The Guava (Psidium Guayava) grows wild in all parts of the Islands below 3000 feet. The fruit, of which there is a great abundance, is made into jam and the very finest jelly in the world. In the fruiting season large quantities of the jelly can be made, and without doubt, exported at a profit.
The Poha (Physalis edulis) is a quick growing shrub bearing a berry that makes excellent jelly and jam. The shrub grows wild on elevations between 1000 and 4000 feet. A patch of pohas planted in a corner of a garden, will grow and yield a bountiful supply of fruit almost without cultivation.
Pineapples are at home on these Islands; a small plot planted with the best varieties of this king of fruits will keep the table supplied the year round.
Another valuable fruit indigenous to this country is the Papaia (Carica papaya). This fine fruit can be raised in enormous quantities and is a most fattening food for pigs and chickens. The tree fruits in eight or nine months from the seed, and thence forward for years it yields ripe fruit every
month in the year. The fruit is of the size of a small melon and is very rich in sugar. The unripe fruit contains a milky juice that, even when diluted with water, renders any tough meat, that is washed in it, quite tender. A small piece of the unripe fruit placed in the water in which meat or tough chicken is boiled makes it tender and easily digestible.
A very valuable food plant, indigenous to these Islands, is the taro (Colocasia esculenta). The variety known as dry land taro will grow on land that is moist enough for the coffee trees. The taro is a grand food plant, the tubers containing more nutriment for a given weight than any other vegetable food. The young tops when cooked are hard to distinguish from spinach. The tubers must be cooked before they can be used for food, in order to dissipate a very acrid principle that exists in both leaves and root.
Another important food plant that has been introduced and yields abundantly is the Cassava (Manihot utilissima). This plant furnishes the staple food for the population of Brazil. It is easily propagated by the planting pieces of the woody portions of the stems and branches. The tubers are available in nine or ten months after planting. There are two kinds, the sweet and the bitter; the latter being the more prolific. The sweet kind can be fed to pigs without cooking. The bitter kind contains a poisonous substance which is entirely destroyed by cooking. There is no danger of animals eating the bitter kind in a raw state, for no stock will touch it, while the sweet kind is eagerly eaten in the raw state by pigs, horses, cows, etc. The tubers are prepared for human food by grating them. The juice is then expelled by pressure, and the residue pounded into a coarse meal, which is made into thin cakes. It is an excellent food, and said to be much more digestible than bread and other foods made from wheat. Pigs can be very cheaply raised on the sweet variety of this plant. A field of the plant being ready
to gather, a portion is fenced off, and the pigs turned into it. They will continue to feed until every vestige of the tubers is eaten, leaving the ground in a fine condition for replanting. The tubers never spoil in the ground, in fact the soil is the very best storehouse for them. However if left for two or three years the tubers grow very large and tough.
Bananas, in great variety, are grown in all parts of the Islands where there is sufficient moisture. Any land that will grow coffee will grow bananas. The yield of fruit from this remarkable plant is something astonishing. It commences to bear fruit in a little over one year from the time of planting. The stem decays after the formation of a bunch of fruit; this will weigh from 50 to 100 pounds and upwards. Numerous suckers spring up from around the decaying stem and bear fruit in their turn. One-half an acre planted with bananas would not only furnish a large family with an abundance of delicious and nutritious fruit, but would also yield a large supply of feed for pigs, chickens and other stock.
The tea plant (Camellia Thea) grows well in this country and yields a tea of good quality. It is hardly likely that it will become an article of export from this country, as we cannot compete with the very low prices paid for labor in the great tea countries, India, Ceylon, and China. But it can be grown for home consumption, and there is no reason why every coffee planter should not have a patch of tea growing on his land. An eighth of an acre, planted out in tea plants, would yield more tea than could be consumed by a large family; the work of cultivation and preparation is light and easy and could be done by women and children.