August i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



149 



of the wet season, and the ground opened about the roots 

 of the . trees, which come into beariug some eight or ten 

 years after planting. A cocoa-nut plantation is oue of 

 the most easily managed and most remunerative products 

 of the country. The natives have but to put down the 

 nuts, and guai-d the trees more or less while attending 

 to their other employments, and in due course a permanent 

 and profitable plantation is created. ELu:opeaus, however, 

 seldom attempt such an investment, and few who have 

 done so have succeeded in it. For new plantations, waste 

 lauds are usually taken up. Mithin the last twenty or 

 thh'ty years much land otherwise worthless has been 

 reclaimed along the sandy sea coast, and many trees have 

 been planted on either side of new roatls opening up into 

 the interior. The produce of the trees vary much in 

 ditfi rent soils and climates. The average of a good tree 

 iu full bearing has been stated at 120 nuts per annum, 

 while in low and sandy soils it will amount to 200. and 

 in gravel or laterite under si.xty.* The dried kernels, under 

 the name of " copra," are e.Kported to other parts of India, 

 for the expression of oil; and the coir, or fibre, which 

 composes the husk, is sent in enormous quantities to Eiu:ope 

 and America. The annual value of the products of this 

 palm exported — nuts, dried kernel or "copra," oil and 

 fibre — amounts to 42 lacs of rupees, besides oil, nuts, timber, 

 and leaves for home use. It has been estimated that 

 C0,00O,OOU of nuts are annually consumed iu the country. 

 The timber is not e.^ijorted, but split up and used for 

 rafters, and, leaves are in great demand for thatching. 

 The trees are sometimes tapped for a few mouths to produce 

 the sweet juice, which, boiled while fresh, gives a palm- 

 sugar, and, kept a day or two tdl it ferments becomes 

 toddy — a slightly intoxicating drink, somewhat like beer. 

 Tlie toddy is also distilled into "arrack," or native spirits. 

 The Palmyra Palm (Borassus tlabelliformis) stands next in 

 importance to the cocoa-nut. It is grown only in the 

 driest districts towards Oape Comoriu. This jialra, with 

 its sweet sap and sugar, leaves, timber and fruit, furni.shes 

 a living to a great number of the Shanar caste in Travaucore 

 and in Tinnevelly. The number of trees iu 1880 was about 

 6,000,000. It is probable that no considerable increase has 

 taken place since, as old trees are in demand for their 

 timber, and the slow growth of this palm discourages 

 plantiug. From 16,000 to 24,000 cwt. of the sugar 

 ("jaggery") of this palm are annually exported, woi-tli some- 

 thing over 3.J rupees per cwt. The beautiful Areca Palm 

 ( Areca C'atecliu) is planted in damp clayey soil on the banks 

 of tanks and rivers. Unlike the cocoa-nut, it will thrive 

 at a distance from the sea, and on the hi'ls. It is grown 

 very largely in North Tra\-ancore, whence the nuts are 

 can'ied to the south by traders. The trees will grow 2 or 

 :; feet apart. The Areca begins to beai' in five years, and 

 continues to produce fruit for twenty-five years. The nuts 

 are sold wholesale at si.x or eight chucln-ams per thou.sand, 

 and retail in Trevandrum at from eight to thu"ty-two for 

 a cliuckram. according to season and demand; S,500 candies 

 are annually exported to Bombay and other ports, the value 

 of which is about 4^ lacs of rupees. — Indian Ayricidtunst. 



PLANTAIN CULTIVATION FOR INDIA. 



Class, Monocotyledon j; ; Natural Ordci', Musace.e. 

 ( Musa Cavand'shii. Lambert. 

 I „ ParadisUica, Liune. 

 iSupiLUliii}!, Liune. 

 I TroyludtitanQn, Liune. 

 names : ] ,, Simiarxin, Bumph. 



I „ Liviiui^onia. Kirk. 

 I ,, Frn.^de, Gmelin. 

 L „ CurttU-idata, Linne. 

 Engli.sh general names ... Plantain and Banana. 

 Bengalee „ „• ... Kola gach. 



Hindustani „ ,, ... Keyla ka per, vel darakht. 



Introduction." 

 The name of the plantain plant is quite famiiiiir to every 

 one in India ; and evtry one knows that variety of this plant 

 which grows where he is located, and values it accordingly. 

 For instance, the people of lower Bengal, Bombay and 



• Over a large plantation under average conditions, 40 

 nuts per tree p.r annum, we suspect, is nearest the 

 mark. — Ed. 



Scientific typi(.al 



Madras (in India) ; aad Burmah, China and Japan, on the 

 other side of India, will hail the plantain plant, because they 

 know it is au excellent and very u.seful fruit plant. The 

 people of other parts of India anil other countries, meaning 

 the masses of the people, ho\«ever, where plantain is un- 

 kuown, or where an inferior variety exists, which does not 

 fruit well, whose friut is insipid or unpalatable, and not so 

 nutritious an -1 cheap as other fruits are, do not and cannot 

 appreciate this highly-prized plant. As apphed to India, 

 tliis remark is apphcable to such places as Oudh, N.-AY. 

 Province, the Punjab, Sind, Central Provinces, and some 

 other parts of India, — hence the unequal appreciation of 

 this very valuable plant all over India. 



Classification of Plantain. 



The foregomg, at the beginning of this article, is the 

 general classification of ediWe plantains ; the followino- are 

 the uames of the principal species and varieties of plantain 

 I have cultivated, and which are found growing in Lower 

 Bengal, Madras and Bombay. All of these have been in- 

 troduced m other parts of ludia, chiefly iu the Government 

 Botanical Gardens and those of the Agri-Horticultm-al So- 

 cieties ; but have not as yet been diseminated among the 

 masses of the people owning garden, orchards, &c., easily 

 known by there being not a single good variety of plantain 

 fruit ui any of the markets of Iiulia, other than those of 

 the places where the plant, which bore it, is indigenous, or 

 where the plants is iu extensive cidtivation from a Ion" time. 



Jfusa Cavandishii : the Chinese banana; ckeenee champa 

 Ben.; Ha-arake>/la,'am. (so-cabled from profuse fruiting 

 of this plant, the word hazara being derived from hauii; 

 meaning thousand).— This plant is extensively cultivated in 

 Lower Bengal, and in the South Sea Islands." The stem is 

 pretty thick ; height not exceeding C feet. The flavour 

 of the fruit is excellent, as every one in Calcutta, and other 

 cities and villages in Lower Bengal, who has eaten it, can 

 certify. Baron Mueller states that so many as 200 to 30C 

 ripe fruits are obtained from one spike (ka'iidi, Ben. ; i/lwvd 

 Hin.). In the present state, however, of this i)lant in Bengal' 

 the ripe and fully developed fruit-j-ield per plant or spike is' 

 very small. I have examined several fruit-spikes of this 

 banana both on the plants and in the markets of Calcutta 

 but found no more than 80 to 200 fruits on each spike! 

 This diminished number of fuUy developed fruits per spike 

 or plant is no doubt owing to want of proper cultivation 

 and the fertilizing elements in the soil. 



Jfitsa paradisian/. — This species is that which supplies 

 the varities most extensively cultivated all over Lower Bengal, 

 and various other parts of India. The Reugalee uames of 

 the varieties .are ■.—Cliampa kola, mortomaii kola, and ckatim 

 kola; and the variety found in Madras called madrajm 

 kola, Ben. ; kela, Hin. These are the principal cultivated 

 varieties. M. paradisiaca is believed to have originated 

 irom JI. sapientum. (Baron Mueller.) 



Jfi(xn sapientiim.— This species, which undoubtedlv is the 

 type from which have sprung most of the cultivii toil edible 



plantains of India, furnishes three well-kno\ra varieties: ' 



One in Bengal called kantaii kola, so unnwd on account of 

 the .smell, taste and flabbiness of the fruit of this plant re- 

 sembling those of the jack fruit (kaiital,Vje\i.); the second 

 variety is to be found in the Bombay presidency, called iu 

 Bombay i/reeii JJoudiai/ plantain, owing to the green colour 

 of the rind of the ripe fruit ; the thir(^ variety, named 

 decshee kola, Ben. ; dasee keyla, Hin. (common country plan- 

 tain), is found in many parts of India — all over Bengal, 

 N.-W. Provinces, Oudh and the Punjab, pa rticularlv, This 

 last-named plant is also called kniich kola in Bengal, owiug 

 to the extensive use of the unripe fruit in cookery. In 

 Bengal kmich kola is never allowed to ripen, because the 

 fruit is insipid, wanting iu the gi-ateful aroma, and the 

 middle part of the fruit is seedy, which rcuiiei' it very in- 

 ferior to other iilantains cultivated in Bengal ; but in other 

 provinces in India, being the only plantain which can be 

 gro'vn and fruited in hottest and driest places, it is grown 

 extensively by the natives ami other.s, and the fruit allowed 

 to ripen, the fruit being considereil as one of the imlis- 

 pensable, decorative, if nothing more, fruits of the fruit- 

 garden. 



Musa troylodytanim . — This plant supplies the variety found 

 in Bombay, there called red Bomhay plantain, lul hombui/a 

 ktla, Hin. ; l(.d Bomhaya kola, Ben., so named fi-om the red 

 skin of the ripe fruit. The ripe pulp of this plantain has 



