Edible Products. 



24 



[July, 1911. 



been found capable of growing magni- 

 ficent crops of bananas with very little 

 modification of the forces of Nature. 



It was ascertained very early in the 

 history of the industry in Jamaica that 

 the banana could not stand stagnation 

 of soil. It was assumed that this crop 

 could not be grown on the rich clays 

 the St. Mary hills, and that the banana 

 land in that entire parish was restricted 

 to the alluvial bottoms and glades of 

 rich, friable soil. 



During the past decade the pioneers 

 in St. Mary have demonstrated that 

 from the very summits of the hilis to 

 the deepest glades, from the undulating 

 folds of the upland hills to the flat clays 

 of the coastal region theie is hardly an 

 acre of land that cannot be made to 

 produce good bananas. 



A bird's-eye view of this parish may 

 now be likened to a vast expanse of 

 bananas, and as new roads are opened 

 out into the outlying areas an ever 

 increasing spread of this cultivation is 

 steadily taking place. 



The chief cultural problems in St. 

 Mary have been drainage, both on the 

 flat and on hilly lands, and a lack of 

 humus on the old lands which in some 

 cases had grown canes continually for 

 over a century before they were planted 

 up in bananas. These problems have 

 been tackled by the planters in that 

 parish with the most remarkable success, 

 and the results of contour drains on 

 steep hillsides and of deep mains in the 

 flat clay lands have shown that the 

 heavy soils, when properly treated, are 

 the best and most productive banana 

 soils in the parish, while the growing of 

 green crops and implemental tillage 

 have restored worn soils to a pitch of 

 full productivity. 



In the parish of Trelawny are found 

 some of the richest soils in the Island, 



but owing to the droughts that perio- 

 dically occur, the bananas were found to 

 be apt to dry out. The Trelawny sugar 

 planters have long led the way in the 

 art of mulching, and by the application 

 of the grass mulch on a liberal scale on 

 these old sugar lands it has been de- 

 monstrated that profitable crops of 

 bananas can be grown despite the most 

 adverse conditions of rainfall. 



Even on the 'red-dirt' derived from 

 the limestone it has been shown that 

 good crops of bananas can be grown 

 in such a parish as St. Ann by the judi- 

 cious use of the mulch. 



It is gradually dawning on our agri- 

 culturists that there are few cultivable 

 soils in Jamaica below 1,500 feet in 

 elevation where bananas cannot be 

 grcwn by suitable methods of cultiva- 

 tion, drainage, mulching or irrigation 

 where that is available. 



In 1901 the writer commenced a study 

 of the banana soils of the Island, the 

 results of which appeared in the Bulletin 

 from time to time, but as the years roll 

 by so the range becomes wider and 

 wider, until to-day it is hardly possible 

 to classify any particular grades or 

 types of soil as ' banana land.' If the 

 working basis of the latest and most 

 progressive cultivators be regarded, it 

 would appear that a 1 banana soil ' and a 

 ' cultivated soil ' will soon be synony- 

 mous in Jamaica. 



It would appear highly probable that 

 many soils that have been tested under 

 inadequate conditions of drainage or of 

 tillage may in the near future yield 

 success to planters with more enterprise 

 and knowledge than their predecessors 

 who have tried and failed. 



For present purpose's, a few soils 

 typical of different classes and types of 

 land on which bananas are grown with 

 success have been selected, and their 

 composition and analysis here set forth. 



