51 



of manure where the ground is permanently used, are all essential con- 

 ditions to the production of first-class fruit. When stable dung is 

 procurable its application pays well. In the experiments we have tried 

 with artificial manures, sulphate of ammonia, applied about 2 cwt. to 

 the acre at a time, appears to have produced the best results. Enormous 

 show bunches of any of the heavier yielding kinds may be obtained by 

 planting in a stable-manure heap or ordinary dung-hill. One caution 

 may be mentioned. The plant tillers (or suckers) so freely that 

 constant attsntion is required to keep down the superabundant shoots. 

 The taller kinds should not exceed 300 stools to the acre, and if allowed 

 to ' ratoon ' much, less would be advantageously planted. The small 

 fig and the dwarf or Chinese may be placed closer, but not if many 

 suckers be allowed to grow. As the bunches of the latter hang down 

 nearly to the ground, all animals, including poultry, must be kept 

 away from them. The tall kinds should be supported with a forked 

 stick or two, placed under the neck of the bunch on the side which it 

 hangs and leans to, strong enough to support the weight. 



"Plantains require much the same system of cultivation as that de- 

 scribed for bananas, bat give a heavier yield from the same land. They 

 delight in the stiff, newly empoldered clay lands of this colony, not ob- 

 jecting to the slightly saline element found where the sea or river has 

 invaded the place periodically at spring tides while it was lying fallow 

 under the natural bush growth. Such lands yield heavily, but the crop is 

 liable to suffer, if the seasons for the first two years after planting- 

 prove very wet, from the plantain disease of the colony." 



Again "new lands produce the most luxuriant plantain growth, and 

 are used for this purpose by estates, as they will not at first grow 

 canes well, but after a few years of plantain and ground provision 

 cultivation they become adapted to the requirements of sugar-cane 

 cultivation. Plantains growing on ' pegass ' land (containing a large 

 admixture of vegetable mould) are reported to be better flavoured 

 than those grown on purely clay land, upon which, however, for 

 commercial purposes they are almost exclusively grown." 



Mr. A. D. Van Der Gon Netscher, when proprietor of plantation 

 Klein Pouderoyen, on the west bank of the River Demerara, in 1855, 

 furnished the following interesting particulars relative to the cultivation 

 of the plantain : " The experience of ten years on a cultivation of from 

 400 to 480 acres in plantains has shown that — 1. On a well kept 

 cultivation every acre will give 300 good and 50 inferior bunches of 

 plantains per annum. 2. On every acre 400 suckers are planted at 

 intervals of 12 feet, in rows nine feet apart, a closer planting having 

 proved to be injurious to the growth of the fruit and the development 

 of the stem. 3. Of the suckers planted not more than 75 out of 100 

 succeed, and the deficiencies require to be supplied. The cultivation 

 will give on an average five good crops of fruit in two years. 4. The 

 keeping up of a plantain estate, on a large scale, costs about Gl. per 

 acre per annum, supposing the estate to be already in good working 

 order." 



Cultivation of Bananas in England. 



Bananas are common objects of cultivation under glass in this 

 country, but they are grown more for their handsome foliage than for 

 the fruit, since they occupy considerable space in hot-houses, and require 



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