WHERE BANANAS GROW. 493 



to a telephonic message that has preceded us, the superintendent 

 awaits us to show us everything of interest and, with unfailing 

 courtesy, to answer the endless questions of a Yankee. 



After the ground is cleared, holes about a foot and a half deep 

 are dug fifteen feet apart each way. They are then filled with 

 surface soil to a depth of six inches, leaving them a foot deep. 

 In these holes the sets are then placed obliquely, so that their 

 upper ends just project beyond the edges of the holes, and are 

 covered closely. Many planters place the sets upright and cover 

 only their bases ; but, though they then make plants rather more 

 quickly, the best growers believe the resulting plants are not so 

 strong, and produce less and poorer fruit. A set covered as above 

 may then " shoot/' in technical parlance, either from an eye at 

 the base of the set or by the continued growth of its principal 

 bud within the sheathing leaves. This results in a new growth 

 bursting through the old leaf-bases " breaking the husk," the 

 growers say and is considered to give the best plants. Good 

 sets will show vigorous growth in three or four, sometimes even 

 in two, weeks after planting, and then grow rapidly, pushing out 

 leaf after leaf, aud finally the flower stalk. At length, eleven or 

 twelve months after planting in good soil, each plant stands from 

 twelve to fifteen feet high, and bears a bunch of fruit full grown. 

 Since a plant bears only a single bunch of fruit, it is removed 

 when the bunch is cut to make room for another. And by the 

 time it is ready for cutting others are ready to take its place in 

 the young plants which have come up all about it from the lat- 

 eral sprouts of its stem. The best of these are selected to re- 

 main and the rest removed. In this selection of plants and the 

 resulting thinning lie the secret of success with bananas. The 

 first to grow from sets in a new plantation are called " plants," 

 while succeeding growths from their shoots are " rattoons," first, 

 second, third, and so on, in succeeding generations. This word 

 rattoon is a corruption of the Spanish retono, a new shoot, and 

 originated in connection with the culture of sugar cane, which is 

 propagated in the same way. An amusing example of the extent 

 of its use may be seen in the Jamaican reference to a meal made 

 off the remnants of a previous feast as " eating the rattoons." 



By careful selection and thinning of the rattoons a good plan- 

 tation comes in a couple of years to its full development. Then 

 one finds, as nearly as may be, in each " hill," as we may call the 

 group of plants standing where each original set was placed, 

 four plants strong, vigorous, and in stages of development which 

 present a regular succession from oldest to youngest. Placing 

 the hills fifteen feet apart each way gives nearly two hun- 

 dred to the acre, and a well-managed cultivation should yield 

 two marketable bunches per hill a year. The plants and first 



