VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS. 
353 
and red varieties are grown, and the former some¬ 
times have two hundred and fifty bananas on a bunch, 
weighing, unripe, ninety pounds. The plantain is yellow 
when ripe (I have never seen a red variety), and is much 
larger and more curved than a banana, while the bunches 
are looser and much smaller, seldom numbering more 
than thirty-five fruits. Some plantains attain a length 
of fifteen inches, and some are quite palatable uncooked ; 
but the usual way to eat them is either baked or fried. 
Few of our Northerners appreciate the wonderful nu¬ 
tritive qualities of the plantain, which in this respect 
surpasses the banana; .and it may be authoritatively 
stated that sixteen hundred and seven square feet of 
rich land will produce four thousand pounds of nutritive 
substance from plantains, which will support fifty per¬ 
sons, while the same land planted with wheat will support 
but two. When the plantain is dried, it will keep from 
twenty to thirty years; and if dried before ripening, an 
admirable meal (better than arrow r root) can be made 
from the ground white fruits, while the ripe fruit forms a 
conserve not unlike a fig in flavor, and of course free 
from the seeds so troublesome in that fruit. One hun¬ 
dred parts of the fresh fruit contain twenty-seven parts 
of nutritive matter, easily digested and superior to pure 
starch. The comparative cost and profit of the two fruits, 
may be thus stated : — 
Cost of one acre of land 
. $1.00 
Banana. 
Plantain. 
Clearing and planting . 
. 20.00 
300 bunches 
15,000 fruits 
430 stools .... 
2.50 
at .50 
at $1.25 
Care to first crop . 
Shipping .... 
. 10.00 
. 10.00 
less cost 
per hundred 
$43.50 
23 
$106.50 
$144.00 
