PLANTING. BANANAS.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 25, 12 January 1878, Page 2

PLANTING. BANANAS.

It is the ease with which bananas aregrown that is the great obstacle to civilisation m some tropical countries.. It is so easy to get a living without, work that no effort will over be made,, and the men become lazy and ititorler-. ably shiftless. All that is needed is to. stick a cutting into the ground. It wilt ripen its fruit m twelve or thirteen, months, without further- care, each, plant having 75 to 125. ba.na.nas, and when that dies down after fruiting*, new shots spring up to take its place,. In regions were no forst ever reaches,, bananas are found m all stages of growth, ripening their fruit everymotifch and every day m the year.. Col. Whitner, near Silver Lake, Florida, has probably the largest banana plan ta^ tion m the United States* cOntaining; fully 10*000 plants m hearing. Some, of these are lai*ge trees, which do not die after bearing their fruit* but the* majority are the dwarf species*, which are renewed every year. Slips : are planted about eight feet apart and. rapidly push up loaves, disclosing six. or eight small bananas behind this pro-, teetion.. Some plants will ha.ye sixteen or twenty leaves aud bunches of fruit,,bending over- as it ripens, forming a most beautiful sight. The Florida. Agriculturist states, that the- abovementioned plantation: is a failure, not. from any difficulty m growing the fruit,, but from want of transportation, to the= mailcet.