 1 lb. of water at the same temperature, and it is owing to this large amount of latent heat in steam that makes it so suitable for conveying the heat to drying apparatus. After the material has been placed in the vacuum-drying apparatus, the air is removed by a pump, until a vacuum of about 28 in., or more, is maintained. When the moisture in the material has been warmed up to only about 100° F., the boiling-point is reached, and the moisture is quickly evaporated. The greater the heat, the quicker is the evaporation ; but the temperature of the moisture, and that of the material being dried, is not increased, so long as the vacuum is maintained and some moisture remains. By observation glasses and other means it is known when all the moisture has been evaporated, and the material is then removed from the drying apparatus. Comparing vacuum and air drying apparatus, the saving of heat is considerable in the vacuum apparatus. In the case of the vacuum-drying apparatus, the wet material and its moisture absorb the whole of the heat' supplied. The only additional heat required is that lost by radiation and the warming up of the material and moisture to the boiling evaporating temperature. Owing to the short time required for drying under vacuum, these driers are much smaller than air driers working under atmospheric pressure, and therefore the surfaces exposed to cooling are much less, and the loss by radiation is comparatively small. Emil Passburg, of Berlin, was the manufactm-er of the first vacuum drier for banana* used in Jamaica, as long 146 THE BANANA ago as 1898. It wds introduced by Mr. O. Zurcher, the manager at Montpelier for the proprietor, Hon. Evelyn Ellis. It was of the revolving drum type, and was said to turii out five tons of dried banana flour every week for some time. An improved model is now recommended, and may be taken as a type of what is required under this system. It consists of a rectangular cast-iron vacuum chamber with surface condenser and steam-driven vacuum pump. The vacuimi-drying chamber is designed to remove the water rapidly and at a low temperature. The chamber is iron, closed hermetically by a door. It contains a number of closed heating shelves, arranged one above the other, in which small pipes are fitted for the admission and exit of the heating steam. The shelves are as a rule made strong enough for a test pressure of 90 lbs. On these are placed trays containing the material to be dried. After the door of the drier, which is fitted with an india-rubber joint, has been closed, a high vacuum of at least 28 in, of mercury or more is created by means of the air-pump, while exhaust steam passes through the heating shelves; At a very moderate temperature of the material that is to be dried — about 95° F. (85° C.) — ^the water, owing to the vacuum, begins to evaporate briskly out of the substances, which therefore dry rapidly. The charging of the chamber is simple and easy, and the working clean and reliable. The temperature can be regulated by valves in the steam pipes; The drying, of course, is independent of climatic conditions^ By using hot water for heating with an air-pump giving a high vacuum, the evaporation of the water contained in the materials that are to be dried takes place at as low a temperature as 63° F. (17° C). The driers work with a very small consumptical of steam. As a rule, only 13 to 15 lbs. of heating steam are required to evaporate 10 lbs. of water out of the previously heated substance that is to be dried. This includes the motive power for the air-pump, where the exhaust steam from the air-pump engine is used for heating purposes; .>:¥l#3W5::5::j;/*^f--"^- :: a 1 r O -:-■ ;^^n ^ mjmwwm — awf -'- --4|I^^^H| ' \ f'/f ^-^ ( i r 'iPSMBte^ mm^^^>^^,^^^^jmm,: .1 \ ( ' fljI^H^IHV"' \ im'^^iK ^H^^^^^^l ^^^^^^^^^K ^ ^r,ii ^=»r KS^H / M-fV^ M b © © ^ O © eo «o 00 CO (N (N (N CO CO CO CO trt CO cri <:ri cri =*» «rt trt Cfl Crt Cfl 1 If •g 1 CO 1 s i'ii 55 raco •t A •> iS lO I-H "tS ^ •" ^ o O ° m ° s s s 1 85 1 .. » »t . K - o O ^ 5 ^ ^ « T3 "§ WOT} hether Pro Exported Consume "B s s ; J »• 1 & A at e= ^ l«i 5 U a ■i jd J^ § _y 1 ■M ^ £ It 1 U h 1 s Ph 3 OS P4 s . P< ^ s a * § s - g *^ s 5 ** ft ->i 3 Ho> ■*^ © t-3 r-^ eo o (N (N -H i J3 - • . - '0 ■ a . . . • ■ ■s • S 1 'S O 1 -§ i 1 1 s ^ & s 02 fe 3 WEST INDIES AND BERMUDA 256 Banaka Figs Expobted Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1911 Jan. 1 to Sept. SO, 1912 £ s. d. Pkgs. '£ s. d. United Kingdom . . 330 444 5 6 fo 5 o U.S.A _ — 51 28 9 Canada .... 2 80 1 76 Germany . . . 1055 729 6 9 3293 2661 13 Prance . . . . _ _ lo 18 Holland . . . .27 31 5 408 316 3 3 Belgium .... 40 20 66 55 PeESEBVBS — ^NON-BNUMBEATHD Pkgs. £ 8. d. Pkgg. £ s, d. United Kingdom . . 387 400 16 6 115 178 16 U.S.A 41 109 4 5 15 27 15 5 Canada ....28 4440 7 910 Germany . . . 1463 1292 15 10 629 624 18 6 Varieties and Species under Cultivation. — ^The following is an alphabetical list of bananas that were growing in Hope Gardens in the year 1908 : Almeido pisang, apple, Champa, Chinese or Canary, cinerea (Saharanpur), discolor, guindy (Ootocamund), Jamaican, kudjo hudaiig pisang (Java), lady's finger, ditto from Panshanger, maas pisang (Java), martabanica, oleracea, palembang pisang, radji pisang, raja siem, ram kela (red or rubra), sereh pisang, susu pisang (Java), vittata, unnamed variety from the Congo from Mr. Patin, with dark red leaves. Bermuda. — ^The Superintendent of the Public Garden wrote in his Report for 1905 as follows : " The Canary Islands banana thrives exceedingly in Bermuda, probably better than in any other part of the world, including that part of China which is its native habitat. Its doing so well here is another instance of the peculiar effect of our unique climate upon certain plants. There are in Bermuda probably not more than thirty acres under bananas, planted and cultivated in a style that did very well when there was plenty of land and some to waste, but which would have to be replaced by more up-to-date methods if the banana became an article of export. Planted ten feet by eight apart and given even less care than is bestowed upon potatoes, an acre of bananas could be made to yield in Bermuda quite 2000 bunches per annum." CHAPTER XXXII HORTICULTURAL AND BOTANICAL NOTES : CULTIVATION OF SPECIES OF MUSA Species of Musa are cultivated in cool climates wherever there are large glass hothouses suitable for their growth. The Abyssinian banana {Musa Ensete), and also Musa basjoo, will succeed even in cool houses ; they form noble objects in the Temperate House at Kew. Tropical kinds require great heat all the year through. The Palm House at Kew contains a large collection of esteemed kinds, whence they are distributed from time to time to tropical institutions in the Colonies. Chats worth has the distinction ofjbeing the origin of all the " Chinese " bananas now growing in Fiji and Polynesia ; the scientific name of this species {M. Cavendishii) is therefore quite appropriate. Sion House and Panshanger Gardens are also well known for successful cultivation of these interesting plants. Mr. W. Watson, Curator of Kew Gardens,* gives the following account of the treatment of bananas at Kew : " A selection of edible-fruited Musas is cultivated in the Palm House at Kew, in addition to the collection of about twenty species represented in the various houses. With scarcely an exception they are all easy to cultivate ; they like rich soil, a fair allowance of root-room, plenty of sunlight, and liberal supplies of water. The deciduous species, represented by M. swperha, are kept quite dry during winter. Af . Cavendishii does not fruit as well in the Palm House as it does at Sion House and in other gardens, but all the forms of M. sapientum fruit well at * Bull. Misc. Inf., R. Gard., Km, 1894, 280. 256 CULTIVATION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 257 Kew. They are planted either in large tubs or in a border on the south-east side of the house in a compost of rich loam and cow manure. Suckers about 6 ft. high, when planted singly, fruit in from two to three years. The bunches are cut as soon as thfe fruit shows signs of changing from green to yellow, and hung in a warm room to ripen. This they do in about a fortnight after cutting. Fruit ripened on the plants is not nearly so rich in flavour as when it is cut and ripened in a room ; it also ripens much more slowly if left on the plants. As soon as a bunch is cut, the stem which bore it is cut off level with the ground, and a sucker, of which there are generally several in various stages of growth, is selected to take its place. Travellers who have tasted some of the best of the Kew-grown bananas say that they are superior in fliavoiu" to what are obtainable in the tropics." The late Mr. G. Nicholson, when Curator of Kew Gardens, wrote as follows * on the cultivation of Musas in hothouses : " Musas are handsome foliage plants, available for culture in large pots or tubs when required to be movable, or they may be permanently planted in houses which afford sufficient heat and space for their development. Some of the hardier species, under the first-named treat- ment, may be utilized for sub-tropical gardening outside in summer. M. Ensete and M. superba are two of the best and hardiest for the purpose. A sheltered position is necessary, the leaves being so soon torn by rough wind. M. coccinea, a dwarf -growing slender species with a brightly coloured inflorescence, may be grown well in 10 in. pots for winter decoration of tropical houses .^^usas require a strong loamy soil, with plenty of manure added, and almost any amoimt of heat and moisture may be given in summer. In winter a resting season should be allowed, water being almost, or in some cases entirely, withheld. Propagation may be effected by seeds, sown in heat, draing spring ; and most of the species produce suckers, which * " Dictionary of Gardening." R 258 THE BANANA also afford a ready method of increase. The plants are sometimes cultivated for their fruits, but not extensively, on account of the great space and the amount of heat required. M. Cavendiskii is the most compact-growing species for this purpose, and the one which is perhaps the most certain to succeed. Strong suckers must be obtained to start with, and grown on in pots imtil established. They should then be planted in a prepared bed of very rich soil, and encouraged to grow vigorously by maintaining a high temperature and humid atmosphere. The time taken in growing plants to fruiting size varies considerably according to the treatment given in cultivation." A writer in Gardeners^ Chronicle gives his experience as follows : " There are few plants of so noble an appearance as the Musa, the massive leaves being almost unequalled for size in the vegetable kingdom. A stately plant of banana has few rivals for effect in the sub-tropical garden, and specimens are cultivated in many gardens in temperate climates for associating with palms and other fine-leaved exotics in the ornamental grounds in summer-time. Banana fruits are now imported in such great numbers that they form one of the most popular of fruits, not excepting the apple or the orange. But few have enjoyed the exquisite flavour and soft melting flesh of a hothouse- grown specimen, as it is only occasionally that bananas are grown for their fruits which can be had in perfection at any season of the year. A home-grown banana is a useful addition to the rather limited number of dessert fruits obtainable during the early months of the year, and is to be preferred to a second-rate peach, nectarine, or pear. When grown under suitable conditions and properly matm-ed on the plant, they are far superior to the imported fruits. The Chinese banana, Musa Cavendiskii, is the best for fruiting purposes. A glasshouse with an internal height of about 12 ft. will accommodate the tallest plants of this species. The temperature of the house in winter should be maintained at 60° to 70°, and in summer-time from CULTIVATION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 259 T0° to 80°. The plants can be either grown in large tubs or in borders. The soil should consist of a good strong loam with sufficient sand to keep it porous, and some coarse bonemeal well mixed together. Plants grown in tubs require an abimdance of water and food as the banana is a gross feeder. They need some kind of artificial manure about every ten days, as soon as they become root-bound. Water must be given in abimdance at all stages of their growth, otherwise the bunches of fruit will be stunted and not set well. It usually takes from thirteen to fifteen months from the rooted suckers before the inflorescence begins to push from the centre of the plant. When the bunches of fruit, which frequently weigh from 50 lbs. to 70 lbs., are forming, they will require supporting by cord attached to the rafters, and another five months are required to develop the fruits, making in all from eighteen to twenty months before they are perfected. During the last month it is advisable to limit the amount of manure and water. As soon as the fruits turn yellow they should be removed from the plant, otherwise the skins crack and spoil the appearance. One large house would produce fruits at all seasons, provided successional plants were grown. A slight shading during the hottest weather is better than excessive ventilation. The syringe must be used frequently to keep red spider in check, but too much water must not be allowed to reach the heart of the plants, or the fruits will be liable to rot. Thrips sometimes attack the plants and spoil the appearance of the fruits ; because of this an occasional fumigation of the house is necessary." CHAPTER XXXIII PLANTS ALLIED TO THE BANANA The nearest genera to Musa are Ravenala, Strelitzia, and Heliconia. The plants belonging to these three genera are not of the same vast importance as the banana and plantain, but they are remarkable for their noble form and foliage, and are of value therefore from a horticxiltural point of view. Ravenala madagascariensis is the Traveller's Tree of Madagascar, probably so called on account of the water stored up in the long hollow leaf-stalks. The leaves are of somewhat the same shape as those of the banana, but larger, and are arranged in one plane, like a gigantic fan at the top of the stem ; they are used for thatching in their native country. The seeds are edible, and the blue ptilpy aril which surrounds them yields an essential oil. The only other species, B. guianensis, a native of Guiana, is not so well known. Both species are well worth cultivation. The species of Strelitzia are natives of South Africa ; they are large perennial herbaceous plants, most of them with curious and gorgeous flowers, called " bird of paradise flowers." " The flowers remind one of those of the iris family, and consist of six segments, the three outer usually of a brilliant orange coloiu" (white in S. augusta), while the three inner are unequal, the two lower ones united, forming an arrow-headlike hood, of a rich purple colour, and con- cealing in a slit or fold the five perfect stamens and an imperfect one. These fme flowering and foliage plants are much hardier than is generally supposed, and well deserve more general culture. Numerous beautiful seminal varie- 260 PLANTS ALLIED TO THE BANANA 261 ties, which, if not actually true hybrids, are of equal practical importance, have been raised in Belgian gardens."* S. augusta is a noble plant, 10 ft. high, with white calyx and petals. S.farinosa is 4 ft. high with purple and yellow flowers. S. nicolai is a superb plant, growing to a height of 25 ft., with whitish calyx and blue petals ; the spathes green and purplish, growing to as long as 1| ft. It is considered by some to be only a variety of S. augusta. S. reginee is the most magnificent species of the genus, although it is only 5 ft. high. The flowers are orange and purple, large, and produced in great abundance. S. parvifolia juncea is 4 ft. high, with purple and yellow flowers, but the blade of the leaf is wanting, or is reduced to narrow margins ; the leaf-stalks resemble the stems of large rushes. Heliconia is nearly allied to Musa, and H. bihai is recog- nized as a " wild plantain " by the natives of the West Indies and South America, where it grows wild. This species is a grand and striking foliage plant, well worth cultivating, and it is known now throughout the tropics. It is cultivated in the open in South Florida and along the Gulf of Mexico ; and even when killed by frost, it readily springs again from its strong root-stock. Being often 15 ft. high, it requires a large house when cultivated in hot- houses in temperate climates. The flower-sheaths are very large, scarlet-coloured ; the flowers are red or orange. The form aureo-striata is very handsome ; the leaves are beautifully striped along the midrib and veins with yellow, the stems are also striped with yellow. Another form, illustris, is like the last, but the midrib and veins are marked with pink. The form ruhricaulis has more red, the leaf -stalk being bright vermilion. The genus differs from Musa chiefly in the arrangement of the flowers, and in the dry, three-celled, three-seeded fruit. By studying flowers belonging to these genera, especially * " Cultivated Plants." By F. W. Burbidge. 1877. 262 THE BANANA Bavenala and Heliconia, the structure of the flowers in Musa is more easily understood. In Ravenala (Traveller's Tree) the sepals and petals are free from one another, and somewhat similar, except that one petal is shorter than the other two. In Heliconia (Wild Plantain) two of the sepals are more or less adherent to the two imited petals, just as occurs to a much greater degree in Musa. The flowers in the three related genera are simpler and are hermaphrodite, whereas in Musa they are functionally unisexual. In Ravenala there are three free subequal sepals ; three petals, of which the two lateral are similar to the sepals but a little shorter, and the third, the median, is slightly shorter than the lateral ; five stamens ; a three- celled ovary ; stigma six-toothed ; capsule loculicidally three-valved, with numerous seeds in each cell. In Strelitzia there are three free sepals ; three petals, of which the median is very short and free, the two lateral are long, with the adjacent edges cohering, surrounding the stamens and pistil ; five stamens ; ovary three-celled ; stigma with three linear branches ; capsule loculicidally three- valved, with a few seeds in each cell. In Heliconia the three sepals are free from just above the base, sometimes the lateral are more or less adnate to the corolla ; the corolla is composed of one long composite portion, similar to the sepals but with two or three lobes at apex, and of another odd petal, relatively very short ; stamens five perfect, with a staminode more or less petaloid ; ovary three-celled with one ovule in each cell ; stigma toothed. Fruit indehiscent three-celled, or sometimes with one or two cells only. Seeds solitary in the cells. CHAPTER XXXIV SHORT DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA It may be useful to some cultivators to have a handy list of all the known species of Musa, with short descriptions and indications of their value. These may possibly be sulficient to enable them to identify any unnamed kind. Reference may be made for fuller information to Baker's paper in " Annals of Botany," vii. 205 (1893), to the Kew Bulletin for 1894, and to Schumann in Engler's Pflanzenreich iv. (1900). All new species, not included in the above, have a reference to the original descriptions appended to the »ame. The terms made use of in the descriptions are those used in the explanation of the flowering system of the banana in Chapter I. Subdivisions of the genus Musa I. Subgenus Eumusa. Trunk cylindrical. Flowers many to a bract. Free petal ovate-acuminate. Bracts green, brown, or dull violet. Fruit usually edible. II. Subgenus Rhodochlamys. Trunk cylindrical. Flowers few to a bract. Free petal linear. Bracts bright-coloured, often red. Fruit usually not edible. III. Subgenus Physocaulis. Trunk bottle - shaped. Flowers many to a bract. Free petal usually tricuspidate. Fruit not edible. I. Species of subgenus Eumusa : 1 to 27 1. M. sapientum L. Trunk to 20 or 25 ft. high, sucker- ing. Leaves oblong, green, 5-8 ft. long, lf-2 ft. broad, 262 264 THE BANANA usually rounded at the base. Inflorescence drooping, often 4-5 ft. long, Male flowers deciduous. Bracts dull violet, more or less glaucous outside, the lower 1-1 1 ft. long, the upper ^ ft. ; often red inside, several expanded at once, the edges of the upper not involute. Free petal nearly half as long as perianth. Fruit somewhat three-angled, 3-8 in. long, yellow, eaten uncooked or cooked. " Banana." Subspecies M. paradisiaca L. Male flowers and bracts less deciduous. Fruit cylindrical, |-1 ft. long, with firmer and less sacchatine pulp, eaten cooked. " Plantain." , Subspecies M. seminifera Lour. Fruits small, oblong, full of seeds, not edible, yellowish or greenish. This apparently represents the wild seed-bearing form ; it extends in a wild state from Behar and the eastern Himalayas to the Malay and Philippine Islands. Subspecies M. troglodytarum L. Inflorescence erect in lower half and drooping in upper half. Fruits small, crowded on the lower erect portion, oblong-round, reddish yellow, containing rudimentary seeds ; flesh sweet, yellow. Wild in India, Ceylon, and the Malay islands ; the favourite food of elephants. 2. M. acuminata CoUa. Leaves 5^6 ft. long, glaucous beneath, triangular at the base. Inflorescence drooping. Male flowers deciduous. Bracts violet, only one of those of the female flowers opened at once and revolute, those of the male clusters involute at the edge. Free petal nearly as long as the perianth. Fruits in four to six clusters of 10-12 each, oblong, beaked, 2-4 in. long, 1-1 i in. in diameter ; skin not easily peeled off, flesh sweet. Seeds dull black, angled by pressure, J in. in diameter. Common in Java and the other Malay islands, extending eastward to New Guinea. Kurz says that a large proportion of the bananas which are cultivated in the Malay Archipelago are derived from it, and that its best varieties are superior to all those derived from M. sapientum in quality and delicacy. The typical M. acuminata is wild, and has fruits full of seed. From DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 265 this several seedless cultivated varieties are immediately derived, differing in the colour of the leaves and fruit. They all have the leaves glaucous beneath, and in one form the waxy bloom is so copious that torches are made from it. The cultivated variety is much larger in all its parts, with much larger flowers and longer cylindrical or angled yellow or greenish seedless fruits. Of this there are forty-eight distinguishable varieties, of which the most curious is the duck plantain, the fruit of which has a beak nearly as long as its body. 3. M. corniculata Lour. Trunk 10-12 ft. long. Leaves 5-6 ft. long. Inflorescence drooping ; only the lower two or three bracts and flower-clusters are developed. Free petal nearly as long as the deeply toothed perianth. Fruit cylindrical, a foot or more long, 1|-2| in. in diameter, golden yellow ; skin thick ; pulp reddish white, firm, dry, sweet, very palatable when cooked. Malay islands and Cochin China. The fruit has been compared to a cucumber as regards shape and size. The Lubang variety produces only a single fruit, large enough for a full meal for three men. 4. M. Cavendishii Paxt. Whole plant 4-6 ft. high. Trunk 2-3 ft. long, suckering. Leaves 6-8 very close together, spreading, 2-3 ft. long, much rounded at the base, rather glaucous ; stalk short, deeply channelled. Inflorescence dense, short, drooping. Bracts red-brown or dark ; male flowers and their bracts persistent. Perianth yellowish white, an inch long, with five obtuse lobes ; free petal about half as long Fruits as many as 200 to 250 in the bunch, oblong, six-angled, slightly curved, 4-5 in. long, above 1 J in. in diameter ; seedless, edible, with a rather thick skin and delicate fragrant flesh. Southern China. 5. M. nana Lour. Trunk 5 ft. long. Leaves 3 ft. long. Inflorescence short, recurved. Flowers all fertile. Fruit ovate-oblong, seedless, edible. Cochin China. It may be only a form of M. Cavendishii. 6. M. lasiocarpa Franchet. Whole plant 1-2 ft. high. 266 THE BANANA Trunk wanting. Rhizome covered with successive frills of the lower persistent leaf-sheaths. Leaves about 1 ft. long. Inflorescence under 1 ft. long, erect, dense. Fruit hairy, oblong, three-angled. Seeds 4-6 in each cell. Rocks in mountains of Yunnan, China, 4000 ft. altitude. V Rock banana." 7. M. glauca Roxb. Trunk 10-12 ft. long, 6-8 in. in diameter, not suckering. Leaves 4-5 ft. long, pale and glaucous, shortly stalked. Inflorescence drooping from the base. Perianth about 1 in. long, with three loosely coherent, linear segments. Free petal small, three-cuspi- date. Fruit oblong, 4-5 in. long, 1| in. in diameter. Seeds smooth, globose, nearly black, J in. in diameter. Pegu. 8. M. Nagensium Prain {Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. Ixxiii. 2, p. 22, 1904). Trunk 20 ft. and more, suckering. Leaves 10 ft. long, glaucous beneath. Inflorescence drooping. Bracts oblong-lanceolate, lower 8-10 in. long, 4 in. broad, uppermost 6-7 in. long, nearly 3 in. broad, " Indian red " outside, bright shining orange inside, each enclosing 18-20 flowers in two rows. Perianth orange-coloured, 2J in. long, \ in. broad, four-lobed ; free petal ovate-lanceolate, over 1 in. long, acute. Fruit angled, 5-6 in. long, stalked, not recurved. Seeds nearly J in. long, \ in. broad. Naga Mountains, Assam. 9. M. Wilsonii Tutcher {Gard. Chron., 1902, pt. 2, 450). Plant 10-12 ft. high. Trunk conical, 5 ft. long to lowest leaves, 15-16 in. in diameter at base. Leaves, including stalk, 10-12 ft. long by'2-2§ ft. broad. Inflorescence drooping, 3 ft. long, 15 in. in diameter at base, 4-5 in. at apex. Bracts, all persistent, lower 1 ft. long, lanceolate, upper much shorter, ovate, at first green, becoming brown. Flowers 15-20 in two rows. Perianth nearly 2 in. long, three-lobed ; free petal short, three-cuspidate, with a large linear central cusp. Fruit with sweet pulp, 8j-4| in. long, nearly Ij in. broad at apex but narrowing much to base, yellow. Seeds about twenty, black, about J in. in diameter. " Elephant's Head." Yunnan, China. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 267 " Cultivated for the inner portion of the trunk, which is used as food." Near M. glauca. 10. M. discolor Horan. Trunk slender, 6-10 ft. long, suckering. Leaves narrow-oblong, smaller and firmer in texture than in the banana, glaucous, tinged with red or violet beneath when young. Inflorescence drooping ; bracts reddish, the upper only persisting ; male flowers deciduous. Fruit cylindrical, angled, rather curved, rather dry, reddish violet, very palatable, with a violet pulp with a rather musky scent. Wild in New Caledonia (native name Colabonte), yielding textile fibre, which is used for fish-baskets, &c. It is widely spread in cultivation. 11. M. Basjoo Baker. Trunk 6-9 ft. long, 6-8 in. in diameter, suckering. Leaves 6-9 ft. long, l|-2 ft. broad. Inflorescence 1-1^ ft. long. Perianth whitish, 2 in. long, free petal nearly as long. Fruit oblong, three-angled, 3 in. long. Liu Kiu Archipelago and cultivated in Southern Japan for its fibre. It is as hardy as M. Ensete. 12. M. Martini {Rev. Hort. Belg.). Has the habit of the banana with bright rose-red flowers. Leaves firm in texture, bright green above, glaucous beneath, with reddish veins. Said to be more hardy than M. Ensete. Brought from the Canary Islands. 18. M. textilis Nee. Plant attaining a height of 13-22 ft., suckering. Leaves smaller and fu-mer in texture than in the banana, with large brown spots, rather glaucous beneath. Inflorescence drooping, shorter than the leaves. Male flowers deciduous. Perianth five-lobed, about 1^ in. long, the outer lobes with a thread-like horn near apex, obscurely three-angled, curved, 2-3 in. long, 1 in. in diameter, not edible, but filled with seed. Seeds black, I in. in diameter. Variety M. amboinensis Miquel. Not so tall and inflorescence not so drooping. Fruit as long as a man's finger, black at maturity. Philippine Islands, where it is called " Abaca," and is used in the manufacture of Manila hemp. 14. M. Tikap Warb. Very near M. textilis, but with 268 THE BANANA a larger, straighter fruit, with greyish pulp and blackish- brown larger seeds. Caroline Islands. Origin of the native hemp. 15. M. Bakeri Hook f. Trunk 10 ft. high, 8-10 in. in diameter, suckering. Leaves 7 ft. long, 2 ft. broad. Inflorescence drooping. Bracts reddish brown and glaucous outside, bright crimson on inside. Male flowers 9-12 in a cluster in two rows. Perianth Ij in. long, five-toothed, teeth hooded at tip, two outer with an erect horn as long as the tooth ; free petal half as long, three-lobed, cuspidate at apex. Cochin China. 16. M. flava Ridley. Nearly allied to M. malaccensis, but the broad, thick, blunt, bright yellow bracts give it a totally different appearance, the spike being quite blunt at the top. Eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula. 17. M. tomentosa Warb. ex K. Schum. ; Stalk of the in- florescence covered with greyish-brown minute velvety hairs. Perianth 1| in. long ; free petal f in. long, broadly ovate, cuspidate-acuminate. Fruit about 5 in. long, beaked, somewhat angled, with a short thick stalk. Celebes. 18. M. celebica Warb. ex K. Schum. Like the pre- ceding, but fruit not beaked. 19. M. lanceolata Warb. ex K. Schum. Perianth nearly 1 J in. long, exterior lobes horned ; free petal nearly 1 in. long, apex obtuse or truncate or mucronulate. Bracts ovate-roundish. Native of Celebes. 20. M. PierreiHubert(LeBa«amer,p. 14, 1907). Trunk reddish. Inflorescence erect. Flowers mostly sterile. Fruits five, ovoid, in a single cluster. Habitat not stated. 21. M. Harmandii Hubert {Le Bananier, p. 14, 1907). Trunk short, reddish, sap violet. Inflorescence erect. Fruits perpendicular to the stalk. Habitat not stated. 22. M. Hillii F. Muell. Thirty feet high, not suckering. Leaves 12-15 ft. long, 2 ft. broad. Inflorescence erect* Fruits densely crowded, ovoid, not edible, much angled, 2-2| in. long, without a stalk. Seeds numerous. Queens- land. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 269 23. M. Fitsalani F. Muell. Trunk 20 ft, long. Leaves 10-12 ft. long, 2 ft. broad. Inflorescence drooping. Fruits oblong, angled, not pulpy, 2-3 in. long, with a stalk | in. long. Seeds numerous. Queensland. 24. M. Banhsii F. Muell. Trunk and leaf like those of the banana, suckering. Leaves 6-6 ft. long, l|-2 ft. broad. Inflorescence drooping. Fruits quite cylindrical when dry, without any angle, straight, with a stalk l|-2 in. long. Seeds grey, almost globular, \ in. in diameter. Queensland. This species yields a fibre of poor quality. 25. M. fehi Vieill. Trunk 15-20 ft. long, greenish, full of violet juice, suckering. Leaves larger and firmer in texture than in the banana and plantain, with stouter veins. Inflorescence long, erect. Perianth split at length nearly to the base. Fruits many in a bunch, oblong, angled, 5-6 in. long by above 1 in. in diameter, nearly straight, yellow when ripe, with a thick skin and moderately firm pulp, not very palatable when raw, but excellent when cooked. Seeds small, black. Common in the forests of Tahiti, where it is largely used for food ; seedless at low levels, but bearing seeds at an altitude of 3000-3600 ft. Native name " Fei." Also found in New Caledonia. 26. M. malaccensis Ridley. Trimk slender, 6 in. in diameter, with purple-brown blotches. Leaves about 8 ft. long, green with brown bars. Inflorescence drooping, clothed with brown hairs. Bracts lanceolate, brown, glaucous outside, striped with yellow on the inside. Fruit 4 in. long. Seeds black, angular. Malay Peninsula. Ridley is of the opinion that " this species may perhaps be the parent of some of the cultivated bananas in the Peninsula, but is very distinct from M. sapientum in the hairy rhachis, &c. An attempt has been made to utilize the fibre. The plant is very abimdant and springs up like a weed when old jungle is felled, and forms an impenetrable thicket." M. zebrina Flore des Serres (leaves with broad, irregular blotches of bronzy red and purple) is, according to Ridley, a young plant either of M. malaccensis or of M. sumatrana. 270 THE BANANA 27. M. hirta Becc. {Nelle Foreste di Borneo, 622). Inflorescence erect, densely hairy. Bracts of male flowers obovate-lanceolate, acuminate ; male flowers 8-10, in two rows under each bract ; perianth five-toothed at apex, the two lateral teeth apiculate ; free petal of same length as perianth ; fruit about [2 in. long, covered with bristly yellow hair ; seeds small, numerous, about J in. in diameter, irregularly globose. Sarawak, Borneo. II. Species of subgenus Rhodochlamys : 28 TO 44 28. M. maculata Jacq. Trunk slender, 7-8 ft. long. Leaves glaucous beneath, 2| ft. long, 6-8 in. broad. Inflorescence drooping from above the base ; male flowers deciduous ; spathes yellowish brown, the upper oblong, S-4 in. long ; flowers about four in a cluster. Perianth yellowish white, above 1 in. long ; free petal nearly as long. Fruit oblong, 2-3 in. long, 1 in. in diameter, yellow spotted with brown, edible, aromatic ; flesh white. Culti- vated in Mauritius and Bourbon, where it is called " Figue mignonne." Differs from other species of this section by its edible fruit. 29. M. rosacea Jacq. Trunk 3 to 5 ft. long, 3-4 in. in diameter, suckering. Leaves 3 ft. long, under 1 ft. broad, tinged with purple underneath ; stalk long and slender. Inflorescence drooping or erect, 1 ft. long when mature ; bracts pale blue or reddish lilac, the lower 6-8 in. long. Perianth yellow. Fruit 2-3 in. long, but little pulpy, scarcely edible. Seeds J in. in diameter, black, tubercled, rarely produced in the cultivated plant. Eastern Himalayas and hills of the Concan. 30. M. sumatrana Becc. Allied to the previous species. Whole plant 7-8 ft. long. Leaves 5-6 ft. long, 1 J ft. broad, glaucous, with irregular blotches of claret brown. Padang, Sumatra, 1100 ft. altitude. 81. M. microcarpa Becc. {Nelle Foreste di Borneo, 628). Plant smaller than the common banana. Inflorescence DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 271 drooping. Bracts of male flowers ovate-lanceolate, obtuse. Male flowers, about six, in two rows under each bract. Perianth five-lobed at apex, lobes lanceolate-Hnear, revo- lute, the two outer mucronate-appendiculate near apex ; free petal very much shorter. Fruit about 3 in. long. Seeds numerous, irregularly lens-shaped, about | in. in diameter. Sarawak. Related to the previous species. 82. M. salaccensis ZoUing. AUied to M. rosacea. Leaves green on both sides, 2 ft. long. Inflorescence drooping, 1 ft. long. Flowers greenish. Bracts pale lilac, upper 2-3 in. long. Fruit full of brown seeds, 3 in. long. Mountains of Java and Sumatra. 88. M. coccinea Andr. Trunk 4-5 ft. long, 2-3 in. in diameter, suckering. Leaves 2-3 ft. long. Inflorescence erect, about 1 ft. long. Bracts of a brilliant scarlet, tipped with yellow, the lower | ft. long. Flowers yellow, 1 in. or more long. Free petal nearly as long as perianth. Fruit oblong, three-angled, 2 in. long. Seeds very small, rarely produced in cultivation. Southern China and Cochin China. Yields a fibre of poor quality. This species is very ornamental. 34. M. rosea {Herb. Hort. Bot. Calcut). Habit of M. coccinea. Leaves 1 ft. long, J ft. broad. Bracts pale red, lower J ft. long. Free petal as long as the perianth. 35. M. rubra Wall. Habit of M. coccinea. Leaves 1 J-2 ft. long, 6-9 in. broad at middle. Bracts bright red, lower 1 ft. long. Free petal half as long as the perianth. Fruits dry, l§-2 in. long. Rangoon, Pegu. 36. M. angcorensis Gagnep. {BuU. Soc. bot. de France, liv. 412, 1907). Plant 4-5 ft. high. Leaves narrowed to both ends, 1^-2 ft. long. Inflorescence erect, stalk pubescent. Bracts pale red, each enclosing about three flowers. Perianth fourrtoothed, Ij in. long ; free petal oval, obtuse, one-fourth as long as perianth. Angcor, Cambodia, Indo- China. 87. M. sanguinea Hook. f. Trunk 3-5 ft. high. Leaves 2-8 ft. long. Inflorescence erect or, when mature, droop- ing. Bracts blood-red, lower ^ ft. long. Perianth bright 272 THE BANANA yellow, IJ in. long. Free petal nearly as long as the perianth. Fruit oblong, three-angled, 2 in. long, rather pulpy, pale yellow-green variegated with red. Seeds small, black, tubercled. Assam. 38. M. assamica {Hort. Bull.). This is an elegant dwarf plant, well suited for table decoration. Trunk about 1| ft. high. Leaves about 1 ft. long, crowded, running out into a slender tendril-like point, green with a narrow piu-ple border. Assam. Allied to M. sanguinea. 39. M. Mannii Wendl. Trunk 2 ft. long, 1 in. in diameter. Leaves few, spreading, 2-2| ft. long. In- florescence erect, | ft. long. Female flowers in three clusters of three flowers each, their bracts deciduous. Male bracts crowded, pale crimson, 3-4 in. long. Perianth pale yellow, 1 J in. long. Free petal much shorter. Assam. 40. M. aurantiaca Mann. Habit of M. sanguinea, but forming larger clumps of rather shorter stems. Bracts bright orange-yellow, lowest 1 ft. long. Fruit green, glabrous. Upper Assam. 41. M. velutina Wendl. and Drude. Habit of M. san- guinea, but differs from it and from M. aurantiaca by its velvety, bright red fruit. Inflorescence erect, with purple stalk. Flowers yellow, those below densely velvety. Assam. 42. M. violascens Ridley. Trunk slender, 8-10 ft. high. Inflorescence erect or almost erect. Bracts narrowly lanceolate, white tinged with purple-violet or wholly violet, 9 in. long. Flowers few, in single rows under each bract. Fruit green, 3 in. long by 2 in. wide. Seeds cylindrical. 43. M. campestris Becc. {Nelle Foreste di Borneo, 622). Leaves more erect than in banana, narrowing very much at base and running into the stalk. Inflorescence erect. Bracts of male flowers oval, acuminate. Male flowers about Ij in. long, perianth five-toothed, the two exterior lobes cuspidate ; free petal | as long as perianth, with rounded or emarginate apex. Fruit 3-3| in. long by 1 in. broad, 3-4 ribbed, with a short, thick beak. Seeds DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 273 numerous, about J in. long, brown, rough with tubercles. Sarawak. Related to M. violascens, 44. M. borneensis Becc. {Nelle Foreste di Borneo, 622). Very like the common banana in size and general ap- pearance. Inflorescence pendulous. Flowers 5-8 in one row. Male flowers about 3 in. long; perianth gradually narrowing to the three-lobed apex, lateral lobes slenderly cuspidate ; free petal | as long as perianth, shortly acute. Fruit about 6 in. long by. about Ij broad. Seeds obpiri- form, nearly J in. long, rough-tuberculate in the upper half. Sarawak. Belongs on account of single row of flowers to the section Bhodochlamys, but is not nearly related to any of the species. III. Species of subgenus Physocaulis : 45 to 66 45. M. Ensete Gmel. Whole plant 30-40 ft high. Trunk rises to a height of 13 to 20 ft., not suckering. Leaves bright green with a bright crimson midrib, 20 ft. long, 3 ft. broad. Inflorescence erect. Bracts 9-12 in. long, densely overlapping, ovate, dark claret brown. Flowers whitish, more than twenty in a cluster. Perianth 1^2 in. long, three-lobed; free petal short, three-lobed. Fruit dry, 2-3 in. long. Seeds 1-4, black, glossy, nearly 1 in. broad. Mountains of Abyssinia southward to hills south of Lake Victoria Nyanza. Native name " Ensete." It was discovered by the traveller Bruce, and is represented on ancient Egyptian sculptures. The flowering spike, before it has emerged, is much used as food by the Gallas and other tribes ; also the young heads. It is the most hardy of aU the cultivated species, growing freely in the open air in the Mediterranean region. This species is well adapted for sub-tropical co'untries, such as California, Florida, Algeria, and Canary Islands, and is often put out for the summer in the London parks. When established in sheltered situations, it is a very ornamental plant, having a noble and majestic habit. 46. M. Holstii K. Schum. {Engl. Jahrb., xxxjv. 121, s 274 THE BANANA 1905). Plant three or four times as high as a man. Leareg 16 ft. long by 8 ft., and more, broad. Inflorescence very large, drooping. Upper bracts covering the male flowers, long persistent. Male flowers, about J in. long, stalked ; perianth more or less deeply three-lobed, lobes linear, hooded at apex ; free petal with three or sometimes five lobes, the middle lobe oval-shaped, lateral toothed. Fruit pear-shaped, about 4 in. long by 2 in. broad. Seeds very large, about | in. broad. West Usambara. Near M. Ensete. 47. M. fecunda Stapf {Journ. Linn. Soc, xxxvii. p. 528, 1906). Trunk 2 ft. in diameter at base. Inflorescence drooping. Bracts lanceolate-oblong, subacuminate, about Ij ft. long and 5 in. broad. Flowers very numerous. Perianth linear-oblong, apex obtuse three-toothed, 2 in. long, with two awl-shaped strips on the inside, nearly 1 in. long ; free petal three-lobed, about | in. long, the median lobe awl-shaped, lateral lobes rounded. Fruits very numerous (418 counted in one bunch). Seeds, a little over J in. in diameter, flattened-globular. Uganda, 5000 ft. altitude. 48. M. Perrierii Claverie (Comptes Rendus Acad. Sc. Paris, cxl. p. 1612, 1905). Plant to 20 ft. high ; trunk 2\ ft. in diameter at base. Inflorescence drooping. Bracts oval, varying in colour — green, yellow, rose, violet. Flowers 18-20 under each bract. Free petal three-lobed, median lobe acute, lateral lobes rounded. Stamens five perfect and one abortive. Fruits very numerous (210 coimted on one bunch), 4 or 5 in. long and about 1 in. thick ; pulp yellowish, forming a thin layer. Seeds numerous, black, irregularly ovoid, ^ in. in diameter. 49. M. ulugurensis Warb. and Moritz (Tropenpflanzer, viii. p. 116, with figures, 1904). Plant over 20 ft. high. Trunk about 2 ft. in diameter at base. Leaves 16 ft. long. Inflorescence drooping. Female flowers (before opening) 6 in. long. Perianth (not yet open) 2 in. long, divided nearly to the base into three obtuse lobes with two linear strips on the inside alternating with the lobes and about as long ; DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 275 free petal about J in. long, with broad wings which form lateral lobes at the apex, the median lobe long cuspidate. Fruits 100-150, forming a spherical conglomeration, each fruit about 4 in. long, 2 in. thick. Seeds black, 10-20, about i in. long, J in. broad, embedded in the pulp. Male flowers and bracts deciduous. Uluguru, German East Africa. 50. M. nepalensis Wall. Trunk 5 or 6 ft. high, cone- shaped, 2 ft. in diameter at base. Like M. superba, but leaves narrower, somewhat glaucous, and without stalks, passing gradually into bracts. Inflorescence short, showy, clavate, drooping. Bracts large, ovate, many-flowered, dull purple. Flowers in two rows, 7-8 to a bract. Perianth yellowish white, three-cleft ; free petal obcordate with a large mucro shorter than the calyx. Fruit and seeds as in M. superba. 51. M. ventricosa Welw. Whole plant 8-10 ft. high. Trunk 4 ft. in diameter at base, not suckering. Leaves of thick texture, 4-5 ft. long, bright green with a pale red midrib. Inflorescence drooping. Perianth entire, not cuspidate. Free petal entire, J in. long. Seeds large, angular. Angola. 52. M. Buchananii Baker. Nearly allied to M. Ensete, but the bracts are linear-oblong, 1-lJ ft. long. Flowers ten in a cluster. Shire Highlands. 53. M. DavycB Stapf. (in Kew Bulletin, 1913, p. 108). Trunk 30-40 ft. high. Leaves 12-17 ft. long. Bracts oblong, about 1 ft. long and 5 in. broad. Flowers about 15 to each bract. Perianth about 1 in. long, linear, the two petals not united in the middle ; free petal less than half as long, three-lobed. Fruit 3-5 in. long, yellow; pulp scanty. Seeds few, greyish brown. Transvaal and Portuguese East Africa. Fruit not edible, but fibre used by the natives. 54. M. Livingstoniana Kirk. Trunk conical, twice the height of a man, 2-3 ft. in diameter at base. Leave* crowded, as long as the trunk. Fruit 4 in. long, many- seeded. Eastern tropical Africa from 12" to 19° south latitude, ascending to 7000 ft. altitude. 276 THE BANANA 55. M. proboscidea Oliver, Trunk 4-5 times as high as a man. Leaves very large. Inflorescence finally drooping, nearly as long as the trunk. Free petal very short, with two orbicular outer lobes and a large linear central cusp. Seeds J in. long and broad. Hills of Ukami, 100 miles inland from Zanzibar, German East Africa. 56. M. superba Roxb. Whole plant reaching a height of 10-12 ft. Trunk 7-8 ft. in circumference at the base, narrowed to 3 ft. below the leaves. Leaves 5 ft. long. Inflorescence at first globose, a foot in diameter, finally drooping, a third the length of the trunk ; bracts orbicular, dull claret-brown, attaining a foot in length and breadth Perianth 1 ia. long, whitish, formed of three loosely coher- ing segments. Free petal short, three-cuspidate, with a long linear, central cusp. Fruit 3 ia. long. Seeds very numerous, |-| in. in diameter, brown. Western Ghauts of the Bombay Peninsula. Yields a poor fibre. 57. M. Schweinfurthii K. Schum. and Warb. Trunk not very inflated at base. Leaves 7 to 8 ft. long, 15 in. broad. Inflorescence drooping. Bracts ovate-lanceolate, about 1 ft. long by 3j in. broad. Perianth to 2 in. long, entire, not cuspidate ; free petal entire. Seeds small, somewhat globular. Niam-Niam, Central Africa. 58. M. Chevalierii Gagnep. {Bull. Soc. bot. France, Iv. 87, 1908). Plant 13 ft. high. Trunk 1 J ft. at base, leafy throughout. Leaves 6 ft. long, 12-16 in. broad, stalk purplish at base, narrowed in middle, pruinose- glaucous outside. Inflorescence drooping, with very crowded fruit, remainder of stalk with male flowers. Bracts ovate-lanceolate, 16-5 in. long by 8-1 1 in. broad. Perianth 1 J in. long, three-toothed, teeth semi-orbicular ; free petal half as long, two-toothed, teeth obtuse. Fruit club-shaped, green with white dots and yellowish pulp. Seeds about thirty, black. Oubangi and Chari, tropical Africa. Near M. Schweinfurthii. 59. M. elephantorum K. Schum. and Warb. Trunk 24 ft. long, leafy from base upwards. Leaves 7-9 ft. long, DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 277 2j ft. broad. Inflorescence erect. Perianth entire, to 2 in. long ; free petal nearly | in. long, apiculate or cuspidate. Seeds small, somewhat globose. Cameroon. 60. M. Gilletii De Wild. (Bev. Cult. Colon., viii. 102, 1901). Plant 5-8 ft. high, not suckering. Leaves about 5 ft. long. Inflorescence drooping, short. Flowers five to six in each row. Free petal three-toothed, nearly J in. long. Fruit about 2 in. long. Seeds nine or ten, about I in. long. Congo Free State. Seeds used as a fetish. 61. M. religiosa Dybowski {Rev. hort., 1900). Forming a true bulb like M. GilletU, but differing in having roots from the whole surface of the bulb instead of from the top of the bulb only, as occurs in M. CHlletU. The seeds are of a grey colour, not black. After germination and growth for a few months all the leaves die down, and it is found that a bulb has been formed, which, after a period of rest, starts again into growth, whereas in M. Gilletii the leaves do not die down. The flowers have not been described. The fruit is full of seeds and is not edible. The plant is considered a fetish by the natives of the French Congo, where it is indigenous. 62. M. Homblei Bequaert ex De Wildeman (Les Bana- niers, 51, 1913). Plant 2^-3^ ft. high, not suckering, trunk more or less swollen at the base. Leaves at the middle of the trunk have, instead of a stalk, a sheath, about 8 in. long, which in its lower two-thirds is closely applied to the trunk halfway round it, the upper third bends out horizon- tally and passes into the blade of the leaf, which is about 5 in. long, oblong-lanceolate ; the leaves gradually change in character upwards, the limb becoming reduced and the sheath relatively longer but less and less applied to the trunk, passing into bracts. Inflorescence drooping or horizontal, 5 in. long. Bracts numerous, persistent, longer than the inflorescence. Flowers at base hermaphrodite, upper male, Ij-S in. long, generally five or six in one row, but towards the middle of the stalk with one or two on the outside. Perianth three-lobed ; free petal shorter, three- toothed, middle tooth long, mucronate. Fruit about 1 J in. 278 THE BANANA long, 1 in. broad, becoming blackish, pulp scanty, yellow. Seeds ovoid, black, J in. long, J in. broad. Katanga. Found only at the base of the white ant hills. 63. M. Arnoldiana De Wild. (Bull. Soc. Etud. Colon. Brux., viii. 339, 1901). Plant 12 to 15 ft. high, not sucker- ing. Leaves 7 ft. long. Inflorescence drooping, short. Flowers three to seven in each row. Free petal three- toothed, about f in. long. Fruit nearly 4 in. long. Seeds 12-16, about \ in. long. Congo Free State. Seeds used as a fetish. 64. M. Laurentii De Wild. {Miss, Laurent, 371, t 130 and figures 61, 62). Leaves with a green midrib. Bracts 14 in. long, 4j in. broad, elliptical; narrowing towards apex. Perianth three-lobed, 1 J-l| in. long ; free petal rather more than J in. long, rounded at apex with awn-like mucro. Flowers 18-23 in two rows under each bract, nine to thirteen on the inner row, and nine to ten on the outer row. Fruit 4-5 in. long. Stanleyville, Congo. 65. M. Bagshawei Rendle and Greves {Journ. Bat., xlviii. 169, t. 506, 1910). Plant 16 to 18 ft. high. Trunk 6j ft. in circumference 6 in. above the ground. Leaves with a narrow red edging and red midrib, 11 J ft. long. Inflorescence drooping, 2j ft. long. Bracts dull red, acuminate, 11 in. long, 6 in. broad. Flowers 17-19, in two rows, under each bract. Perianth three-lobed, about Ij in. long ; free petal three-toothed, median tooth awn- like, lateral rounded, rather more than ^ in. long. Fruit light orange with a little darker pulp, 4|-5 in. long. Seeds thirty, black, shining. Uganda. Very near to M. Laurentii. 66. M. gigantea Kuntze. Plant nearly 30 ft. high, not suckering. Inflorescence 10 ft. long. Bracts green, ovate- oblong. Flowers white, 20-40 to each bract. Fruit 2 in. long, angled. Seeds very small. M. Brownii F. v. Muell, quoted by Pucci in Bollet. Soc. Tose. Ort., 1906, p. 296, and M. imperialis Hort. Vilmorin, p. 299 of same vol., are without description. The former has been referred to the section Rhodochlamys and the latter to Physocaulis. DESCRIPTION OP SPECIES OF MUSA 2T9 M. ayhestris Lemari^ {Bull. icon, de Vlndo-Chine, 1001). This is a name given to a wild banana, indigenous in Haut- Tonkin, recommended as a fibre plant. No description has been published. Fossil Plants ascribed to Musa Lesquereux describes a fossil plant from the North American Tertiaries which he names Musa compUcatum. Schimper has named a form from the Miocene of Bohemia Musa bilinicum. Saporta describes, from the Eocene of Aix and Italy, plants which he calls Musa speciosum and M. longcevum. These are only known from the leaves, which exhibit a form of venation characteristic of the living forms. APPENDIX RECIPES FOR COOKING BANANAS To Cook Bananas Take thoroughly ripe, juicy bananas, the riper the better, large ones preferred. Provide two or three to each person. Cut off the ends, peel them and split them lengthways and remove the strings. Have ready a clean frying-pan, into which place a lump of the best fresh butter the size of a large walnut. When the butter is melted put in the fruit, fiat side up, cover close with a plate which fits the frying-pan. Cook over a very slow fire, and prevent them sticking to the pan by carefully passing a knife under each, so as not to break them if possible. Add a little more butter from time to time, to prevent burning. When quite Soft, remove the plate and fry to a golden brown. Time, 30 to 40 minutes to cook them properly. Be sure not to put water on them. Bananas thus cooked, besides being very economical, possess all the essential elements which constitute a most nourishing, hygienic food, especially as a breakfast dish for children, when eaten with bread. Bakkd Bananas Select large and not over-ripe bananas for this dish. Strip off about a third of the skin lengthways, and loosen the remainder of skin from the fruit by means of a teaspoon. 280 APPENDIX 281 tay the bananas in a buttered saucepan or baking-dish, place a few very tiny bits of butter on top of each, and be- sprinkle freely with castor sugar. Pour over each about I teaspoonful of lemon juice and bake for 15 or 20 minutes in a hot oven. Gbillbd Bananas Take 6 or 8 ripe bananas, wipe them, put them under the grill or over a bright fire, cook for 10 or 15 minutes. Serve hot in skins in hot dish. Very good for breakfast, especially in winter. Serve with lemon juice. Banana Tart Take a large deep dish such as used for apple tart, 1 J dozen of bananas cut in rounds, half the grated rind of 1 lemon, the juice of 1 lemon, 3 oz. moist sugar, a teacupful of water. Pastry same as for apple tart. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes. Bananas Feied in Egg and Crumbs Remove skins from 10 or 12 bananas, brush egg over each, cover with bread-crumbs and fry in hot fat. This may be served as a savoury or sweet. For Sweet. — Serve with sugar, lemon syrup, or jam sauce. For a Savoury. — Sift the following mixture over the banana before coating with eggs and crumbs and also before serving : One teaspoonful of salt, J teaspoonful of dry mustard, J teaspoonful of pepper, a little cayenne, and 1 teaspoonful of red or brown crumbs. Mix well together and shake over the bananas. 282 THE BANANA Banana Custard Puddin© Half fill a pie-dish with sliced ripe bananas, and sprinkle with a good brown or castor sugar. Make a pint of custard (or cornflour) in a saucepan, sweeten to taste, and pour over the bananas ; add a few tiny mites of butter, grate a little nutmeg over the whole, and bake in the oven for half an hour. Serve with cream. Banana Princess Pudding Take 6 bananas, the whites of 2 eggs, a little apricot jam, a little castor sugar. Peel and mash the bananas, and put into a greased pie-dish and add a layer of apricot jam and let it get warm through in a moderate oven. While that is cooking, take the 2 eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Whip the whites with the castor sugar until it is quite stiff. Then put it on to the pudding, return to the oven, and bake until a golden brown. (This will take about 5 minutes. ) To be served hot or cold. This may be decorated with glac6 cherries and angelica. Banana Whip Peel 6 ripe bananas, mash them up with a fork, put the pulp into a saucepan with a gill of water, 2 oz. of castor sugar, the thinly cut rind and juice of J lemon, and cook gently over the fire for about 10 minutes. Stir in the stiffly whisked white of an egg, and continue to cook for another 6 minutes ; then let cool, remove the lemon rind, and whisk in 1 gill of cream (stiffly whipped). Fill up custard glasses, or pour the preparation in a glass dish, and keep on ice till required. Then serve with wafers or finger biscuits. INDEX Abaoa, 207 AbYBsinian banana, 13, 204, 205 (fig.j Africa, Bananas and plantains in, 203 Africa, West, Insect pests in, 101 Alcohol from bananas, 127, 129, 132- 137 Denatured, 133-137 Algeria, Bananas in, 216 American evaporators, 144 Analyses of banana, 119-122, 130 flour, 110. 116 fruits, IS plants, 74 soils, 58, 59 Apple banana, 225, 226 Argentina, Bananas La, 224 Atlantic R:uit Company, 157, 158 Australia, Bananas in, 192 Fungus diseases in, 95-98, 105 Insect pests in, 101, 103-105 Azores, Bananas in, 209 BiSASA as catch-crop, 48, 199 as food, 6, 107 figs, 113, 263-255 flour or meal, 110, 113-118, 125, 261 ■oils, 66 trade. Development of, ISS Bananine, 117 Baraton, 45, 46 Barbados, Bananas in, 2^ Bengal, Bananas in, 178 Bermuda, Bananas in, 255 Bkckman's fans, 139 Bluefielda banana, 202 Bombay, Bananas in, 179 Bracts of banana flowers, 10-lS Brazil, Bananas in, 218 Brazilian banana, 202 Brewing, Bananas in, 132 British Honduras, Bananai and plantains in, 241 Bulb of banana, 3, 5, 6 Burbidge, 186 Burton, 803 Caoao, bananas as catch-erop, 49 Calcutta, Bananas in, 179 Cameroon, Bananas in, 214 Canary Islands, Bananas in, 204 IimguB disease in, 98 Catch-crop, Bananas as, 48, 190 Catura banana, 218 Central America, Bananas in, 237-24S . Ceylon, Bananas in, 182 Chile, Bananas in, 224 Chinese or Canary Islands banana, 1,2, 179, 197. 198, 212, 213, 818, 248, 255, 256-259, 265 first blown in cultivation, 196 Claret banana, 2, 17 Clearing land, 22 Cocoa and cofiee dryers, 144 Coco-nuts, bananas as catch-crop, 40 CoSee, bananas as catch-crop, SO Colombia, Bananas in, 235 Composition of bananas, 118 Congo banana, 89, 232 Bananas in, 214 Conquintay, 229 Consumption of bananas in Garmany, 123 Great Britain, 122, 12S U.S.A., 122, 123 Cooking bananas, 112, 280 Corenwinder, 129 Cost of cultivation, 51-53 Costa Bica, Bananas in, 237 Fungus disease in, 83 Crates, Packing in, 208 Criohton-Browne, Sir J., 107, 108 Cuba, Bananas in, 250 !FunguB disease in, 85 Cultivation after planting, 29 general, 20 ortioultural, 256 in Tropics, 177-255 Dampddb, 108, 129 Darwin, 17 De Oandolle, 177 Derivation of word Mua, 177 38S 284 INDEX Description of plant, 1-15 Development of trade in England, 160 Europe, 164 Hamburg, 164 Difference between banana and plan- tain, 1, 3 Digestibility of the banana. 111, 112, 116 Digging holes for planting, 24 Distance in planting, 23 Dominica, Bananas in, 251 Drainage, 27 Dry farming, 30, 32 Dryers, Artificial, 138 Drying bananas for flour and figs, 137 by air in India, 182 in sun, 137, 227, 228 closets or rooms, 138 Duck plantain, 265 Dye from banana, 182 Eel plantain, 202 Egypt, Bananas in, 209 Elders and Eyffes, 155, 160, 161 Elephants' Hands plantain, 203 Elephant's Head banana, 266 Emigrants, Advice to, 54 Ensete banana, 273 Enzymes of banana fruit, 111 Estimate for cultivation, 61-63, 199 Exhausted banana lands, 70-79 soil. Fertilizers for, 70, 79 Experiments with manures, 65 Exports — a variable amount, 158 Fabmyabd manure, 66, 226, 250 Ferments of banana fruit. 111 Fertilizers, 69, 226 amounts, 70, 81, 226 cost, 70, 71, 82 Fetish, Wild banana as, 277, 278 Fibre from various species, 148, 182, 202, 267-269, 271, 275, 276, 279 Fibres from bananas and plantains, 149-154 Figs, Banana, 113 Fiji, Bananas in, 196 Fertilizers in, 69 Fungus diseases in, 97 Insect pests in, 99, 102 Financial considerations in planting, 51 Flour, Banana, 110, 113-118, 126, 251 Analysis of, 110, 116 Plantain, 229 Flower-formation, Commencement of, 11 Flowers, 8, 10, 14, 15 Flowers, Embryonic, 10 Follower, 40 Food, Bananas as, 107 produced per acre, 6 French Guiana, Bananas in, 212 Fruit, 12 (fig.), 15 Fungus diseases, 83 Australia, 95-98 Canary Islands, 98 Costa Rica, 83 Cuba, 85 Fiji, 97 India, 92 Jamaica, 93 Panama, 83 Surinam, 87, 231 Trinidad, 85, 248 Gebman East Ai'bica, Bananas in, 216 Gros Michel, 2, 16, 193, 197, 198, 201, 202, 231, 248 Guadeloupe, Bananas in» 251 Guatemala, Bananas in, 240 Banana whisk^ from, 131 Guiana, Bananas in, 225 Hamma banana, 216 Hands of banana bunch, 10, 11 Harvesting, 44 HeUconia, 14, 261, 262 Hen's Egg banana, 202 Hispanio^, Bananas in, 250 Honduras, Bananas in, 241 Horticultural notes, 256-261 Humus, 66, 79 Hutchison. Dr. E., 107, 115, 121 IndU., Bananas in, 177 Fungus disease in, 92 Infant feeding. Bananas for, 116 Inflorescence, 8, 10, 13 Insect pests, 99 Invalids' food. Banana flour for, 118 Irrigation, 22, 27 Jamaica, Bananas in, 251-265 Experiments with manures in, 82 Fungus disease in, 93 Grasshopper pests in, 106 Jamaican banana, 16, 193, 197, 198, 201, 202, 231, 248 Japan, Bananas in, 202 Johnston, Sir H., 203 Kttai^ LtTMPtrR, Bananas in, 186 Kuyper, Dr. J., 231 Labat, P6re, 112-114 Lady's Finger, 3 INDEX 285 , Leaves of banana plant, 6 Legcuumoiis crop for green manuring, 33,46 Ligon, 12S Lime, 66 Loss on small bunches, 127 Maoana, 46 Madagascar, Bananas in, 216 Insect pests in, 101 Madeira, Bananas in, 209 Fertilizers in, 80 Liseot pests in, 101 Madras, Bananas in, 180 Maiden suckers, 25 Malaya, Bananas in, 185 Manila hemp, 148, 150, 189-191, 267 Manures, 65-82, 194 Martinique banana, 16 Insect pests in, 101 Massao banana, 218 Mauritius, Bananas in, 216 Medicine, Bananas in, 117, 125, 126 Mexico, Bananas in, 242 Microbe-proof, Bananas, 110 MUes, Eustace, 107 Mulch, Dry, 32 Earth, 29-31 Green, 33, 73, 79 Musa acuminata, 1, 264 M. aniboinensis, 267 M. angcorensis, 271 M. AmolMana, 278 M. aaswmica, 272 M. awrantiaca, 272 M. Bagfihawei, 278 M. Bakeri, 268 M. Banksii, 269 Jf . hae^oo, 202, 256, 267 M. hilinicum (fossilj, 279 M. borneensis, 273 M. Brownii, 278 M. Bttchanamf, 275 M. eampestris, 272 M. Gavendishii, 1, 2, 179, 196, 197, 198, 204-210, 212-213, 248, 255, 256, 258, 259, 265 M. eelebica, 268 M. Ch&valierii, 276 M. coccinea, 257, 271 M. eomplicatum (fossilj, 279 M. comievXata, 265 M. DavycB, 275 M. discolor, 267 M. elephantorwm, 276 M. Ensete, 14, 149 (fibre], 204, 205 (fig.ij, 243, 256, 257, 273 M. feeiinda, 274 Jlf./eH196, 201. 269 M. WHzcdani, 269 M. flava, 268 M. gigantea, 278 M. Oilletii, 277 M. glauea, 266 M. HcCrmandii, 268 M. man, 268 M. hirta, 270 M. Bolstii, 273 M. Homhlei, 277 M. lanceolata, 268 M. lasiocarpa, 265 M. Laurentii, 278 M. LimngaUmiana, 149 (fibre), 275 M. longmva (fossil), 279 M. mactUata, 270 M. mcUaceensis, 269 M. Mannii, 272 M. Martini, 267 M. rmcrocarpa, 270 M. Nagensiwm, 266 M. nana, 265 M. nepcUensis, 275 M. ohracea, 201 M. paradisiaea, 1, 264 M. Perrierii, 274 M. Pierrei, 268 M. proboseidea, 276 M. rdigiosa, 277 M. rosacea, 270 M. rosea, 271 M. rubra, 271 M. salaccensis, 271 M. sanguinea, 271 M. sapientam, 1, 263 M. sapientwm v. vittata, 214, 215 (fig.] M, Schweinfwrfhii, 276 M. seminifera, 264 M. specioswm (fossil), 279 M. sumatrana, 270 M. superba, 256, 257, 276 M. sylvestris, 279 M. textilis, 267 M. Tikap, 267 M. tomentosa, 268 M. troglodytarum, 264 M. idugv/rensis, 149 (fibre), 274 M. velutina, 272 M. ventricosa, 275 M. violaacena, 272 Jf . WHaonii, 266 Jf. ze&niui, 269 Natal, Bananas in, 217 Native country of banana, 177 New Caledonia, Banana in, 201 286 INDEX New Zealand, Insect peits in, 102 Kfioaragva, Bananas in, 239 Kumber of bunches per acre, 31, 2S0 Kurse plants, 48 Nutritive value of bananas compared with other foods, 121, 122 OBiam of seedless varieties, 15 Ovary, 10, 14 Faitama, Bananas in, 239 Fungus diseases in, 83, 231 Papua, Bananas in, 201 Insect pests in, 101 Paraguay, Bananas in, 224 Parke, Dr., 129 Payable bunches, 51, 52 Peeper, 41-43 Perianth, 14 Peru, Bananas in, 224 Petal, 14 Philippine Islands, Banancbs in, 188 Plant, Banana, used for various purposes, 182, 197, 204 Plantains, 1-3, 226-230, 241, 247, 248 Cultivation and cost, 227 Planting, 25 Ploughing, 21, 22, 33-36 Polynesia, Bananas in, 196 Porto Bico, Bananas in, 246 Pouyat banana, 16 Preparation of land, 22 Preserved bananas, 113, 181, 227 Pritohard, Dr. Eric, 116 Propagation of plant, 3 Prospects for banana planting, 54 Pruning leaves, 43 suckers, 21, 38-43 QusEKSLAiTD, Bananas in, 192 Fertilizers in, 69-79 Ravbnala, 8, 260-262 Receipts, 51-53 Recipes for cooking, 280 Befr^eration, 167 Beplajiting, 36 Eeview of cultivation in Tropics, 177- 255 Bock banana, 266 Boots, 4 Growth of, after cutting, 34, 35 Boyal Mail Steam Packet Company, 161 Bubber, bananas as catch-crop, SO SA:in>wiOE Islands, Insect pests in, 101 ^ San Domingo, Bananas in, 251 San Thom6, Bananas in, 214 Schweinfurth, 203 Seedless varieties. Origin of, IS Seeds of banana, 17-19 used as flour, 204 Seychelles, Bananas in, 216 Shooting of bunch, 8, 11 Singapore, Bananas in, 186 Sloane, Sir Hans, 250 Society Islands, Bananas in, 200 Soils, Banana, in Jamaica, ^6-64 Analyses, 58, 59 Solomon Islands, Bananas in, 202 Soudan, Bananas in, 204 South America, Bananas in, 218 Speke, 129, 203 Sports of banana, 16, 17 Stamens, 13 Stanley, H. M., 125, 130, 204 Stem, 5 Sterility, 17 Straights, 51 Straits Settlements, Insect pestt in, 101 Strelitzia, 260-262 Stump, 45 Stumping, 22 Suckers, 4 Choosing, 38 Digging, 26 for planting, 21, 25, 26 Maiden, 25 Plant, 39, 41 Preparation of, 26 Pruning, 21, 38-43 Batoon, 39, 41 Sword, 25, 26 Timing, 38-43 Surinam, Bananas in, 230 Bee pests in, 106 Fungus diseases in, 87 Sword leaves, 3 suckers, 25, 26 Hassusi in banana, 18^ Tibbies, Dr. William, 110-112, 118, 121 Time of year for planting, 25 Transport by sea, 166 without cool storage, 171 on land, 174 Travancore, Bananas in, 181 Traveller's tree (Bavenala), 8, 260- 262 Trinidad, Bananas in, 247 Fungus diseases in, 85 Trunk, 5, INDEX 287 TJjrniD l^WT CoMPAST, 188-187, 231-234, 237-239, 281 United States, Bananas cultivated in, 243 Vaottctm drying, 118, 144, 148 Venezuela., Bananas in, 224 Wax banana, 187, 265 West Indies, Bananas in, 244-255 West Indies, Inseet pests in, 101, 102 Whisky from bananas, 127-131 WolfE system of diying produce, 141 Wright, Br, William, 109 Yield, 51, 52 Zaneibab, Bananas in, 216 PRINTED AT THE BALLANTTNB PRESS LONDON REFRIGERATING MACHINERY For Cooling Chambers for the Storage of Provisions, Dairy Produce, Fruit, Liquids, etc.; also for Making Ice. •iag^r^ '-■ '''^■I'-r Small Size Ammonia Refrigerating M achine Full particulars supplied on application io J. & E. HALL LTD 10, ST. SWITHIN'S LANE, LONDON, E.C. & DARTFORD, KENT POTASH FOR BANANAS AND ALL TROPICAL CROPS AND FRUITS POTASH in suitable combination with Nitrogen and Phosphorous Ensures Increased Yield, Improved Quality, and Improved Keeping Properties Sulphate of Potash Muriate of Potash Kainit Potash Manure Salts Full Informatiorti Priie Lists, Pamphlets, etc., Jrom Local Agents or from the KALISYNDIKAT G.m.b.H., BERLIN SW. 11 DESSAUER-STRASSE 28/29 READERS OF THIS BOOK WILL LEARN HOW NITRATE OF SOD A *^^x^o"^ BANANAS ACCORDING TO DIRECTIONS, ENSURES INCREASED AND CONTINUOUS CROPS For full Particulars apply to Dr. W. S. MYERS, 25 Madison Avenue, New York, U.S.A. For New York, West Indies, Hawaii Or for elsewhere to THE CHILEAN NITRATE COMMITTEE Friars House, New Broad Street, LONDON, E.C, The "MAYFARTH" BANANA-DRYER The Most Reliable, the Most Simple, and the Most Popular Dryer of the Hot Air Type for the manufacture of BANANA- Fias and BANANA-FLOUR. 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Telegrams and Cables : " WIPA, LONDON " Telephones : Central 1823 and 11168 R. DOLBERG'S PORTABLE RAILWAYS Arc Used on All Plant-^ttions for Conveying Products to Factories and Loading Places Fig. 767 Truck for conveying bananas. The necessary wooden frames are generally supplied by the customer R. D O LBER G, Portable Slailways, II9-I25 Finsbury Pavement, London, E.G. Fortnightly Sailings From Southampton & Cherbourg to the WEST INDIES PANAMA CANAL & NEW YORK (for BERMUDA) CANADA— WEST INDIES Fortnightly Mail and Passenger Service between St. John, N.B., Halifax, N.S., and BERMUDA, ST. KITTS, ANTIGUA, MONTSERRAT, DOMINICA, ST. LUCIA, ST. VINCENT, BARBADOS, GRENADA, TRINIDAD AND DEMERARA Also Regular Sailings to SOUTH AMERICA E''o Spain, Portugal, Madeira, & St. Vincent MOROCCO Canary Islands & MADEIRA For further particulars apply The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company 18 Moorgate Street, E.G., and 32 Cockspur Street, S.W. The West India Cominittee (Estahlished ijso. 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ASPINALL, B.A., Barrister-at-Law Offices THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE ROOMS, IS SEETHING LANE, LONDON, E.C. THE CHAIRMAN THE DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN THE TREASURERS ALSTON. G. R, ALTY, W. H. CAMPBELL, C. ALGERNON CARRINGTON, GEORGE DAVSON, E. R. DAVSON, IVAN B. EWING. HUMPHRY CRUM FAWCETT, W„ B.Sc. GILLESPIE, W, HALES, CHARLES HOARE, OLIVER V, G. 'JAH6 1950 JAN 6 1950