458 



THE PLANTAIN AND BANANA. 



A sucker attains maturity in a year ; each produces a bunch of fruit 

 weighing from 25 to 90 lbs. One tree gives 4 lbs. of fibre ; 600 lbs. 

 weight of fibre might be produced annually from each acre of plan- 

 tains. The plantain is used as a nurse or shade to the betel vine and 

 other plants. The top of the stem yields a juice good for making ink. 

 The fibre can furnish material for paper and canvas ; thus the plan- 

 tain gives food for body and mind. The Chinese use the young shoots 

 for paper-making ; 1607 square feet of ground yield 4000 lbs. of 

 nutritive substance from plantains, which will support 50 persons ; the 

 same space planted with wheat will support only 2. 



It is in season all the year round. The Dacca plantain is 9 inches 

 long ; in Madagascar the plantains are as large as a man's forearm. 

 In the mountains of the Philippines a single fruit or two is said to be 

 a load for a man. All the large ones requii-e, like potatoes, to be 

 roasted. 



Twelve months after planting 70 lbs. of fruit are often obtained 

 from a single plant. The south of Spain is the only part of Europe 

 in which the banana is cultivated in the open air.* 



There are 17,000 acres under plantain gardens in the Madras Presi- 

 dency, chiefly in Tinnevelly. 



The name of plantain and banana is very indiscriminately applied 

 in many countries where they are grown, but, properly speaking, the 

 term plantain is restricted to the larger plants, the fruits of which 

 are usually eaten cooked, while those of the banana, when ripe, being 

 more saccharine, can be eaten raw as fruit. The French call the 

 plantain " banane," andlhe bananas "bacoves" or fig bananas. Gene- 

 rally the pulp contains no seeds, but in Akyab and the Arracan 

 coast there exists a species which is full of seed. These are large, 

 black, and not unlike the cotton seed. The flavour, also, is very 

 inferior. 



The Poyat, or Martinique banana, grows to a very large size in 

 some districts, and would possibly yield more fibre than the common 

 plantain. 



I notice in a recent Trinidad paper the fact stated that, in former 

 years, 7^ million plantains were annually imported from the Spanish 

 Main to supply the capital, 9 millions being required in Port of Spain 

 alone. Although the foreign imports are now less, yet the increased 

 extension of the cultivation is recommended. 



The establishment of plantain walks for the annual production of 

 9 or 10 millions fruit will necessarily be a work of time, as plants for 

 any great number of stools require time and outlay to collect and carry. 

 A thousand plantain suckers take some gathering, and are not as easily 

 carried as tobacco seed, of which one can put as much as will sow 

 several acres in an envelope. It must take years to establish any 

 extensive plantain cultivation. A bunch of plantains of the kind 

 commonest here and on the Main (commonly called horse plantain) 

 does not consist of more than 20 to 25 fruit, and as it might not be 

 safe to reckon on more than 3 bunches fit to gather from the stool in 

 a year (generally stated at 4 during the 12 months), one cannot 

 reckon on an acre, with the stools planted at 10 feet apart, producing 

 * Long's ' Plants of Bengal.' 



