128 THE BANANA 



Some of these may be consumed or given to cattle, but it 

 is impossible to utilize the great majority in this way and 

 great loss results. The value of the eight million bunches, 

 reckoned at sixpence each, is a matter of 200,000 per 

 annum, and about 80,000 to Jamaica alone, which 

 represents a considerable loss to planters in the aggregate. 



Various attempts have been made from time to time 

 to make use of this fruit and avoid the loss. It had 

 already been demonstrated very many years ago that 

 bananas can be made into flour or dried like figs, or utilized 

 in making alcohol, and the knowledge has been, to some 

 extent, turned to account in the present day. 



Banana Wine. Consideration has already been given 

 in these pages to the preparation of flour and banana figs, 

 but only a small proportion can be utilized in this way, 

 and it remains to consider the use of bananas in manu- 

 facturing an alcoholic spirit. It is well known that an 

 excellent fermented drink can be made from bananas 

 and plantains. Ligon, in his " History of Barbados " 

 (1657), gives the following account of the preparation : 

 ** But the drink of the plantine is farre beyond all these ; 

 gathering them full ripe and in the height of their sweet - 

 nesse we pill off the skin and mash them in water well 

 boyl'd, and after we have let them stay there a night, we 

 straine it and bottle it up, and in a week drink it ; and it 

 is very strong and pleasant drinke, but it is to be drunk 



fully bought. And at this particular time of the year, waiting can by no 

 manner of means be a loss, because if the price alters at all it will be a rise." 

 A writer in the Philipp Agric. Rev. (March 1912) bears witness to the 

 loss on the largest estates : "It is said the demand is rapidly increasing 

 for all kinds of banana products. The source of the material for these 

 products is the small or over-ripe bunches discarded at the dock in loading 

 the fruit steamers for the United States and Europe. Bunches having 

 less than six hands are considered too small for the regular trade ; any 

 bunch showing even a few fruits that are beginning to turn yellow are 

 also discarded in the warehouse at the time of loading the cargo. The 

 writer has seen this deplorable waste of material at Port Morant, in 

 eastern Jamaica, where the United Fruit Company has one of its largest 

 plantations ; bunches are flung overboard, or fed to the cart oxen, with 

 apparently no thought for the real food value of the fruit." 



