THE PLANTAIN AND BANANA. 323 



The soil best suited to the growth of the plantain is found in 

 the virgin land most recently taken in from the forest, having a 

 formation of clay and decomposed vegetable substances. A large 

 portion of organic matter is required, as well as clay or other 

 ponderous strata, to afford the greatest production of fruit. I 

 have known good plantains produced in the West Indies, upon 

 land considerably exhausted by the culture of cotton, but which 

 was enriched by the application of a quantity of the decomposed 

 seed of that shrub near the roots of the young plantains. 



In the Straits' settlements of the East, the following are the most 

 approved varieties : The royal plantain, which fruits in eight 

 months ; one which bears in a year, the milk plantain, the downy 

 plantain, and the golden plantain or banana. A species termed 

 gindy has been lately imported from Madras, where it is in great 

 request." It has this advantage over the other kinds, that it can be 

 stewed down like an apple while they remain tough. 



The Malays allege that they can produce new varieties, by 

 planting three shoots of different sorts together, and by cutting 

 the shoots down to the ground three successive times, when they 

 have reached the height of nine or ten inches. 



About 144 suckers of the plantain are set on an orlong (\\ acres), 

 each of which spreads into a group of six or eight stems, of about six 

 inches to one foot in diameter, which yield each a bunch of fruit, 

 and are then cut down, when fresh shoots succeed. In very rich 

 soils the plant will continue to bear for twenty years, but other- 

 wise it is dug up after the seventh or eighth year. The cost of 

 cultivating 100 orlongs of land exclusively with plantains, will be 

 nearly 2,000 Spanish dollars until produce be obtained. About 

 43,200 bunches may be had afterwards yearly, which might give 

 a return of 2,160 dollars, or, deducting the cost of cultivation 

 and original expenses, a profit per annum of 1,450 dollars. 



The plantain has frequently been suggested as an article of 

 export from our colonies. A few bunches are occasionally brought 

 over by the Royal West India Mail Company's steamers running 

 to Southampton, but more as a curiosity than as articles of 

 commerce. 



In its ripe state no unexceptionable and sufficiently cheap 

 method of preserving it has yet been suggested. 



In some districts of Mexico it is, indeed, dried in the sun, and 

 in this state forms a considerable article of internal commerce un- 

 der the name of " plantado pasado," 



It is sometimes so abundant and cheap in Demerara, Jamaica, 

 Trinidad, and other of our colonies, that it might, if cut and dried, 

 in its green state, be exported with advantage. 



It is in the unripe state that it is so largely used by the pea- 

 santry of the colonies as an article of food. It has always been 

 believed to be highly nutritive, but Dr. Shier states that, in any 

 sample of the dried plantain which he analysed, he could not find a 

 larger amount than 88 per cent of nitrogen, which corresponds with 

 about 5 per cent, of proteine compounds. 



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