6-42 
July 3, 
Ruralisms 
The Yellow Banana.— The apple, 
the orange and the peach, as well as 
lesser fruits, have their seasons of- 
scarcity and abundance in the markets. 
By virtue of cold storage, apples are in 
evidence throughout the year, but are 
in low supply and of indifferent quality 
(hiring late Spring. Oranges arc little 
seen in Summer, while the peach van¬ 
ishes at the advent of Winter, only a 
few high-priced, but flabby and insipid 
specimens coming from South Africa 
about the holidays. The banana, how¬ 
ever, is always with us, particularly in 
the form of the common yellow variety 
that forms the cheap and dependable 
fruit lunch of millions. Opinions may 
differ as to the eating quality of the 
common banana as compared to the 
sprightly-flavored tree fruits, but all ad¬ 
mit its filling and satisfying nature, and 
the sanitary character of the easily- 
peeled fruits, the pulp not being exposed 
to infection until stripped for immediate 
consumption. As a culinary fruit it is 
not as well known, though in tropical 
countries the large cooking varieties 
literally form the staff of life for the 
great mass of inhabitants. Cooked ban¬ 
anas are, however, everywhere gaining 
in favor, and may now be found on 
many home tables as well as in preten¬ 
tious public menus. Bananas are grown 
to a limited extent in Florida, along the. 
Gulf coast, in southern California and 
generally in Porto Rico, but the great 
bulk of those consumed in the United 
.States is imported from Mexico, Cen¬ 
tral America and the West Indian 
Islands, Jamaica being by all odds the 
greatest contributor. Steamships, es¬ 
pecially fitted for carrying the fruits, 
arrive every week in the year at all 
principal ports on both coasts. 1 lie 
value of bananas imported in 1907 is 
given as $12,000,000, and there has since 
been a marked increase even in the face 
of full domest : c fruit crops, due, no 
doubt, to increasing appreciation of its 
useful qualities. Ninety-five per cent of 
the bananas found in northern markets 
are of the yellow Martinique variety, 
which may likened to the Kicffcr among 
pears, in that it is the most cheaply 
grown and readily transported, but 
lower in quality, than the Baracoa, or 
Red Spanish, the Lady-finger cr Hart’s 
Choice, with its thin skin and luscious 
pulp, the Dacca, richly flavored, with 
golden skin and cool, green tip, or the 
densely fruited Chinese or Cavendish 
bananas, with 200 or more delicious 
little fruits to the bunch. The above 
kinds occasionally appear in fruit stores, 
but the overwhelming majority of ba¬ 
nanas sold by street dealers at an ave¬ 
rage price of 20 cents the dozen are 
of the common yellow type above men¬ 
tioned. They are good and reliable, but 
not to be compared in quality to even 
the red one which is lately brought in 
more frequently than heretofore, and 
commands higher prices. 
Has Helped Out Jamaica. —The ba¬ 
nana trade has wonderfully assisted 
the Island of Jamaica out of the de¬ 
pression that followed the decline of the 
West Indian sugar industry, and has 
even tided it over the effects of the 
terrible earthquake that destroyed the 
chief city a few years ago. Practically 
the main revenue of the island comes 
from the sale of bananas to this 
country, thousands of acres of hitherto 
neglected sugar and coffee lands being 
used for the production of this useful 
fruit. Large plantings have been made 
at all available tropical points that can 
be reached by rail or water, and 
doubtless some good profits made, but 
investors should, as a rule, be wary as 
regards putting their money in shares of 
projected plantations, as the growing of 
bananas and other tropical fruits is a 
specialized industry, the outcome of 
which is always doubtful, even in exper¬ 
ienced hands. 
Species and Varieties.— The more 
prominent commercial varieties grown 
in or near the United States have been 
mentioned, but there are scores of oth¬ 
ers, less known, but of delightful ar¬ 
oma and flavor. The writer spent seye- 
ral weeks in a village on the Madeira 
River in western Brazil, that had for¬ 
merly been a mission station of some 
importance. The good fathers in the 
early part of the last century had estab¬ 
lished a considerab’e banana plantation, 
evidently bringing in a multitude of 
rare varieties from the far East. A se¬ 
vere earthquake had later changed the 
minor watercourses, flooding the planta¬ 
tion so that it could no longer be culti¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
vated, but numerous varieties had be¬ 
come established in the higher lands 
about, so that exploration constantly 
revealed new and delightful forms of 
this indispensable food plant. Great 
clusters of plantains, or cooking banan s 
could be found almost too heavy for a 
man to carry, the individual fruits of 
which were like a great cucumber. J4 to 
15 inches long; others were small, slen¬ 
der and of the richest flavor. Red, pur¬ 
ple, orange and yellow colors diversified 
the fruits of the different varieties, and 
the plants varied almost as greatly in 
stature and aspect as did the fruits. All 
probab'v could be included under two 
species, Musa Cavendishi. or Chinese ba¬ 
nana, and M. sapientum, the common 
edible banana. The latter is native to In¬ 
dia and is one of the oldest cultivated 
and most prolific of all plants producing 
human food. In suitable climates it 
probably requires the least care of any 
important economic plant. Many tropi¬ 
cal populations live almost exclusively 
on bananas and plantains produced by 
the different varieties of this species, 
and the kinds exported to temperate 
countries with scarcely an exception be¬ 
long to it. While best fitted for tropi¬ 
cal temperatures varying little from 70 
degrees Fahrenheit, it will endure oc¬ 
casional light frosts, and may be grown 
with slight protection in most locations 
where the Citrus fruits thrive. Plan¬ 
tains are merely strong-growing, coarse¬ 
grained varieties of M. sapientum, the 
fruits containing much starch and little 
sugar, only palatable when cooked. 
Certain sorts closely imitate the potato 
when boiled or roasted, and are almost 
as nourishing. The plants grow from 
12 to 20 feet high, with enormous 
broad leaves that are easily torn by 
wind. The leaf stalks clasp the fruiting 
stem, often forming a trunk almost as 
thick as a man’s body. Only one cluster 
of fruit is produced on a stem, which 
dies or is cut down at maturity, but 
others constantly spring from the fleshy 
root stocks, fruiting in 16 to 18 months 
under favorable conditions. Rich, hu¬ 
mid soils, abundant rain and steady 
warm temperature are the essentials of 
commercial banana culture, though the 
plant will long survive under adverse 
conditions, that do not include actual 
freezing. 
Musa Cavendishi appears to vary lit¬ 
tle, though the color of the fruits is not 
always uniform. Tt is a stocky little 
plant, seldom rising over six feet high, 
and consequently does not suffer greatly 
from wind. It is much cultivated in ex¬ 
posed localities in the South Sea Islands. 
It is a profuse bearer and the quality is 
excellent. Tt withstands cool weather, 
even frost, better than the common spe¬ 
cies, and should be grown for our mar¬ 
kets far more extensively than it now 
is. 
Musa Simiarum, of the older botan¬ 
ists, is probably only an extreme tropical 
form of M. sapientum. It is a giant of 
its kind, and chiefly abounds in the 
islands of the Indian Archipelago, 
where more than 50 appreciated varieties 
are cultivated. It will not endure chilly 
weather, and is rarely found in cultiva¬ 
tion in the Northern Hemisphere. The 
fruits sometimes attain to nearly two 
feet in length, and are usually of good 
flavor. One kind has fruits with dry, 
sweet, reddish flesh of fine cooking 
quality. This distinct sort was promi¬ 
nent among the many strange varieties 
found at the ancient Brazilian mission. 
Ornamental Bananas. —There are 
several banana species of the highest 
value as ornamental foliage plants. 
Musa Ensete from eastern Africa, is 
best known, and often used for bold 
tropical effects in decorative plantings. 
It is grown from seeds under glass, and 
bedded out in Summer like the Canna. 
As seen in northern countries, it seldom 
grows over 10 feet high, but in Abys¬ 
sinia it is one of the most luxuriant of 
all plants, the great leaves often being 
20 feet long and three feet wide. The 
fruits are dry, seedy and inedible. Oth¬ 
ers of this class are Musa Basjoo, the 
Japanese banana, with fine foliage 12 or 
more feet high, and a small cluster of 
dry and seedy fruits, and M. coccinea, 
dwarf, with green foliage and bright 
red and yellow flowers bracts. It is a 
native of China, and like M. Basjoo, 
bears cool weather well. Musa tex- 
tilis is extensively cultivated in the Phil¬ 
ippines, and is the most important of all 
cordage plants, produeng the well- 
known Manila hemp, used everywhere 
for coarse fabrics and binding twine. It 
grows about 20 feet high. The small 
green fruits are seedy and not edible. 
w. v. F. 
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