November, 1909.] 



423 



Edible Products- 



fruit have been grown year after year 

 on the Brisbane River and on Oxley 

 Creek, where potatoes, pumpkins, and 

 sweet potatoes have been killed by frost. 

 As a rule, the taller the variety, the 

 warmer and moister must be the climate. 

 The banana also thrives best in the 

 neighbourhood of the sea, the plant 

 containing a certain amount of salt, 

 which may be looked upon as necessary 

 for its well-being. 



In the Southern part of the State its 

 cultivation is entirely in the hands of 

 white growers who have been growing 

 it on suitable soil in suitable localities 

 for the past fifty years. Mr. Benson 

 says he saw a plantation that was set out 

 twenty years ago, and the present plants 

 are still healthy and bearing good 

 bunches of well-filled fruit, so that there 

 is no question as to the suitability of 

 soil or climate- Bananas do best on rich 

 scrub soil, and it is no detriment to their 

 growth if it is more or less covered with 

 stones (as may be verified by a visit to 

 the banana groves at Brookfield, near 

 Brisbane), so long as there is sufficient 

 soil to set the young plants. Shelter 

 from heavy or cold winds is an advant- 

 age, and the plants thrive better under 

 these conditions than when planted in 

 more exposed positions. Bananas are 

 frequently the first crop planted in 

 newly burnt-off scrub land, as they do not 

 require any special preparation of such 

 land ; and the large amount of ash and 

 partially burnt and decomposed vege- 

 table mould provide an ample supply of 

 food for the plant's use. Bananas are 

 rank feeders, so that this abundance of 

 available plant food causes a rapid 

 growth, and produces fine plants and 

 correspondingly large bunches of fruit 

 weighing as much as from 60 lb. to 80 lb. 

 Though newly burnt-off scrub land is 

 the best for this fruit, it can be grown 

 successfully in land that has been under 

 cultivation for many years, provided 

 that the land is rich enough naturally, 

 or its fertility is maintained by judicious 

 green and other manuring. In newly 

 burnt-off scrub land all that is neces- 

 sary is to dig holes 15 to 18 in. in diameter, 

 and about 2 ft. deep, set the young 

 plants in it, and partly fill in the hole 

 with good top soil. The young plant, 

 which consists of a sucker taken from 

 an older plant, will soon take root and 

 grow rapidly under favourable condi- 

 tions, producing its first bunch in from 

 ten to twelve months after planting. 

 At the same time that it is producing its 

 first bunch it will send up two or more 

 suckers at the base of the parent plant, 

 and these in turn will bear fruit, and 

 so on, After bearing, the stalk that has 



produced the bunch of fruit is cut down ; 

 if this is not done, it will die down, as 

 its work has been completed, and other 

 suckers take its place. Too many 

 suckers should not be allowed to grow, 

 or the plants will become too crowded, 

 and be consequently stunted and pro- 

 duce small bunches. All the cultivation 

 that is necessary is the keeping down of 

 weed growth, and this, once the plants 

 occupy the whole of the land, is not a 

 hard matter. A plantation is at its best 

 when about three years old, but remains 

 profitable for six years or longer ; in fact, 

 there are many plantations still bearing 

 good fruit that have been planted from 

 twelve to twenty years. Small-growing 

 or dwarf kinds, such as the Cavendish 

 variety, are planted at from 12 to 15 ft. 

 apart each way, but large-growing bana- 

 nas, such as the Sugar and Lady's 

 Finger, require from 20 to 25 ft. apart 

 each way, as do the stronger-growiug 

 varieties of plantain. Plantains are 

 not grown to any extent in Queens- 

 land, and our principal varieties are 

 those already mentioned, the Cavendish 

 variety greatly predominating. In the 

 North, the cultivation of this latter 

 variety is carried out on an extensive 

 scale, principally by Chinese gardeners, 

 who send the bulk of their produce to 

 the Southern States of the Common- 

 wealth. The industry supports a large 

 number of persons other than the actual 

 producers of the fruit, and forms one of 

 our principal articles of export from the 

 North. As many as 20,000 or more large 

 bunches of bananas frequently leave by 

 a single steamer for the South, and the 

 bringing of this quantity to the port of 

 shipment gives employment to a num- 

 ber of men on train lines and small 

 coastal steamers. The shipment of a 

 heavy cargo of bananas presents a very 

 busy scene that is not soon forgotten, 

 the thousands of bunches of fruit that 

 are either piled up on the wharf or that 

 are being unloaded from railway trucks, 

 small steamers or sometimes Chinese 

 junks, forming such a mass of fruit that 

 one often wonders how it is possible to 

 consume it all before it becomes over- 

 ripe. Still, it is consumed, or, at any 

 rate, the greater portion of it is, as it 

 is the universal fruit of the less wealthy 

 portion of the community, the price at 

 which it can be sold being so low that 

 it is within the reach of everyone. A 

 banana garden in full bearing is a very 

 pretty sight, the thousands of plants, 

 each with their one or more bunches 

 of fruit, as where there are several stems 

 it is not at all uncommon to find two 

 or more bunches of fruit in different 

 states of development on the same plant, 

 forming a mass of vegetation that must 



