THE BANANA 



which it will produce. It will yield about 19 J tons of dry 

 fruit on a single acre, which is about forty-four times the 

 amount given by potatoes and 133 times that of wheat. 

 Moreover, it differs from almost every other fruit in being 

 both " rice and prunes," that is, it is nutritious and whole- 

 some, and yet at the same time succulent. There are still 

 people who declare that the taste is that of "cotton wool 

 and Windsor soap," but that is a frivolous and unjust 

 remark. It is very difficult to prepare it exactly in the 

 right way for export to Great Britian, and the slightest 

 change in temperature or period of gathering has the most 

 distressing results. 



As with many other tropical fruits, the countries where it 

 is most carefully produced and where the trade is most im- 

 portant are just on the borders of the tropics. There 

 Europeans can keep enough vigour and vitality to supervise 

 and watch over the labour of natives. It is in the Canary 

 Islands, Queensland,^ and Jamaica that the cultivation is 

 most carefully looked after. The yield may be from five 

 hundred to a thousand bunches per acre, and the value of 

 the trade is enormous. A plantation is not very beautiful, 

 because the huge leaves break up into irregular, ragged 

 pieces which look untidy. The flowers are visited by the 

 beautiful little honey-sucking sunbirds and humming-birds. 

 Monkeys also are very fond of the fruit. 



In the tropics it grows everywhere, and with extremely 

 little trouble. It is a doubtful blessing to the negroes, for 

 they get their food so easily that they tend to become 

 incorrigibly lazy. Jam, champagne, brandy, and meal can 

 be made from the banana. When this meal can be pre- 



1 Queensland in 1900 had 6215 acres, and produced 2,321,108 bunches 

 of bananas. 



250 



