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" By either of these processes the albumen and caseine of the fruit 

 become sufficiently coagulated, and the tendency to fermentation and 

 decay is arrested till the proper dryness is obtained. There is some 

 nicety required in knowing the best degree of ripeness of the fruit. It 

 should be full and beginning to turn yellow before the plantain tree is 

 cut down and the bunch gathered. The fruit then should be kept 

 either on the stalk or separated in a close dry place, as recommended in 

 the Mexican plan, till the yellow of the rind has become black at the 

 ends, with large spots over the surface, till on some of those black spots 

 ' blue mould'' has begun to appear, and swarms of small grey flies hover 

 over the heap, attracted, no doubt, by the saccharine odour, and till the 

 fruit yields to a slight pressure of the finger and is somewhat supple in 

 the hand. At this time, if some of the rind be removed, portions of the 

 opaque yellow surface will appear as if melting. There should be no 

 delay then in parboiling, or the fruit will be lost. If, on the other 

 hand, the drying process is commenced too soon, a portion of the starch 

 is still unconverted, and the dried fruit will be hard and want sweetness. 

 This condition is easily discovered after the drying is completed, by the 

 absence of a due amount of shrinkage in the fruit. To dry the fruit in 

 the sunshine a bamboo frame as used in Mexico, or a net, or any other 

 contrivance by which the sun and air can play on them, is suitable. 

 They must, however, be removed to shelter on the approach of rain or 

 evening dews. In rainy weather the heat of an oven is requisite, but 

 the oven should be left open at the mouth, else the fruit will be baked 

 instead of dried, and the heat should be comfortably bearable by the 

 hand, else the grape sugar will be caramelized, and the core of the fruit 

 blackened and rendered bitterish. Tight close packing in drums 

 under considerable pressure, as with figs, would no doubt contribute 

 materially to the preservation of dried ripe plantains and bananas." 



Since Dr. Shier's time a great advance has been made in drying 

 fruit. What are called " American " fruit-drying machines have been 

 rendered so effective that little difficulty is experienced in drying the 

 most succulent fruits in a few hours, and at the same time preserving all 

 their fresh flavour, and also in many cases even the colour. The 

 fumes of sulphurous acid, in no way injurious to the subsequent value of 

 the preserved fruit for food purposes, are used to render some fruits like 

 sliced apples of an attractive colour, and there is no doubt, although it 

 does not appear to have been tried, a similar treatment would be of 

 advantage if applied to the bananas. A dark colour would naturally 

 give dried bananas an unattractive appearance, and prevent their 

 extended use. In fruit-drying machines, properly worked, the danger 

 can easily be obviated by keeping the temperature well below that 

 necessary for the formation of caramel, and by the previous aid of 

 sulphurous fumes the fruit might be produced of a pale buff colour, 

 similar to that of figs. 



It may be added that the comparative loss of weight by evaporation 

 has been observed between apples and bananas, with the result that while 

 apples yield only 12 per cent, of the original weight, bananas, with the 

 skins removed, will give within a fraction of 25 per cent, of thoroughly 

 desiccated fruit. Professor Church, with fruit grown at Kew, obtained 

 31*7 per cent, of dry matter from ripe bananas. 



In 1881, when samples of dried ripe bananas were forwarded to this 

 country by the late Mr. W. B. Espeut, F.L.S., of Jamaica, Messrs. 

 Fortnum, Mason, & Co., stated, " we are afraid they are not suited to the 



