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bananas that they might be made use of in all climates, not merely as 

 fruit, but in the form of meal to be cooked as gruel, puddings, &c. 



In Jamaica it is of great importance to discover some plan for the 

 utilization of the fruit, which at present is wasted, — the small bunches, 

 and those that are unfit for export for other reasons, such as bruising or 

 over-ripeness. 



A Committee of the Board of Governors of the Jamaica Institute, 

 with the Director of Public Gardens as Chairman, investigated this sub- 

 ject some time ago, but the conclusion arrived at then was that the data 

 in their possession were not such as to encourage any hopes of planters 

 being able to manufacture the waste bananas themselves or dispose 

 of them to a factory. The Director has, however, been making en- 

 quiries in London, and has had an interview with a Dutch engineer, 

 Mr. Hartogh, who has invented machinery for the conversion of bana- 

 nas into various products. The specimens seen of these products were 

 of excellent quality, and it is interesting to note that the peel can be 

 used in certain cases for manufacture as well as the pulp of the fruit. 

 The prospects of this new industry are now more hopeful, and it seems 

 probable that factories will be started in Jamaica for the utilization of 

 bananas that now are wasted. 



Mr. Hartogh, after seeing the references to bananas in Stanle} r, s 

 book, visited Dutch Guiana in 1892, with the object of studying the 

 prepartion of bananas so as to utilise the large proportion of 

 starch contained in them for food, and for other industrial pur- 

 poses. He invented various machines, and has prepared dif- 

 ferent products from the banana, which have been submitted for analy- 

 sis and test to specialists in all the industries in which starch pro- 

 ducts are employed. 



Whether his special methods are of such a nature as to be profitable 

 both to the planter and the manufacturer, the results of the tests to 

 which the products have been submitted will be interesting to all 

 growers of bananas. They have been published in connection with an 

 exhibit in the Antwerp Exhibition of this year, made by the " Stanley 

 Syndicate," which has been founded by Mr. Hartogh, and by Mr. Asser, 

 Civil Engineer at the H ague, who acts as Secretary. An experimen- 

 tal factory has for some time been at work in Dutch Guiana. 



Among others, experiments on a large scale have been carried out 

 in Mr. Kalhke's manufactory of yeast and alcohol at Konigsberg, and 

 at his request in a laboratory at Berlin. An account of these experi- 

 ments was published in the weekly paper " Alcohol," in its numbers 

 10, 11, 12 and 15. The use of banana flour is regarded in this periodi- 

 cal as opening a perfectly new prospect for the industry in question. 

 It is affirmed that the richness of banana flour in starch is in a special 

 state which facilitates in a most remarkable manner the production of 



" banana. All banana lands — Cuba, Brazil, the West Indies — seem to 

 " me to have been specially remiss on this point. If only the virtues 

 " of the flour were publicly known, it is not to be doubted but it would 

 u be largely consumed in Europe. For infants, persons of delicate di 

 " gestion, dyspeptics, and those suffering from temporary derange- 

 " ments of the stomach, the flour, properly prepared, would be of uni- 

 " versal demand. During my two attacks of gastritis, a light gruel of 

 " this, mixed with milk, was the only matter that could be digested." 



