In Bomo European gardens the Chinese banana 
is grown in glass-houses, for its fruit alone, and 
that moat successfully, too; bunches weighing 
from 40 to 70 pounds being produced. A soil of 
turfj’ luarn and old manure is used, a high tem¬ 
perature is employed, and lots of moisture at 
the root, overhead and in the atmosphere given. 
This species oftou fruits in the greenhouses 
THE BANANA 
A SELF-BINDING HARVESTER 
WILLIAM FALCONEU. 
Banana plants are indigenous to the tropical 
world whore they aro widely distributed and 
have been cultivated for their fruit by sav¬ 
age as well as civilized peoples, from timo 
immemorial. Tho amount or fruit they 
boar, in proportion to tho ground they oc¬ 
cupy and the citro they receive, is enor¬ 
mous; and they »io almost tho solo suste¬ 
nance of millions of human beings. In 
Florida, and some other parts along tho 
coast of tho Gulf of Mexico, banana-raising 
is quite an important industry. A gentle¬ 
man of Tallahassee, Florida, writing to mo 
ayoiror two ago, said: ‘'Banana plants 
aro worth 25 to 30 cents each. They come 
from suckers from around tho old plant. 
Each plant will give from eight to ten year¬ 
ly. Wo plant 435 bearing plants to the aoro, ,, 
and they boar fruit from llfloen to eight- (S 
con months after being set out." nf 
Musa sapiontum is the banana of com¬ 
merce, and M. paradisiaoa tho plantain. 
Both of these species aro so nearly allied, 
that Borne of their vaiotios defy botanical 
distinction. The banana plant has purple 
spots on its stem, and its fruits are shorter 
and rounder than those of the plantain. Ih 
But in cultivation there are varieties of 
both specieB that aro groatly superior to 
the originals. There arc many species of 
Musa, however, anil all useful in their 
way. Besides those mentioned, the Chinese ban 
ana, M. Sinensis [see out], is a dwarf, quick 
growing aud heavily-fruitiug species that, in some 
of tho British colonies 
and Facitio islands, is a 
being successfully cut- a 1 mill 
tivated. This is tho \ I | ill I f\ 
kind most generally V\\\\ j 111 M I 
met with in groen- vy}‘ 1 * | flllf j| ,, 
houses. All (he Mu- ^ t I] Vi ijf 
sas contain a deal of \\ yuYii Ifl I I I i 
Jibrous tissue in their \\Y\\v| rT I I !' 
leaf-stalks; tho most \\ \ A| || I III I I 
noticeable in tliis case M\M[ 11 Ill'll 
being M. toxtilis, V\l\l 11 lj ! 1/ 
which is largely plant- 1\ Vm Jrvh w II 
ed in tho East and \\ ' W //J!/lj 
West Indies, Malayan 11 V | 
and Philippine jft\ 11 1 I w!M 
Islands. The liber is 1M | 1 WW 
known as Manilla ^ V if W 
hemp. The finer ma- ill V jll If 
terial is used in the ||| Jk/j 
manufacture of |i i \l 
shawls and othor fab- JV ftJ , y 
l'ios, aud tho rougher Emflf [mi 
for ship-cordage; it fwJ * )I 
iH also used in paper- tml j.Jl 
making. Banana M: IJj 
plauts aro likewise m j 
Wk refer to Walter A. Wood’s Self-Binding 
Harvester. The oentral-western part of the 
last fall. 
Banana plants may bo introduced to tho sum- 
mor flower-garden with oxcollont effect, grouped 
with othor sub-tropical plants in hods or borders, 
or, better still, isolated in sheltered nooks. 
They may bo planted out, or if preferred, kept 
in pots and tho pots plunged out of sight. But 
in all casoB thoy want sheltered positions, other¬ 
wise their loaves will bo torn to shreds by tho 
winds. Thoy should never suffer for the want 
of water, aud liquid manure is highly appreciated. 
Cambridge Hot. Garden. 
[In addition to tho above we need add, at this 
time, onlv a few remarks. The outs aro after 
self-binder — for years tho dream of practical 
men. Tho firm owning the patents covering the 
binder in question, had expended, it is said, 
upwards of one hundred thousand dollars hi ex¬ 
perimenting before one was produced that was 
considered as fully up to the standard required 
by the exacting ideal of tho inventor. 
Such an expenditure on a problem whose suc¬ 
cessful solution was by no means a foregone 
conclusion, was extraordinary. 
Although the binder had been in use to a 
limited extent previously to the Centennial, it 
was not until the Field TrialH, held under the 
auspices of the Commission, that it came promi¬ 
nently into notice. Mr. John Coleman, English 
Commissioner, in his report to the Loyal Agri¬ 
cultural Society, says: 
“ The great feature of this department, and 
in fact of the whole Agricultural Exhibition, 
was the automatic binder, the realization of a 
long-cherished notion on which mechanics have 
boon ongaged for years." 
It was the good fortune of American invontivo 
genius to have its triumph accentuated at our 
Contenary, creating a new era in mechanics 
applied to agriculture, as did tho Amorican 
reaper at the London Exhibition in 1861. 
It is seldom that a new tiling so rapidly over¬ 
comes conservative prejudice as has the Walter 
A. Wood Binder. Mr. Oliver Dalrvmi-le, a 
gentleman who in 1877 had 7,500 acres in grain, 
and who this soasou increasing his acreage, will 
nso seventy-six Belf-binding harvesters, writes to 
Mr. W. A. Wood, under date August 20, 1877, as 
follows: 
“ Justice requires that the wheut-growers of tho 
West should express In you the gratitude 1 have uo 
doubt they share with lue. for tho enterprise and por- 
Boverauoe you have man 1 rested m brimring out a 
Holf-lllndlug Harvesting Machine that may bo de¬ 
pended on. I UHed ten of your Haulers last season, 
harvesting 1,880 acres with thorn, and this year I 
bought thirty-oil* more, and have with tho forty-one 
MUSA I N ETK MUSA JOMIUCTJS. 
Traiiavursn snotion Seed soon from 
of seed. below. 
Lo Maout, Deoaisneaud Hooker, and represent 
parts of the Musa Sinensis and Musa onsote. 
Respecting tho cultivation of tho banana, as 
adapted to our Southern States, wo hope to fur¬ 
nish notes at a future day. Under favorable 
conditions a banana plant (varieties of Musa 
sapientuni) will produoe, on on average, in one 
year, throo bunoheB of fruit, oaoh weighiug 
44 pounds; those would yield for every throe 
acres, in hot climates, 404,800 pounds of ban¬ 
anas, and in conn tries on tho limits of its cul¬ 
ture, 140,800 pounds. 
As an ornamental plant wo wish tho banana 
was bettor known. All of the variation aro de¬ 
sirable for the conservatory, but M. onsets is in 
every way desirable us an out-door plaut us well. 
In the house, bosides presenting one of tho no¬ 
blest types of vegetation, it stands the dust and 
heat just as well as scores of quite inforior 
plauts which are prized ouly for their largo 
leaves. Out of doors, wo have found that the 
leaves of this species are less toru than those of 
tho others, ami a single specimen placed last 
Biiuiuicr in a position exposed to the north and 
west winds, was the admiration of those who 
saw it.—E ds. I 
i '’i j I | woleman, he says: 
I 1 *' ' “I 11111 aware that a 
I Strong prejudice ox- 
hi!) ists against it, which 
1 1 W ^ a ^ m it to have 
Jin shared In previous to 
mW j/ personal experience; 
yjMjF , j but whloh iBnow en- 
| tiroly removed from 
musa knsktk. my mind. Theobjeo- 
Fruit. tions aro that how¬ 
ever carefully handled, portions will pass through 
the thresher cutting up like chaff. The wiro 
can be prevented from entering the thresher at 
all by the use of a pair of forceps, which, while 
they out the wire, retain it in their clasp. The 
man who attends to the feeder has this work to 
do. The wire cannot bo used again, but its sale 
would pay for a good deal of the cost.” 
We havo noted the performances of this 
Binder as olosely as opportunity permitted from 
the dato of its appearauco at the Field Trials, 
feeling the importance of the interests involved 
in the successful working of such mechanism. 
A word in regard to tho remarkable factory 
where they aro made will not be without interest, 
as its extent and the magnitude of its operations 
are quite as conspicuous in their way as is the 
Binder itself. 
Tho Walter A. WoodMowiug and Reaping Ma¬ 
chine Co. has established at Hoosiok Falls, 
N. Y,, U. 8. A., probably tho most extensive 
works in the world for tho manufacture of agri¬ 
cultural maohinery, having made and sold up to 
tho beginning of this year, 277,027 machines. 
They omploy two gangs of 1,000 men who work 
night and day alternately, tho product of whose 
work is some twoiity-iivo thousand machines 
yearly, distributed about as follows : Ten thou¬ 
sand mowers, nine thousand reapers, and six 
thousand self-binders. This immense product is 
for the domestic and foreign trade; about one- 
third going abroad. This year a new sweep-rake 
reaper and an improved light mower are the nov¬ 
elties. But to a visitor everything is novel. Where 
one hundred aud twonty-flve finished machines 
aro made, daily it aeoma, on walking through tho 
Bhops, that they positively grow before the vis¬ 
itor’s eyes. Mr. Wood, the president of the 
