;B 379 B2 P5 opy 1 9 SB 379 .B2 P5 Copy 1 BANANAS THE GOLDEN TREASURE OF THE TROPICS By EDWARD W, PERRY PRICE I C CENTS COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HARRY WILKIN PERRY UBRARY of JONGRESS fwu Copies rtectiiveu JUN 29 1905 Joyvnufii tiiirv xJTuH ^0, if OS OUiSS >9 XXC. Nut COPY /Ao ^3.5^ c; ^5^^= REVISED EDITION NOTE The chapter given in the following pages is from a work entitled : "Tropical America : Its Planters and Planta- tions," now in preparation. Sforfs Afield said of the author: "Probably no American is more competent to write of the country life than is this author, who, because of his long-trained habits of observation, careful search for the Dottom facts and weighing of details, of deducing therefrom the essentials and presenting them clearly and concisely, has made the best possible use of his time and experience." THE GOLDEN TREASURE OF THE TROPICS. Nature's Institution for the Promotion of Laziness. Bananas: What They are, how they grow, what they cost, and what they GIVE to man. Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, mayhap long- before that Old World arose from the waters, man lived on the fruit of the Musas. There are many who would tell }ou that the banana is the fruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam ; and that evidence of the truth of this may be found in the fact that, if one will cut across a banana, of the right kind, he may find in its heart the sign of the cross ; and in the other fact that men of learning have given to a family of bananas the name of Miisa paradisiaca, which being interpreted means the fruit of paradise, and to another family they have given the name Musa sapicntiiui, which the sapient know means the fruit of knowledge. Less evidence has served well enough to burn heretics at the stake. LIMITED AREA OF BANANA LAND 5 Man has carried this gigantic herb to every warm and fertile spot in a belt that girdles the waist of the globe — a girdle that is four thousand miles and more in width. Unfortunately for humanity at large, however profitable the fact may become for the lucky few who grow the fruit, great areas of that belt are high, dry or sterile ; others are sandy or rocky deserts, and an immense part of the belt is covered by oceans, so that only a small area is suited to the banana, and of that area only a frac- tion is so located that banana growing can be made largely profitable. Yet millions imcounted have looked to it for the chief of their diet, as other mil- lions have looked to the cereals. And to this hour puling babes and doddering ancients are fed with the fruit in all its stages and conditions, green or over-ripe, raw or roasted, baked or fried, liquid or dried. At least forty species of the Musas are known and described, and of these there are fully eighty- five sub-varieties. The fruit of some of these is of most delicate and agreeable flavor, while that of others is rank and disagreeable. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the single man of the tropics to take unto himself a help meet for him, and to provide for other events likely to come after, he selects some fertile spot, usually on the border of waters over which his canoe may easily carry the bulky harvests he will have ; and there he cuts down tree and vine. HOW BANANAS GROW bush and bamboo, and lets them He as they fall in tangled mass. Every day the ardent sun helps the constant wind to shrivel leaf and twig until, one day, the windward edge of that snarl is touched by the torch, and in a moment a blazing hades is where a cool and shady grove will soon rustle in the breeze. When the last flame has flickered out and the coals lie dead beneath their gray shroud, women paddle to that place with canoes laden with banana sprouts. With machetes they dig little pits amid charred stumps and trunks and branches, and in each hole they set a sprout. Then they go away to wait, and rest ; and the sun shines warmly down into that clearing, breezes sift a gray veil of ashes over the wilted suckers that look like black and ragged stakes ; and at last come showers which wash them clean. Those stakes are made up of sheathes of leaves tightly rolled one around another, the inner ones narrow, cream-colored and tender ; those nearer the outer sheathes v/ider and yet wider, until the outer- most is reached. This enwraps nearly or quite three-fourths of the stem, and from its edges a multitude of brown and interwoven threads run out, to tie the whole together, as in a net. When the warm rains fall, the tender leaves unroll and spread to their widest, and the sun dries and the wind whips them until soon they are split into nar- row ribbons ; and a few weeks after that planting a t-RUITING OF BANANAS ^ sea of tattered banners waves and whispers in the breeze — a roof of bright and tender green thickly shading the moist, black ground. Not before the plant has grown to a height of ten or twenty, and in some places to thirty feet, does the fruit stem begin pushing its way up from the base through the middle of the stalk. In a short time it sends out at the top one or two leaves, smaller than their older fellows, as a signal that flower and fruit will quickly follow. Soon every supporting column of those graceful arches ends in a cone of red that deepens into purple and swells until its outer petals are crowded off by the fatness of the fruits they hide, that these may have air and light. Under those petals the baby bananas are packed close, like fingers tightly gripping the parent stem. These closed ranks, each separate hand or wdiorl reaching half w^ay around the stalk, grow so quickly that in six or eight weeks the bunch weighs fifty pounds or more. To most people of northern climes bananas are merely — bananas. For such folks know as little of the many varieties of bananas as they know of the many and varied uses of that fruit. Perchance that is why they fry the common yellow guineo which comes by millions of bunches each year to the United States, and then wonder that folk who have dwelt in the tropics, and who extol cooked bananas, show nevertheless that they cannot like the mushy, BANANAS THAT ARE FIT TO COOK 9 clo}ing' mess set before them liere. He who grows bananas, and she who cooks them for him, select for frying that thick-bodied, hard-fleshed and rather tart fruit which ihey call platano, and which is by blundering English-speaking tongues misnamed plantain. And even among the platanos there is room for choosing, for there are of them several varieties. Best of these is that little one which bears, on the Mosquito Shore whence best bananas come, the Spanish name "miel," or honey, coupled with the Waika word "silpe," or little. The name "maiden" platano also is given to the "little honey," most fittingly, for it has just enough of piquant tart- ness to give unfailing relish, yet is tender, plump and mighty comforting w^ithal, upon occasion. If he is so lucky as to live near a port where steamships land, the planter may sell his platanos for a cent or even two cents for each finger or fruit ; and as the plants may be set only eight or ten feet apart, and each will mature a bunch of thirty to fifty fingers every nine months, it is clear that he who has an acre of platanos may have a tidy income of food or of cash. Usually the planter pre- fers to eat this fruit, for which reason people in the Xorth have few opportunities for learning its many and superior virtues. The ])lanter is quite right, for the platano is the banana most fit to be cooked ; and it is l)y no means bad to eat raw. Sometimes a ])l'mter may leave a bunch of 10 FRUIT NEVER RIPENED IN THE FIELD bananas to ripen on the standing stalk, but that will rarely be„ for the fruit so ripened is strong in flavor, dry and too soft to bear transportation ; its skin splits, and dust, and ants, bees and other insects gather about the exposed flesh. So in all the banana lands women lug home green bunches and hang them in the house to ripen, where everybody who has the right — and that is every visitor, every member of the family, and every passing acquaintance — may pluck and eat as the fruit turns yellow and becomes tender. Meanwhile many of the fruits will have been taken from the bunch, peeled and broken into bits, to be boiled with beef or pork, or flesh of the deer, peccary or other game, or to be cooked in other ways. Another sub-variety of platanos bears, in Mos- quitia, the name of "butuco," perhaps from the name of the River Patuca — or may be the river has taken its name from the banana. The butuco is perhaps rather more tart than the miel silpe, and when fried reminds one of fried greening apples, and when stewed has somewhat of the flavor of stewed peaches. In either way it is most agreeable to the taste. There are other platanos, also, most of tliem giants among bananas, some kinds being fifteen or more inches long and two or three inches in diam- eter. These are firm in flesh, resist decay much longer than do the common guineos. and will, there- fore, much better bear transportation. They should WHAT BANANAS GtVE THE PLANTER ft l)ecoine known to the millions of northern lands, for they would afford a vast supply of food much more convenient and palatable than, and equal in value to, potatoes. Although scarcely a generation has passed since the business of importing bananas to the United States began, millions of people in this country have learned to like the fruit, and are now beginning to understand a little its true value as a staple food. Yet there are many other millions who scarcely see the banana, except perhaps on some holiday, when they buy a few that they may taste the fruit which is so great a rarity to them. In Great Britain the banana is hardly known to most of the forty millions of people there, and in Continental Europe a like condition prevails. These facts are evidence enough that the production of bananas can not easily be overdone. Reports which cover many years of experience by thousands of planters of all degrees of ability, and of lack of ability, in the West Indies and on the coasts of Central America and of Mexico, show that the average annual yield, the income, the cost and the profits of banana culture were as shown below : Countries Costa Rica. Guatemala Honduras. . Jamaica ... Mexico Nicaragua . Averages Yield Income Cost 250.0 $ 70.67 $ 28.84 267.^ 89. H 30.82 377-4 82.63 '5-79 28S.0 78.82 19-85 290 89.00 20.25 246.2 62. t8 1.S.89 2S4.8 $78.81 $ 21.91 Profits $41-83 58.72 66.84 5''-97 68.75 46.29 $ 56-90 COMPAKISON OF SEVEN CROPhv I 3 The averages shown by the last hne in the above table are safe guides for an\' wno wish to calculate the probable results of an investment of money or cf la]:)or in banana growing. In the year 1902 the average yield of wheat in the United States equalled 12.79 bushels, or 767.4 pounds. This had a food value equal to nearly one- third that of the average output of bananas from an acre. It is often said that one pound of bananas has as nnich nutrition as has a pound of beef. The truth is that one pound of beef is worth three and onc-tl:ird pounds of bananas. Bananas are far enough ahead of the harvests the farmer of the North gets, without making exaggerated claims for the fruit of the tropics. Duriiig the years above mentioned the yield and v^Jue of the chief six food crops of the United States, per acre, and their actual food value, in calories or imits of energy, as compared with those of bananas, were as shown below : Varieties of Foods Buckwheat Corn Oats Potatoes ... R e Wheat Avera.cfes Bananas Vnhies Pounds Calories In Favor of Per Acre per Acre per Acre Bananas $ 9.70 795-96 1. 277.516 3, 168, 4*^4 9.62 1,723.40 2.817,759 1,628,241 8.29 870.08 1,566,144 2,879,856 39-45 4,826.40 1,243,788 3,022,212 8.22 744-80 871,416 3,574 584 10 II 766.80 1,265,220 3,180,780 $ q.66 1,621 .74 I, .^36,974 2,909,026 78.81 17,100.00 4,446,000 2,909,026 In a report on the constituents and food values of most articles in common use on northern tables, 14 PRECISE TRUTH ABOUT FOODS the United States Department of Agriculture gave, in the year 1903, figures which show that of the eighteen vegetables, of potatoes, and of ten varieties of fruits which make up the chief of our diet, and of bananas, each group has the following elements and food values : Elements Vegetables Potatoes Fruits Bananas Carbohydrates, parts Fats Protein. . 8 6 0.4 2.1 0.9 71-5 14-5 14.7 0.1 1.8 0.8 62.0 20.0 11. 1 0.4 0.6 0.5 64-3 23-1 M-3 4 0.8 Ash Water 0.6 48.9 35-0 Refuse Fuel values 2152 2^5.0 204.4 260.0 These figures show that while the eighteen fresh vegetables have ii.i parts of nutritive elements, potatoes 16.6 parts, and the ten varieties of fruits have 1 2. 1 parts, bananas have 15.5 parts. This seems to show, also, that if the fresh vegetables were worth, say $1.00, a like weight of fruits would be worth $1.09, of bananas would be worth $1,40, and of potatoes $1.49. Prof. Wynter Blythe, of London, is an analyst who tells us that the relative values of banana meal and of sago, maize and wheat flours are : Constituents Banana Sago Corn Meal Wheat Flour Water Per Cent. 8.05 4-45 82. S7 2.28 0.77 1.88 Per Cent. 13.00 78.06 2-5- 0.53 Per Cent. 11.09 85-30 2 37 0.43 Per Cent, 15-08 81.60 Solublealbumen dextrine Starch Fat Ash 0.35 Statements made by other analysts seem to war- POTATOES VS. BANANAS rant the deduction that the nutritive value of a ton of potatoes, at one cent per pound, is 19 cents more than that of a ton of bananas at the same price. There is a difTerence, too, in the cost of production of a ton of potatoes and the cost of rais- ing a ton of bananas. The field for potatoes must be plowed and harrowed in the spring, the seed dropped in furrows, which are then to be cov- ered, after which comes cultivating again and again until the time has come for digging and picking, carting, sacking and hauling, often to a distant market. Luckily for the millions who have depended so largely on the banana for sustenance, the plant has few, if any, insect enemies and diseases, in which they have great advantage over most crops of northern lands. So the planter of bananas has each year four and a half times as much palatable food from an acre as the farmer gets from his potatoes : and there is the further difference that the one has bananas at no other cost than that of keeping down bush and grass and vine, that would quickly cover every spot to which the sunshine could penetrate, along the edges of the plantation. For bananas yield year after year without replanting. Each new stalk springs from the foot of its parent, grows to a height of fifteen to thirty-five feet, bears its burden of luscious fruit, and dies ; but not before it has sent c c PS ^- 1 REST FIELD FOR CROWING THE FRl'IT 1/ up from its own root new stalks to fruit and die — and so on through the centuries. He who would grow bananas for market must plant on the border of navigable w^aters giving access to some harbor or anchorage where ships may safely lie while receiving the fruit. For it is easily bruised, and wetting by salt water blackens the skins, thus injuring or preventing the sale. Planta- tions are usually on the banks of rivers or of estu- aries, but some are beside railroads, to which the fruit is carried by carts thickly carpeted with banana leaves. A cruder way is to hang a few bunches over the back of a burro or of a mule, which plods along to the shipping place. It is evident that the entire area which can so be devoted to banana culture must be small, for most Central American and Mexican Rivers are obstructed at their mouths by sandbars, over which ships cannot pass. Bluefields, Nicaragua, has been a most profitable field for banana growing, because it has a river into which sea-going ships can safely enter, and up which such ships may go fifty or sixty miles, and receive their cargoes from landings on the plantations which border the Rio Escondido. Yet millions of bunches of bananas have been shipped from the open coast of Honduras, where the one good harbor is that at Puerto Cortez. Other millions have been shipped from Port Limon and from Bocas del Toro, in Costa Rica, l8 WHENCE BEST BANANAS COME V hence a few hundred bunches were sent as a JDCginning to the United States in the year 1883. During the year 1904 the port of Limon itself sent 5,760,000 bunches to the markets of the world. They brought to Costa Rica credit for producing the best bananas known. To-day millions of bunches are each year sold in the United States and even in Canada, and in 1902 ship-loads were sent from Costa Rica direct to Eu- rope. That little republic alone received not less than $1,127,400 for bananas sold abroad during the- year that ended with September, 1902. It is safe to assume that more than $6,000,000 was paid in the year 1902, in Central America alone, to planters of bananas. Nearly all of that was paid by products of American farms, factories and for- ests. Farmer, manufacturer and miner, lumber- man, railroad man and sailor, merchant and broker of this country, are all concerned in and benefited by the work done in shady aisles beneath banana leaves on the banks of tropic rivers. Bananas reach their best estate on low, deep alluvium like that near the Caribbean coast, or that of southern Mexico, where the temperature never sinks below 60° and is seldom below 80° F. Such low lands may serve the better if flooded two or three times in the year, for the banana drinks much water, and such floods bring silt from the hills, and thus keep the ground fertilize*^, with- ALTITUDES FOR BANANA CULTURE I9 out cost to the owner. In 1897 the banana fields of the Rio Escondido were so deeply flooded that the steamship "Saga" voyaged through the main streets of Rama, fully sixty miles from the mouth of the river, to pick off from their roofs the dwellers in that town. The bananas barely showed their tops above the yellow flood. Along the coast went reports that the plantations were ruined, sub- scriptions were asked to help the planters ; and three months later they were harvesting better crops than in years before. Their plantations had been so enriched that they bore most bountifully. Bananas may be grown wherever there is some moisture and no near approach to the frost line ; but a touch of frost cuts down the banana as a breath from a fiery furnace would blight a tender lily. The city of Tegucigalpa is 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, yet in that town is a field some thirty feet above the current in the swift river which it borders. It is very dry during months of each year, but in that field are platanos which reach a height of more than twenty feet and bear bunches enough comfortably to support the owner. In nar- row canon and wider valley near that place are many patches of bananas which bring to their plant- ers a suflicient income. And at that altitude the mercury sometimes falls below 65° Fahrenheit. In the land of bananas, cats, dogs and pigs, mules, horses and cattle, parrots, babies and all other FOR WHAT BANANAS ARE TRULY GOOD 21 domestic animals thrive on this perfect nature-food, when they can get it. I have seen an Indian woman pry open with her fingers the jaws of a haby peccary, and with a gruel of green bananas choke the little pig's incessant, rasping cry of "ma, ma !" And the next instant she put that same calabash of gruel to the lips of her own babe of three or four months. I've seen other Indians feed infant tapir, suckling jaguar, naked squabs of parrots and very young monkeys on such pap, which those folk call wabool. With such fruit I, myself, have safely carried abandoned cardinals through from their infant days of scant pin feathers to those of full regimentals of brilliant scar- let with epaulets of jet; and they overflowed with joyful song and saucy happiness as much as they could had w^orms and bugs been the chief of their diet every day of their lives, instead of the bananas on wdiich they had been largely fed. W'hy not, indeed, when cakes and beer, brandy and sugar, pies, puddings and sauce, banana coffee and chocolate, and many another thing good for man to take for his stomach's sake, are made from bananas. So, too, are paper and laces, brushes and cloth, and cordage enough to pull up the earth by its roots, if only we had a place to hook the tackle. When he has set out an acre or two of bananas, the planter need have no fears for the future. He has ample insurance against such privations as come from illness, accident or old age : and they who by a 22 INSURANCE THAT REALLY INSURES little labor pay for such insurance share each day its material benefits. No need for them to die that others may enjoy the blessings of such wise provi- sion ; nor need the planter toil with hoe or spade, cultivator or plow-. It may be he will slash away with machete such vine or sapling, grass or weed as happens to obstruct his path ; but as a whole he interferes as little as possible with the operations of kindly Mother Nature. She is more than ready to do his work : he is willing to let her do it. He whose acre of bananas has been well planted has on it 225 hills, or 900 stalks. Each stalk will give him a bunch which, on rich, new ground, should weigh 60 pounds, say 54,000 pounds each 12 or 14 months. That is the theory. The fact seems to be that the average yield is really 275 to 300 full bunches to the acre per annum, say a mean of 285 bunches weighing about 17,000 pounds. As has been shown, the average yield reported all along the Caribbean shore and from Jamaica, during a dozen years, equaled 284.8 full bunches an acre per annum. In the year 1902 the average yield of potatoes in the United States was 80.44 bushels per acre, and the average farm value was 49 cents per bushel, or $39.45 an acre. In Costa Rica the average price of bananas on the plantation v/as equal to at least 2^ cents a bunch. At that figure 261 bunches would bring $70.47. In August, 1903, the price was raised to 31 cents a bunch on contracts to run three to five. WHAT MANY PLANTERS HAVE DONE 23 years ; which should give $84.00 per acre each year. That was a cash difference of $44.55 in favor of the man whose bananas raised themselves for him. There was another difference in his favor, for his fruit could well be eaten green or ripe, raw or roast- ed, boiled or fried, with fish, flesh or fowl, or with none of these. In 1903 advices from plantations covering 550 acres of bananas in the Santa Clara district, in Costa Rica, where wages are one colon, or 47 cents a day, stated that the cost of cultivating, harvesting and delivering the fruit at the railroad Was, for the year, $17.69 per acre, the yield of fruit was only 173 bunches, and the income was $54.90. Thus those bananas cost 10.2 cents per bunch, and the gross profit was 20.8 cents a bunch, or 200 per cent. As all the fruit is sold five years ahead at those fi.gures, that percentage of profit may well be regarded as a fair return for the investment, combined as it is with an assurance of continued gain. If the yield had equalled the average of 285 bunches per acre, even at like cost per bunch for production, the net income would have been equal to 10 per cent, on $592.80 per acre. There are those who insist that the higher results shown in the foregoing may easily be obtained by any one who will give as much thought and labor to growing bananas as are required for the successful raising of corn or of potatoes. It is true that the BANANA CULTURE VS. FARMING 25 iigures on which the averages shown are based were, in many cases, from the experience of native and other planters of httle diHgence and skill, and that they got smaller results than might easily have been obtained. It may be possible that if one will allow two or three stalks to rise from each stand of bananas, and together mature their fruit, he may get 444 to 780 bunches from an acre each of a few yearS; and that in such a case he might get $185 to $278 for the crop ; but it will be clear tc all that he who ex- pects to make only 280 bunches per annum from an acre, and get only $50 to $60 profit therefrom, will be safer than he who invests his money with the ex- pectation of making greater gains. As the cost of producing bananas after the first crop f'^om a plantation is confined to cultivating and harvesting, which may be done for $10 to $20 per acre yearly, it is scarcely wonderful that Judge O'Hara, late U. S. Consul at Greytown, Nicaragua, a lawyer whose acute mind is trained to sifting evi- dence, reported to the Department of State at Wash- ington regarding banana-growing on the Atlantic coast of that republic, that : It seems reasonably certain that bananas on the Blue- fields River pay better than many crops in the United States. * * * * These fi';^iVres would seem to indicate that at the end of a year a planter having 36 acres of bananas under cultivation would have $3,847.32 left after paying for all necessary labor and provisions — figures apt to bring discontent to an American farmer having but 36 acres 26 AN AGGRAVATION OF DISCONTENT of wheat or corn; and especially so when he compares the price of his land, ranging from $15 to $80 per acre, with that of land in eastern Nicaragua, where cultivated lands may be said to have no established market value, few improved plantations having ever been sold. Such discontent might be aggravated by con- sideration of the differences which exist between the results obtained from the chief eight crops of the United States and those shown by the foregoing summary of banana farming. These differences are illustrated by the following figures, those for the crops of the North showing the yield and farm values for the 38 years that ended with June, 1903. The last column shows the difference in favor of bananas per acre : Crops Barley, bushels. Buckwheat, " Corn, " Oats, Rye, '• . Wheat, Potatoes, " Hay, tons Averag;es Yield per Acre 13.29 16.08 24.76 22.88 13-38 12.78 81.91 1.42 Value per Acre I 12.32 9.70 9-57 8.34 8.22 10 06 41-79 11.80 I 9-85 Difference, fa- vor of Haiianas $ 68.96 From this it appears that the plantation value of the annual crop of an acre of bananas averages seven times as much as the principal crops of the United States give the farmer for his months of toil. What wonder if the dweller in tropical America is content with what a little effort gives, or that years TOO AIUCH MONEY FOR PLANTERS 2"] ago a Consul of the United States complained that : "A large proportion of the fruit-growers were formerly vacqueros in the interior, working on a salary of $30 to $40 a year. They are now owners of plantations, and have a steady income of $30 to $300 a month. The large amount of money dis- tributed along this coast in exchange for fruit would make any civilized and temperate community pros- perous and happy. There would be public and pri- vate schools, churches and banks, newspapers and libraries, parks and carriages, and handsome dwell- ings supplied with every comfort and luxury, sur- rounded by gardens of flowers, fruits and vegetables natural to this climate of perpetual seedtime and harvest." Those who have good lands back from navigable water and remote from railroads, are not without hope of profit from bananas ; for they may dry the fruit before it has ripened, and from it make a flour that has all the merits of wheat flour, and other good qualities, also ; or they may dry it when it has fully ripened, when it will be very useful in making cakes and candy, or may be eaten even as figs are. In his "Darkest Africa" Stanley endorsed strong- ly the nutritive value of banana flour, and wondered that the natives seemed not to have discovered what invaluable nourishing and easily digested food they had in the platano and in the banana. He expressed the conviction that, 'Tf onlv the virtues of banana VARIED USES FOR THE FRUIT 29 Hour were publicly known, it is not to be doubted but it wouUl be largely consumed in Europe. For infants, persons of delicate digestion, dyspeptics and those sufifering from temporary derangement of the stomach, the flour properly prepared would be of universal demand. During my two attacks of gas- tritis a light gruel of this, mixed with milk, was the only matter that could be digested." So high an authority as the "Dictionary of Eco- nomical Productions of India" says : The large crop of food produced by bananas and plan- tains may be preserved for an indefinite period either by drying the fruit or by preparing meal from it. When the nearly ripe fruit is cut into slices and dried in the sun, a certain part of the sugar contained in the fruit crystalizes on the surface and acts as a preservative. The slices thus prepared, if made from the finer varieties, make an excellent dessert preserve, and if from the coarser, may be used for cooking in the ordinary way. They keep well if care- fully packed when dry, and ought to form a valuable antiscorbutic for long voyages. The fruit may also be similarly preserved whole by stripping ofT the skin and drying it in the sun. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the husk and reducing it to powder, and finely sifting. It is calculated that the fresh core will yield 40 per cent, of this meal, and that an acre of average quality will yield over a ton. Plantain meal is of a slightly brownish color, and has an agreeable odor, which becomes more perceptible when warm water is poured upon it, and has a considerable re- semblance to that of orris root. When mixed with cold water it forms a feebly tenacious dough, more adhesive than that of oatmeal, but much less so than that of 30 USEFUL FOR MANY OTHER THINGS wheaten flour. When baked on a hot plate this dough forms a cake which is agreeable to the sense of smell, and is by no means unpleasant to the taste. When boiling water is poured over the meal it is changed into a trans- parent jelly, having an agreeable taste and smell. Boiled with water it forms a thick gelatmous mass, very much like boiled sago in color, but possessing a peculiar pleasant odor. In a commtmication to Kew Gardens Louis Asser gives the following list of commercial preparations from the banana and the platano : 1. Dried slices of the entire fruit (pulp and peel) in the starchy state suitable for the preparation of alcohol or for making into a nourishing bread. 2. Meal in a starchy state from the pulp only for making into a superior kind of bread or porridge. 3. Flakes and meal in a dextrinous state for use in breweries or for making into nourishing soups, puddings, etc. 4. Dried peel and coarse meal prepared from it for feeding cattle and pigs. 5. Banana marmalade. 6. Dried bananas entire without peel put up like dried figs in boxes. 7. Raw alcohol from fresh bananas, and also from dried banana meal. 8. Syrup of bananas for confectionery, for prepara- tions of liquors and for sweetening champagne. 9. Banana meal for the manufacture of glucose. 10. Fibre of banana and plantain prepared from the stems after fruiting, and intended for the manufacture of paper and cordage. In his report on the starch producing plants, Dr. Shirer says of the platano of British Guiana : A BUNCH OF BANANAS FOOD FOR INFANTS AND INVALIDS 3[ The plantain is so abnndant and cheap that it might, if cut and dried in its green state, be exported with ad- vantage. It is in this unripe state that it is so largely used by the peasantry of this Colony as an article of food. When dried and reduced to the state of meal, it cannot like wheat flour be manufactured into macaroni or vermi- celli, or, at least, the macaroni made from it falls into powder when put into hot water. Plantain meal is pre- I)ared by stripping off the husk of the plantain, slicing the core, and drying it in the sun. When thoroughly dry it is powdered and sifted. It has a fragrant odor, acquired in drying, somewhat resembling fresh hay or tea. It is largely employed as the food of infants and invalids. In respect to nutritiveness it deserves a prefer- ence over all the pure starches on account of the protein compounds it contains. The flavor of the meal depends a good deal on the rapidity with which the slices are dried. Above all, the plantain must not be allowed to approach too closely to yellowness or ripeness, otherwise it becomes impossible to dry it. The color of the meal is injured when steel knives are used in husking or slicing, but silver or nickel blades do not injure the color. Full- sized and well-filled bunches give 60 per cent, of core to 40 per cent, of husk and topstem; but in general it would be found that the core did not much exceed 50 per cent, of dry meal, so that from 20 to 25 per cent, of meal is obtained from the plantain, or 5 pounds from the average bunch of 25 pounds; and an acre of plantain walk of aver- age quality, producing during the year 450 such bunches, would yield 2,250 pounds of meal. In 1891, C. W. Meaden wrote from Trinidad to the following effect in relation to a trial shipment of dried bananas : The result of drying six launches, weighing an aver- 32 Dried ripe fruit bring profit age of 52 pounds per ripe bunch, was 97 pounds of dried fruit. There was a loss of two-thirds in peeling and dry- ing. The fruit sold for $19.40, or 20 cents per pound. Deducting freight charges left $15.47, or a fraction under 16 cents per pound. This was at the rate of $2.72 per bunch. The cost was put at 53 cents, which covered pur- chase of land, clearing woods and draining, planting, weeding and cutting, drying, fuel, boxes and packing; but (lid not include cost of dryer, as that would be but a fraction on each bunch dried. After deducting the above there was a profit of $2.19 per bunch. This experiment will prove of importance to banana growers, as drying bananas seems to open a way no other means offers of utilizing frtiit. It overcomes the difficulty of hd.d roads, long hauls and other drawbacks some planters have to face in mar- keting bananas. In this connection it may be interesting to note that, according to the American Analyst, February 15th, 1893, the chemical composition of bananas and potatoes is almost identical, as shown by the follow- ing comparison : Banana Potato Water 75.71 75.77 Albumenoids 1.71 1.79 Total carbonaceous matter (non-nitro- genous) 20.13 20.72 Woody fibre 1.74 .75 Ash 71 .97 So far as has been shown there is little difference between the actual food values of the seventv-five or more varieties of bananas, which may be divided generally into the platano, or cooking kinds, and bananas, more commonlv eaten uncooked. COMPAKIiD WITH TWENTY FOODS 33 Such teachings of science, which have not been disputed by any whose standing would make their opinions worthy of consideration, should settle the question of the exact nutritive value of the golden treasure of the tropics, but that the reader may deter- mine with precision what are the relative energy- giving values per pound of each of 20 well-known foods, compared with bananas, the value of each is shown below : Articles 1 Refuse Water Calories Chocolate, with sugar 1... 5.90 If .00 3-50 27.40 34-20 5.625 Butter Cocoanut, prepared, dry 3,410 2,865 Cheese, Cheddar Cheese, full cream 2,075 1,885 Sugar, granulated Pork, sausage, etc 7-7« 40-94 II. 10 12.50 12.30 9-50 12.60 26.90 5-30 45-37 53-34 42.92 74-00 65.00 1.750 1,685 1,636 1.635 1,620 1,565 Wheat flour and other cereals.... Maize meal Rice Peas, dried Beans, dried Bread, biscuit, cake, etc Milk, condensed 1.453 Nuts in common use 45-30 17-03 15 -85 26.95 1,312 1,208 944 901 865 635 Mutton and lamb Beef, fresh, salted, and veal Poultry, all kinds, domestic Cream Eggs, fresh .' " 11.20 Averages 7 -.-9 35.00 28.13 48.90 12.10 1,546 260 1,^75 Bananas, fresh Banana products average The actual food value of fresh bananas, compared with that of 19 fresh vegetables and of 10 fresh fruits most generally used in the United States and in Euro])e, is : L OF C. 34 COMPOSITION OF THE BANANA Constituent El ments Bananas, Fresh Other Fruit Vegetables .'5-0 48.9 .8 •4 14-3 .6 260.0 22.14 64-33 •63 •39 11.07 • 4 204.40 14.85 73-03 •35 8.»6 Water Protein Fats Carboh\drates .. Ash .86 Units of nutrition 203.0s Many people have become convinced that they are harmed by the use of coffee, and have tried vari- ous substitutes for the berry of Arabia; There is no doubt that free use of coffee, particularly if milk or cream is added, does cause harm ; but there is reason for the opinion that some, if not most, sub- stitutes are even more injurious. Those who manu- facture some such substitutes boldly assert that their productions are nutritious ; but the highest authority in the land, the United States Department of Agri- culture, says : The average of five analyses of cereal coffee is: Water 6.2, protein 13.3, fat 3.4, carbohydrates 72.6, and ash 4.5 per cent. Only a portion of the nutrients, however, enter into the infusion. The Department then shows that in the decoction there are 98.2 parts water, protein 0.2, carbohydrates 1.4, and ash 0.2 per cent.^ and that the total number of units of energy in a pound is only 30, which is so little as to be wholly unworthy of consideration. Some at least of such so-called cereal cofifees are said to be made of damaged grain, of the refuse from brewers' vats, of bran and other like substances. BANANA COFFEE Sl'PERlOR TO OTHER 35 soaked with coffee extract or with chicory added. The worthless nature of such mixtures must l)e ap- parent to aU. There is cause for congratulation, therefore, in the fact that bananas of the proper states of maturity, ])roperly mixed, dried and roasted, furnish material for a beverage w^hich is palatable, perfectly haruilcss, and really nutritious. The wdiole may be taken as chocolate is used, and as the Turk takes his pulver- ized coft"ee, grounds and all. Many who now habit- ually use so-called banana coffee are firm in declar- ing that it is more palatable than genuine coffee can be, and has no bad effect. So far, the demand has constantly exceeded the supply. Candy made from bananas and sugar has sold so readily that the demand has not been fully supplied since such confection was first offered. In fact the inquiry for such products of bananas has become so steady and so strong that those who have for years thoroughly and carefully studied and experimented in this line are now ready to establish mills and carry on the making of banana flour and other prod- ucts of this fruit, on a scale large enough to pay fair profits. To humanity at large, these facts seem full of promise ; for banana planters in particular they seem to offer unusually strong encouragement. For, if banana flour has 90.07 per cent, of nutrients while sago has only 80.63, wheat flour 83.71, and maize 36 GREAT PROMISE l- llllilllllllilllllllllllllllillllllllllll 000 909 113 meal has but 87.67 per cent, of nutrition, as shown by the table on another page, there can be no doubt that the world will readily take all the banana flour, all the dried bananas and all the banana coffee the tropics will be able to furnish. If banana flour can be made and delivered in Europe at a cost of only two or three cents a pound, the demand for this material inevitably must become very great. For it should not be forgotten that bananas give each year crops which are easily injured by bruising, and are exceedingly heavy, the average annual yield from good lands being nearly or quite eight tons per acre. So tender and so bulky a crop cannot profit- ably be carried long distances, without means for quick and easy transportation. So long as the fruit shall be sold in its green or crude condition, it must remain unprofitable to plant it far from navigable waters, or from a railroad. It is true that in the past lack of knowledge of the art of making flour and other dry products of bananas rendered it quite difficult to do so successfully in climates which are both warm and very moist ; but there are many elevated and comparatively dry places, near rich and moist lowland, where the fruit may be dried and ground, and thus preserved for shipment long distances. In such places, modern machinery and processes for making such products will probably be set up, and supply the millions with food which is equal to most and better than much TO FURNISH FOOD TO IMILLIONS 2>7 vegetable food now commonly nsed — and the world will be much better for it, while the planter will gain even more than he now profits. Housewives who wish for novelties to lend new charm to their tables, to tickle the palate of the epi- cure, or to coax the reluctant appetite of the invalid will find them in novel dainties made from bananas. Excellent bread is made of the flour. Puddings, fritters and sauce have already been mentioned ; ba- nanas glace are new to most northern folk, and may be made a most delightful addition to our desserts. Dried ripe bananas are superior to figs, for when split into four slices, thickly covered with powdered sugar, and exposed to the sun a while they turn into a jelly-like, delicious confection. Such has been at its best w^hen made in the native home of the fruit, and packed in pretty boxes to be sent to people of taste, in the cold North. Summing all" obtainable evidence worthv of con- sideration, one is manifestlv warranted in savino" Banana culture is one of the oldest of industries, and has no secrets, no diseases and no enemies with which to contend. Bananas have been grown through thousands of years by millions of people, and, beginning seven to twelve months after the first planting, yield continu- ous harvests for years without replanting. Bananas give, for little labor, one and one-third times as much food as corn produces ; two and one- JUN 29 »905i 38 SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE third times as much food as oats supply ; ahiiost three times as much nutriment per acre as buck- wheat furnishes ; nearly three times as much food per acre as potatoes give ; four times as much nutriment as comes from rye, and almost three times as much food per acre as wheat averages. liananas pay their producer nearly three times as much money as potatoes are worth, per acre ; bring the planter profits which are three times the farm value of the chief food crops of the United States ; paid gains equal to five per cent, per annum on $1,138 per acre for the last 25 years; and bananas are sold years ahead of production, at prices insuring good profits. Bananas are by millions of people eaten green or ripe, raw or cooked ; are served in all ways in which apples, grains and potatoes are used, and are palat- able, healthful and nutritious in every way in which they are prepared. Bananas make excellent bread, cakes and pies, puddings, confectionery and coffee substitutes ; yield brandy, beer and vinegar, sugar, oil and fibers. Bananas are bought as a luxury by millions who may use them as a staple food ; yet bananas may be grown profitably in a small area only, therefore banana culture affords a perfectly safe and gainful use for time and money. , ^^r>^^., ■^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS llillliiilliiilliiljliiilliililililillillljjjllllllll 000 909 113 LIBRARY OF CONGPFQc wm.