THE BANANA. 



439 



its tall stature. In the more southern portions of Florida,, 

 especially along the coasts, the raising of bananas for market has 

 become quite an important industry, and even much further 

 north in the State, where occasional frosts catch the plants and 

 kill them to the roots. They are raised in no inconsiderable quan- 

 tities, and when one remembers the amount of fruit they bear, in 

 proportion to the ground they occupy and the care they receive, 

 it is no wonder that they should be planted wherever there is the 

 least chance of their perfecting their fruit. 



One acre of bananas will produce as much actual food as 

 forty acres of potatoes or two hundred acres of wheat ; therefore, 

 in eating one banana we obtain as much nutriment as if we had 

 swallowed forty potatoes ! Besides their food value, bananas are 

 general favorites, simply as fruit, find we rarely meet with a per- 

 son who is not fond of them ; thei-efore, wherever they have any 

 chance of reaching maturity. The Floridian sets out his 

 banana plants, many or few, according to circumstances. 



North of the twenty-ninth degree they are killed to the 

 ground almost every winter ; south of the twenty-seventh they are 

 seldom touched by frost ; while in the intermediate latitude they" 

 do well, rarely losing more than their leaves, and not always 

 those. 



The banana likes a rich, warm soil — sandy loam is the best ;; 

 it does well on moderately moist land, but better on dry, if kept 

 mulched. 



In setting out a plantation of bananas, the young plants 

 should be placed in rows eight feet apart, and nine feet apart in 

 the rows, so set that each plant will be opposite the centre of the 

 vacant space in the next row. 



By pursuing this plan they will shelter each other, and yet 

 will not ward off the rays of the sun, of which they cannot have- 

 too much ; and moreover, a consideration not to be disputed,, 

 their broad leaves will furnish just the amount of shade required 

 by garden vegetables during mid-summer, and the fertilizers and 

 cultivation applied to the latter will also benefit the bananas. 



» In preparing for the plants, holes three feet wide and twa 

 feet deep should be dug, and a rich compost of rotted leaves^ 



