WHO INVENTED THE BANANA?.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 47, 1 May 1930, Page 9

WHO INVENTED THE BANANA?.

The banana is such a popular and familiar fruit to_-day that it seems almost impossible to think of it as unknown fifty years ago, when the fathers of -to-day were boys.

Yet the first bananas imported commercially into England came from Madiera only in IS7B. Four years Itftex some were brought from the Canary IsJes, but until the beginning of the present century these were only seen in. those very expensive shops in the West End of London, and -such places where exotic rareties, like yams and bread-fruit, were shown, more as exhibits than for sale.

' A writer has said, "The banana is the most mirth-evoking of all fruits. It finds its way into music-hall songs; it is what the funny man slips onj and the state of those who have no bananas to-day always arouses more ridicule than pity. Yet the banana is no joke at all, but a very serious matter of industry and of exports to some of our West Indian possessions." ,

It was a great British shipping firm that really invented the banas as a food f r British people. This firm built, special steamers and brought the banana from the West Indies in millions, and ■they are still doing this good dork—for good work it. is.

It; is the most.Wonderful food in the world; 4,000 pounds of bananas will grow on- the same space of ground foom which can ,be raised only 99 pounds of potatoes or 33 pounds^of wheat; and w-hile the potatoes and the wheat require care and attention, the banana needs no cultivation beyong the removal of the old stalks^as they wither. tfuTther, this fruit is exceedingly nourishihgy an,d can be eaten fresh ot dried. Hundreds of thousands of natives in the countries where it grow live, on nothing else. They eat the fresh fruit; they dry it and grind it for flour; they make a beverage of it; they use the leaves of it for thatching their houses; and from the fiibTe of the stalks' i>h<jy weave their clothing. -

The banana was originally found growing wild in the tropical East, but it is now cultivated in ail tropical and sub,tropical>countries. Nearly two hundred varieties'are known, but all have the same familial', shape, though not all have the same yellow coIout; red bananas are sometimes seen on stalls in the streets of our cities-

Although the plant looks like a palm tree, it. is really only a herb, and the great stem is absolutely destitute of woody matter. A single -huge bud, which, springs from the crown of leaves at 4he top, turns down and eventually develops into a bunch of bananas weighing 30 or 40 pounds. After the bunch is gathered, t»he stem is cut down to the roots,' but at grows' up again

lilce grass,

Not only have special ships been built to "bring the banas to England, but there are special express trains to carry them to the centres of population.

While the fruit grows in the open only- in warm countries ,if is grown indooTS in many places in England, such as Kek Gardens, the Botanical Gardens at Cambridge, on certain private estates, and so -on, and fine bunches of fruit result.

Certainly the firm that invented the banana as a popular-food for British people deserves high praise.