THE BANANA. 



141 



their race, and the fruit of each is yellow when ripe, but these 

 are the only main points of resemblance. 



Hart's Choice, or Golden Early, a native of the Bahamas, 

 is stout of stem, and does not break down beneath the weight of 

 its fruit in a gale, as the Horse banana frequently does. It 

 blossoms early, and in warm weather the fruit may be cut in 

 ninety days thereafter. The other variety is often from one 

 hundred to one hundred and twenty days in ripening. Hart's 

 Choice bears from fifty to one hundred bananas in a cluster. 

 The fruit is four inches long and one and a half in diameter, 

 with a clear, golden-yellow skin, slim as a kid glove ; the flesh 

 is firm, yet melting and buttery, sweet and highly aromatic, but 

 not musky, like so many of the banana tribe. 



There is no finer banana than this in the world, and 

 Florida owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. C. H. Hart, of Federal 

 Point, whose twelve years' patient eflfbrts and experiments led 

 at last to the discovery of the " Hart's Choice " banana, or as 

 some of our nuserymen have chose to call it, " Golden Early." 



Sooner or later, for it varies greatly as to time, the banana ^ 

 plant will send up suckers from its roots, which in due time are 

 to take its place ; for the banana, like the pine-apple, bears fruit 

 but once, and then, if not cut down when the latter is removed, 

 it will soon fall prone on the ground. The best plan is to chop 

 it up (an easy matter) in small pieces, and bury them near the 

 growing plant, as the decaying leaves and stems of a banana 

 plantation furnish it with no small amount of fertilizing material. 



The banana will often send up from five to ten suckers, 

 and these should not all be allowed to remain ; if they are, the 

 result will be small, stunted plants and fruit. Two are enough 

 to leave with the parent plant; the others should be trans- 

 planted when about three feet high. 



It is a fact not generally known or noted that from trans- 

 planted suckers no great results in fr'uit will be obtained. The 

 planter must look for the heaviest fruiting to those stalks that 

 have come up from the parent root and have never been 

 disturbed. Heavy mulching during the summer months will 

 be found of great utility. 



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