WHERE BANANAS GROW. 495 



form and size, but is still quite green. The plant is cut off by a 

 single blow of a machete wielded by a powerful arm. As it falls 

 the bunch is caught, lopped off, and laid aside, while the harvester 

 goes on to the next bunch. It is a popular supposition that ba- 

 nanas " ripened on the tree " are incomparably superior to those 

 cut green. But as a matter of fact one never eats them thus 

 ripened in Jamaica. They are said to be not so good; at all 

 events, one finds no better fruit in texture or flavor than the best 

 of our own markets. But every lover of this fruit knows that 

 its quality varies extraordinarily as it is offered to us. This is 

 due partly to the different sources from which it comes. The 

 best that is brought to us comes from Jamaica. It is also due 

 still more to the condition of the fruit when cut. Bananas which 

 are perfectly full will ripen mellow and delicious ; but those cut 

 when immature, as too many are, will turn yellow, yet never truly 

 ripen, retaining always their hard texture and unripe taste. In 

 Jamaica, as elsewhere, the competition of buyers leads the un- 

 scrupulous ones to accept fruit of any sort, even when totally 

 unfit ; and this sort of competition makes all the more unavail- 

 ing the eft'orts of honest buyers to raise the standard and to teach 

 the people to withhold their fruit until it is properly developed. 

 Americans can give moral support to these efforts by accepting 

 only such fruit as is mature at any price. A little pains will soon 

 enable one to distinguish good from poor fruit, though it is diffi- 

 cult to give a general statement of the distinctive differences. 

 But, as a rule, it will be found that bananas which are largest, 

 deepest yellow, and least angular are the most mature and best. 



The view over Golden Vale from the superintendent's house, 

 which stands at a little distance on a slight elevation, recalls a 

 grain field with its level surface of waving foliage. The drive 

 along the roads within the plantation is beautiful. One may go 

 on and on between the stretches of luxuriant plants, to the soft 

 rustle of the leaves overhead, while below the forests of trunks 

 reach away on either hand beyond the power of the eye to pene- 

 trate. But the experience never to be forgotten is a ride over the 

 estate with the superintendent. On tough little Jamaica horses, 

 docile and sure-footed, we leave at once the wagon road, plunge 

 into the wilderness of plants, and soon lose sight of every land- 

 mark. Pushing on, sometimes along foot paths just distinguish- 

 able, oftenest where there are none ; jumping ditches and prostrate 

 trunks, surrounded only by banana plants in all stages of growth, 

 yet so alike, so monotonous, that one might as easily find his way 

 in midocean. Above us is an overarching roof of foliage sup- 

 ported by massive clustered columns. Beneath our feet is a dense 

 carpet of some of the prized adornments of Northern greenhouses 

 the Tradescantia or " wandering Jew," beautifully contrasting 



