PLANTAIN HUM: 



MUSA 



8APIENTUM 



Cultivation 



on \\i-f. lands. The Kind is thoroii'_'hl\ ploughed and the shoot* planted 

 in pits. almo>t any month, hut more esp.-ually 'luring the mons< 

 Cameron (For. Trees Mysore and Coorg, etc., 323) suggest* that pLu 

 shoiiM be madeeveiv t \\ . months so as to keep up a succession of frui; 



it ion is effected by Hooding the soil, and after the water ban soaked in Hooding. 

 lav, the superfluous water is run oft through drains. The land is 



thru h I once a month, and three months after planting a surface dressing 



is 'ju-.-n <ii wild indigo and dung. Hoeing is stopped as soon as the flowers 

 appear. Imt lupins again after gathering the crop. The plants last three 

 to four vears. 



Food and Fodder. Plantains, after mangoes, are the commonest and Food. 



highly pri/ed of all Indian FRUITS, while the coarser kinds constitute 

 one of the staple articles <>| diet in many parts of India and the Malay 

 Peninsula, being mostly cooked before being eaten. It has b 

 proved that the produce from one acre \\ill support a much greater vlue. 

 number of people than a similar area under any other crop, and the im- 

 mense yield may be preserved for an indefinite period by drying the fruit 

 and preparing meal from it. Plantain meal is made by stripping off MU. 

 the husk, slicing the core, drying it in the sun and then reducing it 

 to a powder and finally sifting. It is calculated that the fresh < 

 will give 40 per cent, of meal, and that an acre of average quality will 

 yield over a ton. [Cf. Bhaduri, Rept. Labor. Ind. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 

 1902-3, 26.] 



In the Kew Bulletin of 1894 will be found a complete review of the 

 available information regarding the production and trade in the bananas 

 and plantains of the world. The recent demand has given the West Indies wt indie*, 

 a new and profitable industry. There seems no very good reason why 

 India should not participate in the supply of the finer bananas. 



Besides the fruit, other parts of the plant are used as food. The flower- Flower*, Edibto. 

 heads of many lands are cooked, generally in curries, and the inner portion 

 of the stem, called thor, is also edible. The shoots and tops of young plants 

 are occasionally used as a vegetable, and are given as fodder to sheep and Fodder, 

 cattle. The outer sheaths are valued as elephant-fodder, and the root- 

 stock is said to be given to cattle to increase the quantity of milk. [Cf. 

 Ih'pt. Labor. Ind. Mus., 1900-1, 24.] 



Industrial Uses. For long the FIBRE of the plantain has been used by Fibre. 

 the Natives of India for cordage purposes, mats and coarse paper. It early 

 attracted attention from the fact that it so closely resembled Manila hemp, 

 (the product of M. textUin), though it is not so strong as the latter and 

 can never hope to compete with it in the European markets. The special 

 Arakan form might, however, prove a useful substitute for the true Manila 

 hemp, and is worthy of special attention. Moreover, vast numbers of the 

 common plantain stems are available for extraction of the fibre, and as at 

 present these are simply thrown away, efforts have been made in recent 

 years to encourage the extraction of the fibre as an additional source of 

 profit. The rapidly increasing demand for cheap string to be used as ct,ep suing. 

 M binders " should render this suggestion of interest to both the cultivators 

 of the fruit and the cordage manufacturers. The subject of the wild species 

 of Musa as sources of fibre, has aroused some attention, and it seems 

 possible that this idea may come to be of value, especially in some portions 

 of Burma. The chief difficulty in the utilisation of plantain stems as 

 sources of fibre or as paper materials is the expensejof collecting and carting PP wtriL 



789 



