329 
Apart from the fresh fruit, a considerable quantity of “‘desic- 
cated bananas” and “banana flour” is now placed on the market 
which keeps good, if kept dry, for years. When cooked it retains the 
pleasant taste of the fruit. It can be dried at a small cost and 
carted to the sea-port at leisure, taking up far less space in trans- 
port than the perishable fresh-plucked fruit in rind. Under the 
Commonwealth Bounty Act a bonus of 10 per cent. on the market 
value is offered for quantities not less than Sewt. 
This industry, and also that of “banana figs,” or dried fruit 
compressed and wrapped up in bundles has taken some importance 
in the Cameroons. Some of the factories handling 3,000 bunches a 
day each. 
There is room for a profitable trade in this class of fruit, both 
fresh and manufactured, within the State. 
-Bananas would do best in the Kimberleys, where the rainfall 
is heavier and reliable, and where, provided they are dried and manu- 
factured, long distance transport would not prove a barrier to the 
development of an industry capable of being handled by white 
labour. They should also be irrigated as well as fertilised, as pre- 
viously stated, to ensure larger bunches, as the roots must be kept 
moist. 
When in North Queensland I visited, in 1910, on the Johnstone 
River, banana plantations 10 to 40 acres in extent on jungle land 
leased for £1 per acre. The trade is mostly in the hands of the 
Chinese. That State had then 5,000 acres under bananas. The full 
bunches, which carry 15 to 18 dozen fruit, are shipped whole, each 
bunch carrving a tin tag on a piece of wire run through, with the 
number of the shipper on it. Smaller bunches are cut into hands 
and the green bananas are closely packed in cases about the size 
of 4doz. heer bottle cases. Each bunch averaged 6s. in Melbourne, 
the net return Geraldton (now Innisfall) being 3s., or 2d. per dozen. 
Cases, carriage, freight, wharfage, and commision absorb the greater 
portion of the return, and the industry is one which leads to the 
circulation of a good deal of money. 
In Queensland the yield varied then from 150 to 300 bunches 
per aere; the total average being 200 bunches, and the average net 
return about £20 per acre. 
The varieties of bananas cultivated in various countries may be 
numbered by the score. Two groups are known, viz., the edible and 
the fibre-producine sorts. 
The edible bananas are often referred to as “Bananas” or as 
“Plantains,” and a good deal of confusion has in consequence re- 
sulted. Perhaps the best distinction is to designate as “Plantains” 
those varieties which are generally consumed cooked, and “Bananas” 
the varieties which are eaten fresh and ripe. .\s a rule the stem of 
the first is green, and that of the latter somewhat mottled. 
