AUSTRALIA 198 



methods are not the best. It has been the custom to rent 

 out the standing scrubs with their wonderfully rich fertile 

 soil to Chinese gardeners, who cleared the land, planted it 

 with bananas, took all they could out of the soil, and then 

 gave it back and rented fresh land. The land was certainly 

 cleared for the owners, but required manuring at consider- 

 able expense to fit it again for bananas. Ihe white 

 growers of Southern Queensland have shown splendid 

 results under conditions not altogether so favourable as 

 those in the north, and there is no good reason why banana 

 cultivation should not be now run on proper lines in the 

 north as well as in the south. 



The native species of Musa (for descriptions of which 

 see Chapter XXXIV) grow in the rich scrub land already 

 mentioned and in all the scrubs of the northern coast. 

 The fruit of these wild bananas contains scarcely any edible 

 flesh ; the leathery skin encloses a large number of black 

 seeds. The kinds cultivated are chiefly the Chinese banana 

 (M. Cavendishii), and to a less extent the sugar banana and 

 the Lady's Finger. The Gros Michel or Jamaican banana 

 was first introduced from Jamaica in August 1910. The 

 Jamaican banana is also called the Fiji banana, as'the fruit 

 is exported from Fiji to the southern States of the Common- 

 wealth in considerable quantities, and is in greater favour 

 there than the Chinese banana, as it travels so much better, 

 and for this reason it has been introduced into Queensland 

 According to the Financier, "the important and profit- 

 able industry of banana-growing has received a consider- 

 able stimulus in Queensland by the importation of the 

 Gros Michel variety from Jamaica. Its fine flavour, large 

 size, and vigorous growth commend it to the judgment 

 both of the consumer and grower, while the good prices 

 obtained render it an eminently satisfactory crop to the 

 producer. The fruit is of splendid appearance, ripeniDg 

 to a good yellow colour, and is very popular in the Austra- 

 lian markets, selling at from Is. to Is. 6d. per dozen retail 

 Growers of bananas aver that this industry gives much 

 larger returns than any of the older industries when the 



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