76 PRESERVATION OF PLANTAIN FRUIT. 
order to make room for the fresh suckers which spring up. 
This may go on for fifteen or twenty years, though some think 
that it is better to renew the plantation entirely or partially at 
shorter periods. A chief consideration is the distance at which 
the original plants should be placed, in order to give room for 
the secondary suckers, as well as to allow of free ventilation. 
Some place them at distances of six feet, but it is better to 
have them ten feet apart, either around the boundaries of fields 
or of gardens, or in rows as a separate plantation. In the 
latter case, it is recommended that there should be space 
enough between the rows to allow of the culture of other crops. 
In some parts of India, the Plantain is employed as a nurse, 
or to afford shade, to the Betel Vine (itself one of the most 
valuable of crops), or to young Areca-nut and to Cocoa-nut 
Palms. By cutting away some of the suckers as they arise at 
different periods, and allowing others to remain, a supply of 
fruit, and also of stems for fibre, may be obtained for a great 
part of the year. 
In Demerara and Guiana, the Plantains have been injured 
by some disease, which has impaired their fruitfulness, and, 
consequently, the profits of their culture. It has been recom- 
mended to plant them at sufficient distances (as eighteen feet) 
to allow of free ventilation, accompanied with good tillage in 
the intervals and the cultivation of annual crops of Maize, 
Yams, Sugar-cane, or Eddoes. (Arum.) According to the dis- 
tances, there may be from 300 to upwards of 400 plants in an 
acre, each producing, say, on an average, seven suckers ; making 
in all from 2100 to 3200 plants in an acre. 
Preservation of the Fruit.—The fruit of the Plantain, when 
ripe, containing a sufficient proportion of nutritive matter, may 
well serve as a portion of the food of the natives of warm 
countries. But it is probably as much employed by them 
before being perfectly ripe, as it is sometimes stewed, and at 
other times fried; and, by the natives of India, dressed in 
various ways to eat with rice. In the West Indies, the fresh 
Plantain, when boiled whole, forms a mass of considerable 
toughness, and which, when beaten in a mortar, constitutes the 
foo-foo of the negroes. (Simmonds.) When nearly or perfectly 
ripe, it is pleasantly, or even lusciously sweet, and it is in the 
former state that it is preserved. 
