. Fruits, vegetables and flowers, a non-technical manual for their culture. storage. The fruit is best prepared for eating by placing on ice, until thoroughlychilled. In thiscondition it maybe readily peeledand sliced. Thefruit is used chieflyin the fresh state,although in thetropics wheregrown it is fre-quently used forsauce or made intopies and lias greatpossibilities forvarious forms ofpreserves. The Banana.—The banana isstrictly a tropicalfruit. It is a largeherb, with aperen-nial root top growsrapidly andreaches a height offrom ten to thirtyfeet, depending onvariety. Itrequires
. Fruits, vegetables and flowers, a non-technical manual for their culture. storage. The fruit is best prepared for eating by placing on ice, until thoroughlychilled. In thiscondition it maybe readily peeledand sliced. Thefruit is used chieflyin the fresh state,although in thetropics wheregrown it is fre-quently used forsauce or made intopies and lias greatpossibilities forvarious forms ofpreserves. The Banana.—The banana isstrictly a tropicalfruit. It is a largeherb, with aperen-nial root top growsrapidly andreaches a height offrom ten to thirtyfeet, depending onvariety. Itrequires fromtwelve to fifteenmonths from time of planting to the maturity of the fruit. Each plant bears one cluster offruit, and upon its maturity the plant dies. Numerous shoots arise fromthe base of ^the original plant. Most of these are removed for use inestablishing a new plantation, but some are left to take the place of theold plant. Within the past thirty years the banana has become popular in themarkets of the North and is quite extensively used. It excels in the ease. A Top-WORKED Mango Tree in Fruit.^ •Courtesy of U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. From Annual Report, Porto Rico Agricultural ExperimentStation, 1913. 170 SUCCESSFUL FARMING with wliich it is handled. On the plantation a cluster of from 100 to 200fruits, e(iual in amount to a crate of other fruits, is severed from the ])lantwith one stroke of the machete. The fruits are protected by a tough skinwhich reatlily separates from the rather dry meat. The banana is cultivated in practically all tropical countries. Thosecountries leading in banana production are Jamaica, Costa Kica, Cuba andHonduras. The commercial supply for North America comes chiefly fromthe AWst Indies. There are countless varieties of bananas, but v(r>- few of tliese are ofcommercial importance. Many of the most delicious ones are of localvalue only because of small size or j)oor shii)i)ing ciualities. The varietiesusually met with in the markets
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectvegetablegardeningfr
