A'or.. XIII. No. 308. 



THE AGEICULTURAL NEWS. 



.53 



and obtained a total annual receipt of £3,635 10s. Shd 

 Another estate of 170 acres (growing other fruit-j-ielding 

 plants besides bananas) incurred a total expenditure of 

 £1,2.50 with total receipts amounting to £2,GGS 15s. 3d. 

 These figures show that banana-grov.-ing [la^s; but a word of 

 caution is necessar}'. Everyone who has had experience of 

 growing b-inanas knows how a sudden 'blow' may level several 

 hundreds of acres of stems. To some e.xtent, therefore, the 

 banani crop is a speculative one, and insurance and a reserve 

 fund are necessary in order to prevent being stranded without 

 mone)' to carry on cultivation for another year. 



Perusal of the chapters dealing with soil and manuring 

 will impress the reader with the fact that at one time it was 

 possible to classify particular types of soil in .Jamaica as 

 'banana land'. But to-day the advent of irrigation, drainage 

 and manuring has been so effective that it would appear that 

 in .Jamaica a 'banana soil' and a 'cultivated soil' will .soon be 

 synonymous. As regards manuring, it has been found that 

 organic matter is an essential factor for .Jamaica soils, though 

 in Fiji, and also in Queensland, good results have been 

 obtained with artificial fertilizers, especially with nitrogenous 

 and phosphatic manures. 



Leaving now the plantation, the author considers the 

 subject of bananas from the more industrial and economic 

 aspect. As food for human consumption the banana has 

 l)een long recognized as being in its own way ideal. It is 

 nutritious, digestible and germ-proof. But besides the fruit 

 itself, a large amount of attention is now being given to the 

 production of banana fiour, and to the drying and pre.serviag 

 of bananas. It is interesting to compare the composition of 

 banana tlour with wheat fiour. Here are the figures: banana 

 flour contains moisture, 1110; protein, 355; tat, 83; carbo- 

 hydrates, 817; mineral matters, 223. Wheat Hour contains 

 moisture, 140; protein. Hi: fat, 10; carbohydrates, 75 0; 

 mineral matters, r7. Thus we see that banana flour is 

 rather poor in protein and fat. but rich in digestible car- 

 bohydrate made specially nutritive on account of the pectin 

 present. As well as for food purposes, bananas have a use 

 in medicine, and in the manufacture of wine, whisky and 

 alcohol. These last three use? are more or less at present in 

 their infancy. Prospects are perhaps brightest in regard to 

 the manufacture of alcohol from bananas. In countries that 

 produce bananas for export there is a very considerable 

 number of bunches that are too small or are otherwise com- 

 mercially unfit for e.\'port. In all the exporting countries 

 put together they are probably as many as 8 million bunches 

 that fail annually to come up to the high standard rightly 

 insisted upon by the shippers. This material is the produce 

 which may be utilized for the manufacture of by products. 

 Such development would be stimulated by the advent of 

 improvements regarding the superseding of petrol by alcohol 

 for fuel purposes. It can be readily understood that such 

 developments would involve a vast economic change, trans- 

 ferring, as it were, capital and labour from mining industries 

 back to the cultivated land. 



This review has been written principally for the benefit 

 and from the point of view of those residing in the Tropics, 

 and space will not allow of attention being given to transport 

 matters — though extremely interesting — to the same extent 

 as has been done in the case of the information dealing with 

 the cultivation of the plant. The attention of the reader 

 may be directed, however, to the wonderful development of 

 the banana trade described in Chapter XX, principally the 

 outcome of the work of the United Fruit Company and of 

 Messrs. J']lder and Ffyfe. The statement made in this chapter 

 in connexion with prospects in the future may be usefully 

 quoted. 'The growth of the demand for bananas necessitates 



continued extensive development work.' It is interesting 

 to note, for instance, that France is taking at the present 

 time 2 500 bunches of West Indian bananas weekly via 

 Liverpool, and Dunkirk, and this trade only commenced at 

 the end of the year 1911. The development of the German 

 trade has been phenomenal: the imports into Hamburg rose 

 from some 167,000 bunches in 1909 to over 15 million 

 bunches in 1912. 



Having described the transport of bananas by sea and 

 their distribution in the country of consumption, the volume 

 under review concludes with a general survey of the cultiva- 

 tion of species of Musa (bananas and plantains) throughout 

 the Tropics. India and (.'eylon are dealt with first, followed 

 by the Malay Archipelago As regards the Philippine Islands, 

 an interesting fact is that the Bureau of Agriculture has 

 decided to begin a collection of bananas and plantains for the 

 purpose of comparing under the same conditions their 

 useful characteristics. It should be remembered too, that 

 it is in the Philippine Islands that Manila hemp (from 

 Mitsa ie.ctilif) is produced The value of the exports of 

 this banana tree product was in 1911, £3,025,036. Useful 

 information is given of banana cultivation in (^>ueeEsland 

 and in Fiji. The latter islands are to be looked upon as 

 a growing centre of banana production, and the opening of the 

 Panama Canal may make a dilierence in this respect to the 

 West Indies. Possibilities also attend banana growing in 

 French Guinea — to come to the chapter dealing with 

 Africa — and this territory is considered bj' the French 

 colonial authorities to be one of the most promising regions 

 in West Africa for the development of a fruit trade, and 

 it is believed that French Guinea will be able to compete 

 with British importations from the West Indies, and even to 

 replace them on the London market. Lastly, coming to 

 South America, the author refers first of all to Brazil where 

 the '.Vlasaao' or 'mai;a' is fairly largely grc'wn — a variety of 

 ^li(sa saj'ientuiii. Mr. Fawcett believes it would be worth 

 while to get suckers of this banana from Brazil and investi- 

 gate its merits by growing it at experiment station.*. It may 

 not be generally known that Brazil principally supplies the 

 Buenos Ayres demand for bananas. With the Central Ameri- 

 can republics and their position in the banana trade, most of 

 the readers of this journal will be familiar from repeated 

 references which have been made from time to time. It is 

 also unnecessary to review at any length the extent of 

 banana cultivation in the different West Indian islands. 

 For details in relation to these places the book itself is best 

 referred to. 



The final chapter in the book — of which there are thirty- 

 four — contains a short description of the species of Musa. 

 This information is of very considerable botanical interest. 

 An appendix is given containing recipes for cooking bananas. 

 This shows that the fruit can be made as palatable and as 

 satisfying dietetically as the author has proved it, or rather 

 its story, to be intellectually pleasing and good. 



A book of quite an original kind has recently beea 

 published by the Orange .Judd Company, New York. It is 

 entitled 'Farm Arithmetic'. The book is intended to serve- 

 several very important ends in elementary and higher schools, 

 but principally it should tend to develop in the minds of the 

 pupils an appreciation of and an insight into the quantitative 

 side of farm life. The book may be used at any time after 

 the fundamental principles of arithmetic have been covered. 

 We consider that this book ougkt to be in the library of 

 all the Grammar Schools in the West Indies which have au 

 agricultural side. 



