BANANA 



BANKS 



451 



The textile and ornamental species, also, may be 

 increased by the above process, but as these species 

 usually produce seeds freely, seedlings can be more 

 quickly grown, and with less trouble. The seeds of 

 bananas should be sown as fresh as possible, treating 

 them the same as recommended for root-cuttings. As 

 soon as the seedlings show their first leaves, they should 

 be transplanted into well-prepared beds of rich, moist 

 soil, or potted off and plunged into slight bottom 

 In at, as ilit needs of the grower or his location may 

 demand. Both seedlings and root-cuttings should have 

 proper transplanting, sufficient room and rich soil, as 

 :t rapid, unchecked growth gives the best and quickest 

 results. 



In the West Indies, Central America and Mexico, 

 bananas are raised for export to the United States and 

 Canada. The site chosen is usually a level plain in the 

 lowlands, near the coast, or in valleys among the hills, 

 where the rainfall or artificial moisture is sufficient. 

 For distant shipping, bunches of fruit are cut with 

 "machetes" or knives, after they reach their full size 

 and are almost mature, but quite green in color. Ripen- 

 ing is effected during shipment in warm weather, and 

 by storing in dark, artificially heated rooms during cold 

 weather. Banana flour is a valuable product of ripe 

 bananas prepared among the plantations in the tropics. 

 It is nutritious, and has an increasing demand and use 

 as human food. A recently invented process of drying 

 ripe bananas has been found very successful, and the 

 industry promises to be of vast importance as the mar- 

 ketable article finds ready sale. Further details of the 

 growing of the commercial crop in the tropics may be 

 found in Cyclo. Amer. Agric., Vol. II, p. 199. 



E. N. REASONER. 



BANEBERRY: Aetna. ^- H. B. 



BANKS. The means of holding and planting banks 

 and steep surfaces is one of the perplexities of the horti- 

 culturist and landscape designer. The banks to be 

 considered may be defined as very steep earth slopes 

 with a bare, shifting surface, requiring protection and 

 planting, or a surface covered with natural vegetation. 

 Figs. 466-469. 



Low banks, either curved or rigidly formal, usually 

 enter into symmetrical designs of the elaborately 

 finished surroundings of a fine home. Usually they are 



466. A bank before planting. 



placed to outline or to inclose parts of a design, or to 

 decrease or increase the apparent height of a building 

 or other structure, or of a garden compartment. 



Protection. 



One problem to be solved is the protection of sea, 

 lake, river, and small stream banks and bluffs against 

 the sliding of the soil, due to waves or along-shore cur- 

 rents in sea or lakes and to running water, especially 



floods, in stream beds. Such water-action, cutting 

 under the base of a bank, causes the soil above to slide 

 down. On lake and sea shores, jetties built from the 

 bluff-base into the water will check an eroding margi- 

 nal current, make it drop its load of silt, and extend 

 the shore. In many positions willows, planted close 

 together in a wide band on the beach or at the bluff- 

 base, will accumulate and fill with roots the soil that 



467. Same bank after planting. 



is washed down and blown in, and thus create a water- 

 resisting barrier: Along salt water, plantations of the 

 sea-beach grass, Ammophila arenaria, and the shrubby 

 Baccharis halimifolia and Iva frulescens are serviceable ; 

 and far South, the mangrove may be planted on outer- 

 most sea-edges. 



Another bank trouble is soil-seepage water coming 

 to the surface part way up the slope and making mud 

 patches that slide down and cause the soil above to 

 cave away. Usually this sloughing is at an impervious 

 soil layer at some feet below the surface, to which the 

 water passes, then finds its way out to the bank-face. 

 If this water is at fixed spring-like points, a tile drain 

 laid in porous material about 3 or 4 feet deep and 

 directly down the bank to a concrete anchor at the out- 

 let opening will usually take off the water that causes 

 sliding. If the seepage is all along the face of the bank, 

 it may be necessary to carry a drain some feet back 

 from and parallel to the edge of the bluff-top down to 

 and a little into the impervious soil, with tile outlets 

 down the bank. 



The surface of banks is often gullied by water run- 

 ning from the top down the face at frequent intervals. 

 This may be prevented by forming a ridge or barrier 

 at the edge of the bluff to carry the water along sodded 

 channels to paved or piped outlets down the slope. 



Sand-bluff surfaces that drift with the wind need 

 thick plantations of plants that will grow well in sand, 

 with a mulching of hay, leaves or litter to keep the sand 

 in place until vegetation is established. 



The erosion of large streams at the base of bluffs 

 is often beyond the means of individuals to control, 

 although persistent willow-planting along shore and 

 planting on the slope, will often suffice. In bad banks, a 

 riprap of stone with plants having matted roots between 

 the stones will hold. On smaller streams, ripraps of 

 stones or stumps, while unattractive until covered with 

 vines, will hold banks at critical places. A continuous 

 stone wall is not a good barrier unless it is high enough 

 on both sides to include flood-water, and the cost of 

 such walls is too high for most individuals. 



On sliding slopes there is usually an overhanging 

 upper edge with a short perpendicular edge just under 

 it to be graded back. The material thus secured may 

 be used at the foot of the bluff. When more ideal con- 

 ditions are desired, the grading may be extended to 

 give angular raw banks the graceful contours that 

 nature's gradual rounding-down of angles will give. 



