eo THE BANANA 



both on the flat and on hilly lands, and a lack of humus 

 on the old lands which in some cases had grown canes 

 continually for over a century before they were planted 

 up in bananas. These problems have been tackled by 

 the planters in that parish with the most remarkable 

 success, and the results of contour drains on steep hill-sides 

 and of deep mains in the flat clay lands have shown that 

 the heavy soils, when properly treated, are the best and 

 most productive banana soils in the parish, while the 

 growing of green crops and implemental tillage have 

 restored worn soils to a pitch of full productivity. 



" In the parish of Trelawny are found some of the 

 richest soils in the island, but owing to the droughts that 

 periodically occur the bananas were found to be apt to 

 dry out. The Trelawny sugar planters have long led the 

 way in the art of mulching, and by the application of the 

 grass mulch on a liberal scale on these old sugar lands it 

 has been demonstrated that profitable crops of bananas 

 can be grown despite the most adverse conditions of rain- 

 fall. Even on the ' red dirt ' derived from the limestone 

 it has been shown that good crops of bananas can be grown 

 in such a parish as St. Ann by the judicious use of the 

 mulch. 



"It is gradually dawning on our agriculturists that 

 there are few cultivable soils in Jamaica below 1500 ft. 

 in elevation where bananas cannot be grown by suitable 

 methods of cultivation, drainage, mulching or irrigation 

 where that is available. 



" In 1901, the writer commenced a study of the banana 

 soils of the island, the results of which appeared in the 

 Bulletin from time to time, but as the years roll by, so the 

 range becomes wider and wider, until to-day it is hardly 

 possible to classify any particular grades or types of soil 

 as ' banana land.' If the working basis of the latest and 

 most progressive cultivators be regarded, it would appear 

 that a ' banana soil ' and a ' cultivated soil ' will soon 

 be synonymous in Jamaica. It would appear highly 

 probable that many soils that have been tested under 



