313 
not less than $25,000 would be necessary to launch this new product on 
the American market, and unless this sum were forthcoming, they did 
not see their way to dealing with it on the ground that no sales in any 
quantity could be expected. This proposal was in due course submitted 
to the exhibitors, whose meal had been experimented upon; but un- 
fortunately those gentlemen were unable at the time to adopt the course 
roposed, and the matter is still in abeyance. Iam d of Oe 
that with a judicious outlay of capital, and with a reasonable certainty 
that no sudden changes will be made in tariff Folrutátions, Ae is a 
S open for banana meal in the United States. 
have seen ripe bananas offered for sale in the streets of Chicago, 
at oa the same price as they are in Kingston, though of course the 
quality is distinctly inferior.” 
TRINIDAD. 
The following account of the preparation of plantain meal at the 
convict farm, Trinida d, by Mr. C. W. Meaden is quoted in the Bulletin 
of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, xxvi., p. 5. e meal was pre- 
pared from a plantain known in Trinidad as the “ Moko.” This is 
usually grown as a shade for young cacao trees. It appears, otherwise, 
to have little value. Mr. Hart refers to it in his report for the year 1887, 
p. 18, as “the useless Moko or Jumbi plantain or Fig. t is some- 
what remarkable that the meal prepared from this bra ase but very 
widely distributed plant should prove of so good a qua 
* No banana gives such an excellent meal as the * Malo) or so agree- 
abie in T and taste. The preparation of the meal is as follows :— 
The green Moko was skinned, P thin, and dried in the fruit drier; 
then ineo fine in an ordinary corn mill, 'and afterwards sifted through 
a muslin sieve; this latter removes any fibre, and leaves a delicate fine 
meal. The slices dry in two hours. A 15 Ib. bunch will yield 3 Ibs. of 
prepared meal, which at 6d. per pound is ls. 6d. per bunch. Two 
women could prepare 56 lbs. of meal per day. The cost of Parae. 
packing, &c., has to be considered, but the price amii t 
obtained in this way for the fruit must be considered a maiia 
one ; at least it is better than that now obtained, which may be said to be 
nil. » 
In a letter to the Port of Spain Gazette, ed Le October 1892, 
Mr. Meaden gives the following further particular 
* It is proved by cae that bananas contain ^ 6 per cent. of starch, 
and it is certain that an article containing " this quantity must have a 
profitable market vii. Slieed bananas at a temperature of 130 per 
cent. dry in two hours and could be packed for shipment from the green 
bos well within the day's work. A drying apparatus for this p 
an be most cheaply and effectually built by a local workman, and it 
Hodia so be useful on the estate for all drying purposes. 
Durca GurANA OR SURINAM. 
From information communicated to Kew by Mr. Louis Asser, of the 
Hague, Holland, the preparation of dried bananas and of banana and 
plantain meal is proposed to be taken up on a large scale in Dutch 
Guiana. Already various preparations from this part of the world have 
nce app o be 
given in this case to the banana on account of its lesser niei liis, and 
