72 



are, as a rule, unsaleable, although the individual fruits may be as fine, 

 if not finer, than in the large bunches. It has been already shown that 

 while 2 to 3 dollars will be paid in New York for large bunches 

 the small bunches will not sell for over 60 or 70 cents, and, as a 

 broker has graphically remarked, "be a drug in the market even at 

 these low prices." 



If a good opening were established for well-preserved bananas, 

 a very attractive and palatable food, capable of being kept for some 

 time, would be available to the population of temperate climates. 

 Ripe, or nearly ripe, bananas have sufficient sugar in them to enable 

 them to be dried like figs. They cannot always be dried in the sun. 

 The process is too tedious and the fruit often assumes a dark colour 

 with a taste and smell suggesting acetic fermentation. 



In Western India at Agasi, north of Bassein, Nairne says, "They 

 have a way of drying bananas, which if done scientifically and for 

 export might probably make the fruit in that form as popular in 

 England as dried figs." 



A sample of preserved bananas or plantains prepared at Kurunegala, 

 Ceylon, by Mr. Morris, the Assistant Government Agent in 1840, was 

 presented in that year by Dr. Wallich to the Agri.-Hort. Society of 

 India (Trans. VIII., pp. 58-59). The kind of plantain used was that 

 known in Ceylon as " Suandelle." Dr. Wallich stated, " The plantains 

 appear to me to be little inferior to figs, and I should think them as 

 wholesome and nutritious." Attached to Dr. Wallich's letter (as 

 published) is given an extract from Captain Colquhoun's paper read 

 before the Society of Arts on specimens of dried plantains called 

 platano passado from Mexico. " The object of Captain Colquhoun is 

 to direct attention to the dried fruit of the plantain as an article of 

 produce hitherto unknown in British Colonies and in European 

 commerce which would probably obtain a considerable consumption 

 in England, and also be very acceptable as a useful and agreeable 

 article of food on long sea voyages." 



Dr. Shier, of Demerara, is quoted in the " Catalogue of the Paris 

 Exhibition of 1867," in regard to preserved bananas as follows : — 



" Ripe plantains and bananas. — It was supposed by the Society of 

 Arts (Trans., vol. L., pt. i.) that the dried yellow plantain [or banana] 

 might come into competition with figs, and the sample exhibited at the 

 great London Exhibition of 1851, which had been prepared in Mexico 

 many years before, proved the great superiority of the platano passado 

 over figs in keeping properties and in immunity from insect ravages. In 

 Mexico, the simple exposure of perfectly ripe plantains or bananas to the 

 sun's rays is sufficient to prepare them for the market in an exportable form, 

 as may be seen by the ' Method of Drying the Plantain,' described by 

 Mr. Percy W. Doyle in a communication to the Earl of Malmesbury, a 

 copy of which was transmitted to this Colony on 2nd August 1852 by 

 Sir John Pakington. But whether from the greater moisture of this 

 climate, or a greater proportion of nitrogenous elements in our plantains 

 and bananas, it is found in practice that simple solar exposure is not 

 adequate for the preparation of this dried fruit. There are three modes, 

 however, by which the object can be attained : — 1st, by exposing the 

 fully ripe fruit to an atmosphere of sulphurous acid gas, previous to the 

 drying process being commenced ; 2nd, by a hasty boil of the fully 

 ripe fruit in water containing sulphate of lime (hard water) ; and 3rd, 

 by a similar parboil in syrup. 



