43 



Cultivation. 



The fruit-bearing Musas, require a moist and uniform heat. 

 They do not necessarily require an abundance of light, as many will 

 grow in the shade of trees. They require, however, a deep rich soil 

 and newly cleared forest land, containing plenty of vegetable mould. 

 Outside the torrid zone the plants are chiefly ornamental, as they 

 cannot be depended upon to produce fruit in anything like the pro- 

 fusion they do in the tropics. In cool countries also bananas do 

 not grow continuously as in the tropics, but they have a resting period 

 during the winter when the leaves cease to develop, or even partially 

 wither. They break forth, however, on the return of warm weather. 

 In such a case the life of the plant extends over a longer period, and 

 stems, which usually last only a year, may live for two or three, or until 

 fruit is produced. In many countries, even in the tropics, where the 

 plants are liable to injury from hurricanes, their cultivation is either 

 wholly abandoned, or only dwarf sorts are grown, like the Chinese 

 bananas, under shelter of houses or walls. In spite of the usually 

 luxuriant growth of bananas and plantains, they yield very poor crops 

 in land that has long been under cultivation, and where the humus is 

 exhausted, even though the soil remains productive for other plants, 

 such as sugar-cane, cassava, maize, millet, and sorghum. In very sandy 

 soil3 the banana may flower, but it produces no fruit. Abundant, but 

 not stagnant, moisture in the soil is necessary, and the finest plants are 

 generally seen on the banks, and in the neighbourhood of streams. 

 Kurz states that " transplantation of the shoots improves the quality 

 of the fruit." This may mean either that the shoots should be severed 

 from the parent stem and planted singly, or that it is an advantage to 

 exchange shoots from one district to another. It has been proved in 

 the West Indies that bananas grow most luxuriantly in warm, moist 

 valleys, shut in amongst the mountains. There they succeed better even 

 than in the open plains, probably on account of the shelter they obtain 

 and the moister climate. They grow on mountain slopes up to 

 elevations of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, but they begin to lose some of their 

 vigour long before they reach the latter elevation. The growth is 

 slower, and the bunches are not so large nor so abundant. A mean 

 annual temperature of 75° to 80° Fahr. appears to suit them best ; 

 although Dr. Ernst states that he has seen a plant of Musa sapientum 

 laden with full, ripe fruit, near Caracas, at a height of 5,175 feet, with a 

 mean annual temperature of 66*2° Fahr. Lieutenant Parish found two 

 or three banana plants cultivated in an enclosure at an elevation of 

 5,400 feet on the Chumba range in the Himalayas. Considering the 

 latitude this is probably the highest limit of cultivation in Northern 

 India. Further south, in the Nilgiris, Kurz says a small wild banana 

 grows on grassy plateaux at an elevation of 7,000 feet. There are seeds 

 in the Kew Museum of a wild Musa from the elevated plateau of the 

 Wynaad which may be allied to this. 



Firminger records that plantains were growing at Firozpur in 

 31° N. lat., " but there is little probability of obtaining good fruit from 

 them so far north, as the frost cuts down the plants in the cold 

 season, and they only recover themselves, so as to begin to bear fruit, 

 when the cold season comes round again, and they are unable to 

 mature it." 



At the same latitude, however, in the insular climate of Bermuda, 

 in the North Atlantic, Jones mentions both the plantain and banana 



