226 TiMRHRI, 



sider the feasibility and advisability of planting bananas 

 to make flour, but the rebellion of 1865 occurring just at 

 the time the Committee were about to present their 

 report, the matter was dropped and forgotten until some 

 8 years after, when the Chairman of the Committee, 

 the Hon'ble. James M. Gibb sought the samples which 

 had been prepared by order of the Committee and had 

 them examined, with the result that the flour was found 

 in a perfe6l state of preservation, and although on the 

 matter becoming known in England, it was proposed 

 to use banana flour for provisioning fortresses, on 

 account of its antiseptic and keeping qualities, the 

 general lethargy and langour that pervaded all things 

 West Indian, effe6lually prevented any further steps being 

 taken. 



Ihere is little doubt that there would be a large field 

 open for this industry and the matter is already receiving 

 serious attention in the neighbouring colony of Surinam, 

 as will be seen by the following interesting account 

 which appeared in the Sugar Journal of April 15th, 

 1894, and which was taken from the Tropical Agricultu- 

 ralist : — 



A Mr. Hartog, who went in the beginning of last year to Surinam 

 (West Indies), is in possession of a method of preparing fine dry 

 meal from bananas and plantains. The chemical analysis of both 

 sorts of meals have proved that the chemical composition of differ- 

 ent bananas and plantain kinds is almost identical. The principal 

 stuff the meal contains consists of 80 to 85 degs. of starch This 

 composition induced him to seek the adoption of the meal for pur- 

 poses where other stuffs containing starch are employed, and he 

 chose, in the first place, the fabrication of alcohol and glucose 

 (grape sugar) As he did not dispose of very large quantities, he 

 was forced to apply to laboratorium experiments that were made 

 at the Government Institute of Alcohols in Switzerland, fixed at 



