78 



In the Diet. Econ. Prod, of India, Vol. V., p. 300, the same point is 

 more fully stated : — 



" It is interesting to notice that the large crop of food produced by 

 bananas and plantains may be preserved for an indefinite period either 

 by drying the fruit or by preparing meal from it. Both of these pro- 

 cesses, which have long been known and carried out in the West Indies 

 and South America, are also carried out in India, though to a much 

 smaller extent. Linschoten notices the practice as common in the 

 sixteenth century, writing, — ' these grow much in Cananor, in the 

 coast of Malabar, and are by the Portingales called figges of Cananor ; 

 and by reason of the greater quantities thereof are dried, the shells 

 being taken off, and so being dried are carried over all India to be 

 sold.' When the nearly ripe fruit is cut into slices and dried in the 

 sun a certain part of the sugar contained in the fruit crystallizes on the 

 surface and acts as a preservative. The slices thus prepared, if made 

 from the finer varieties, make an excellent dessert preserve, and if from 

 the coarser may be used for cooking in the ordinary way. They keep 

 well if carefully packed when dry, and ought to form a valuable anti- 

 scorbutic for long voyages. The fruit may also be similarly preserved 

 whole by stripping off the skin and drying it in the sun. Plantain meal 

 is prepared by stripping off the husk, slicing the core, drying it in 

 the sun, and when thoroughly dry reducing it to a powder, and 

 finally sifting. It is calculated that the fresh core will yield 40 per 

 cent, of the meal, and that an acre of average qualitv will yield over a 

 ton." 



A good account of plantain meal and its value for food purposes was 

 published by Professor Johnston in the Transactions of the High/and 

 Society, No. 20. This was reproduced in the Barbados Agricultural 

 Reporter, August 8th, 1848. 



The inquiiy was started by the receipt of a sample of plantain meal 

 sent to Scotland from Surinam or Dutch Guiana. It is remarkable that 

 after an interval of nearly 50 years the starting of a factory for the 

 manufacture of plantain meal in the same Colony should once more 

 bring the subject into notice. 



Professor Johnston says : " Plantain meal is of a slightly brownish 

 colour, and has an agreeable odour, which becomes more perceptible 

 when warm water is poured upon it, and has a considerable resemblance 

 to that of orris root. 



" When mixed with cold water, it forms a feebly tenacious dough, 

 more adhesive than that of oatmeal, but much less so than that of 

 wheaten flour. When baked on a hot plate, this dough forms a cake 

 which is agreeable to the sense of smell, and is by no means unpleasant 

 to the taste 



" When boiling water is poured over the meal it is changed into a 

 transparent jelly, having an agreeable taste and smell. If it be boiled 

 with water it forms a thick gelatinous mass, very much like boiled 

 sago in colour, but possessing a peculiar pleasant odour." 



In the plantain "while green, the heart is white and insipid ; the 

 starch predominates, and it scarcely contains any sugar. In this state 

 it is roasted in the ashes, and at table takes the place of bread, 

 potatoes, maize, and other farinaceous food. In South America 

 they are dried entire in ovens, and become hard, brittle, and 

 translucid like horn. Under the name of "fifi' they are, in this 

 state, taken as travelling stores in sea voyages and long journeys by 

 land." 



