84 



" The great advantage," according to a New York correspondent, 

 of the application of the desiccating process to bananas would be that 

 it would' enable us to turn to account a quantity of raw material 

 which now goes to waste. There is practically no limit to the 

 amount of bananas which we could get from the islands if we could 

 use them. They are shipped green and ripen on the voyage. When 

 they arrive here it is calculated that they will be fit for table use. 

 But they are very perishable property. If they are not consumed 

 within a week after their arrival vast quantities rot and are thrown 

 away. Strings of banana waggons perambulate the city seeking 

 purchasers at nominal prices, because if immediate sales cannot be 

 effected the contents of the waggons will be a total loss. 



" If we had a desiccating plant that could convert the fruit into dried 

 fruit or flour we could largely increase our importations and turn out 

 a product which would command a sale all over the coast and in the 

 East." 



The manufacture of banana meal in the United States would have a 

 certain amount of protection from outside competition, for while there 

 is no duty, or a small one, on the fresh fruit, there is a duty of 20 per 

 cent, on banana meal as a manufactured product. 



Jamaica. 



The enormous production of bananas in Jamaica has already been 

 noticed. In this island bunches of a certain size only possess a marketable 

 value. All others are practically useless except for consumption locally, 

 and already the supply Lor this is greatly in excess of the demand. As 

 Jamaica is at present the largest producer of bananas for export, it 

 follows that the preparation of banana meal would have a wider scope in 

 this island than probably anywhere else. A sample of what was called 

 banana flour prepared in Jamaica was communicated to Kew in 1892. 

 This was analysed by Professor Church, F.R.S., with the result already 

 given. 



Some years ago plantain meal — as distinct from banana meal — was 

 in use at the Public Hospital in Kingston, and was considered a whole- 

 some and nutritious food. It formed an excellent diet for patients 

 suffering from diarrhoea, dysentery, and allied ailments. This is con- 

 firmed by experience in India. " Flour made out of green plantain 

 dried in the sun is used in the form of chappatis (unleavened cakes) 

 in certain parts of Tirhoot in cases of dyspepsia with troublesome 

 flatulence and acidity. I have known," says a medical officer, " one 

 case in which it agreed remarkably well whenever a diet of plain sago 

 and water brought on a severe attack of colic. The chappatis are 

 taken dry with a little salt." There is always present in plantain meal a 

 certain small percentage of tannin. 



In a report on the Exhibits sent from Jamaica to the Chicago 

 Exhibition, 1893, Colonel Ward, C.M.G., the Commissioner, makes 

 the following remarks on the subject of banana meal and preserved 

 bananas : — 



" The banana meal engaged the careful attention of several of the 

 leading grocers in Chicago and elsewhere. One large house in Chicago, 

 Sprague, Warner, & Co., after testing samples of this meal was so 

 pleased with the result that it offered to undertake to introduce it as a 

 food for infants and invalids, provided the producers would guarantee to 

 supply the necessary amount to. advertise it extensively throughout the 

 United States. Messrs. Sprague, Warner, & Co. estimated that a sum of 



