THE CURIOUS BANANA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 353, 19 April 1911, Page 3

THE CURIOUS BANANA.

One dojs not need to be very old to remember when a fresh banana was a curiosity, yet now the value ol the fruit annually imported approaches .£2,000,000, and at many of our large ports "banana steamers," specially built for the trade, are as familiar as colliers. There are those who maintain that the banana is identical with the forbidder fruit of Eden, but be that as it may, it was not generally known ir England until the early nineties o; last century. It came first in quantity from the Canary Islands, and the writer, who was there shortly after the business developed, found the Canarians under the impressior that their fortunes were to be made out of the new article of export. Unfortunately for them this idea ha,£ proved to be largely illusory, foi the same swift steamers and refrigerating apparatus that enabled the Canary fruit to reach English markets in good condition have been applied to fetch bananas from the West Indies and elsewhere, witt results disastrous to the price o the Canary product. The quality of bananas is as queei as everything else about them. The shades of difference in flavour are sc minute that, only experts can tell by,taste aloue where any particulai bunch has been imported from. Generally speaking Canary fruit is sweeter, and also smaller, than tht average from the West Indies. Oc the other hand there are qualities, such as that known as "ladies' fingers," grown in the latter, which are of exquisite flavour. Unfortunately these liner descriptions an so tender that they cannot beai transport to any distance, ever under the most modern conditions, and they are, therefore, seldom oi never seen in our markets. It may be news to some people that the productivity of the banana is infinitely greater than that ol any other food-bearing plant. According to Humboldt it yields 13c times more per acre than wheat, and 44 times more than the potato. It comes to maturity also much faster than either of these, for the first crop of bananas may be expected within six months of planting, and, after that, under suitable conditions, the plants will, without more attention than weeding, continue tc provide several crops yearly for ar indefinite period. The plants are commonly referred to as "trees," but they are not such, although they very often attain tree-like heights and dimensions. In tne view of the botanisl they have no proper stems, their "trunks" being formed by the piling up of the leaf sheathes, one oc top of the other, as the plant grows. It is on this column of sheathes that the fruit forms in big clusters which aic landed at our ports. These usually contain from l. r io to 200 bananas, and, as they are cut from the parent plant, they are suspended by the smaller end from poles for transport to the point of shipment, where they are similarly hung in the steamer's chill chambers. Incidentally it may be added that these great bunches commonly yield the grower only from sixpence to one shilling apiece, although, when they arrive here, they may be retailed at rates which yield, on the average, about fls. each, or sometimes considerably more. The grower, however, may very well be satisfied because, even at sixpence per bunch, an acre of bananas may easily enough be worth £l2O a year, while the costs of planting and c.i'ti. atiou are very small. It is one of the peculiarities of the banana, that it possesses no seeds ; it is grown entirely from cuttings, technically known as "suckers." How it propagated itself if it ever existed i:: a wild state —which is doubtful—,'s one of the problems which botanists have still to solve. There is a 1 i.eory that it once had seeds, which have disappeared because they were never allowed to rea-ch maturity ow-i'-.i, to the circumstance that the fruit is <--eldom allowed to ripen en the plant. In almost every instance, and especially where bananas have to be sold at ;> distance, the bunches must be cut when they are us green and hard as young cucumber,; if they are to reach the consumer in suitably rtpc condition. Oace the suekon; are planted, the, grower has little to do except to prevent other growths t'vom intruding upon t hem. It is one oC the singularities m' the banana plant that n.> insect, except perhaps the locu.'t, will touch it to its injury, whilst, in addition, it does its own watt ring. Its hie:, broad leaves attract to themselves any moisture existing in the atmosphere during darkiiess, and ii you pass a banana

' gr-a " oi a di y night you may 1:,';-,'■ the "drip-drop" of water fall- | in.; fiom leaf to leaf, and so to the i l;io;:ik1 above the roots of the j plants. With all this banana growing ought 'to be highly profitable, but it has it 1 ' iira'.v! aeks, oi which the chief lis the extremely perishable nature of ; the fruit. Even to lay down a ! bun:-h, instead of suspending it, may ' destroy the lot by causing a tiny lirni.se. from which decay spreads with extraordinary rapidity. Largely for this reason bananas cannot often bj sold on the plantation. The grower sends his produce to the nearest shipping port, and must accept ther? \vhat the exporter will give for it when he sees it. The exporter ships it on speculation, and if the steamer it is to go by is a day or two late he may have to pitch a. whole cargo over the wharf as a mass of rottenness, for the fruit will not keep nnchillcd for any length of time. When it does arrive at its destination it is often sold by auction for what it will fetch, and the buyers have, in turn, to take the risk of it going bad before it can be distributed to retailers. Thu.-s it is not wonderful that banana* are not cheaper in England, though elsewhere large populations live entirely upon them because they cost practically nothing. What is wanted is some simple process for preserving the large amount of nutrition in the fruit. A kind of flour is made from dried bananas, but, sc far, this has not met the difficulty, and a fortune awaits the inventor trho can overcome it.— ' Weekly Telegraph."