Bunch of Plantains (young).
This is not the proper place to enter into a detailed history of the banana, its culture and its varieties; but there is much uncertainty in the Northern markets as to the distinction between bananas and plantains, which it may be well to remove. At present plantains are not brought to the Boston or New York markets. Botanically, it is difficult to distinguish between these two fruits, as connecting varieties run imperceptibly into the two extremes; no one, however, would ever mistake a typical plantain for a banana, either single or in bunch. Of all the varieties of the banana (and I have myself seen at least two hundred, including the seeding-banana of Chittagong), only two or three are raised for exportation in Guatemala, and these are by no means the best; but as the steamer people will give no more for a choice variety, there is no inducement to improve the stock. Both yellow and red varieties are grown, and the former sometimes have two hundred and fifty bananas on a bunch, weighing, unripe, ninety pounds. The plantain is yellow when ripe (I have never seen a red variety), and is much larger and more curved than a banana, while the bunches are looser and much smaller, seldom numbering more than thirty-five fruits. Some plantains attain a length of fifteen inches, and some are quite palatable uncooked; but the usual way to eat them is either baked or fried. Few of our Northerners appreciate the wonderful nutritive qualities of the plantain, which in this respect surpasses the banana; and it may be authoritatively stated that sixteen hundred and seven square feet of rich land will produce four thousand pounds of nutritive substance from plantains, which will support fifty persons, while the same land planted with wheat will support but two. When the plantain is dried, it will keep from twenty to thirty years; and if dried before ripening, an admirable meal (better than arrowroot) can be made from the ground white fruits, while the ripe fruit forms a conserve not unlike a fig in flavor, and of course free from the seeds so troublesome in that fruit. One hundred parts of the fresh fruit contain twenty-seven parts of nutritive matter, easily digested and superior to pure starch. The comparative cost and profit of the two fruits may be thus stated:—
| Banana. | Plantain. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of one acre of land | $1.00 | 300 bunches at .50 less cost | 15,000 fruits at $1.25 per hundred |
| Clearing and planting | 20.00 | ||
| 430 stools | 2.50 | ||
| Care to first crop | 10.00 | ||
| Shipping | 10.00 | ||
| $43.50 | $106.50 | $144.00 |
The second year the increase would be in favor of the plantain, and the product has reached more than thirty-five thousand per acre. Of the fibre no account has been taken, although this bids fair to become an important by-product. The plantain contains more fibre than the banana,—the inner portion in both stems being much finer. At present the possible four pounds of fibre in each stem is wasted; and as the stems should be cut to the ground after the fruit is gathered, these large fibrous trunks are much in the way of cultivation. It will be remembered that the Manilla hemp is the product of a species of banana (Musa textilis).
Usually bananas or plantains are planted in a cafétal or in a cacao or orange orchard, to shade the young plants, and after three or four years are removed as the more permanent trees attain their growth. All the fruit exported must be cut and shipped while quite green and not fully grown; and this, conjoined to the tar and bilge smell of the steamers, certainly gives the fruit a flavor it does not have in its native land when allowed to attain its full growth and then slowly ripened under shelter from the sun. Bananas, like some pears, should not be allowed to ripen on the trees.
There are two articles of food and commerce which should certainly attract the attention of merchants, and so of the public, in our Northern States,—fresh plantains, as a most nutritious and delicious vegetable, more costly than the banana, though of easier transport; and the dried plantain, for which there is already an increasing market on the Pacific coast.
Pita and Sisal Hemp.—The mention of the plantain-fibre calls to mind two very valuable fibrous plants at present little cultivated in Guatemala, except for home consumption. The pita, or silk-grass (Bromelia pita) belongs to the pineapple family, and is very commonly used for hedges in the interior of the country. The long sharp leaves are rotted, and the fibre extracted by the rudest means, usually by pounding on stones in a running stream; but the product makes most durable and desirable hammocks and bags and cords. The other plant is most cultivated in Yucatan, whence the name Sisal hemp, from the shipping port. It is also called henequen (Agave ixtli), and much resembles the century-plant. Common over the mountain-ranges, certainly to a height of eight thousand feet, it is little used, except for hedges. From Yucatan it is exported to the annual value of $500,000. The ixtli grows in poor dry soil and is easily propagated by cuttings. An American machine removes the pulp and cleans the fibre at the rate of a leaf a minute, and the product is then baled and shipped without further trouble. The fibre, according to the “Textile Record,” costs the planter two thirds of a cent per pound, the freight to New York is three quarters of a cent, and with commissions and incidental expenses, the total charge per pound is a cent and a half, and it sells for from five to seven cents per pound. In the English market Sisal hemp is quoted at £30 per ton.
The species and varieties of the agaves or henequen and pulque plants are not clearly distinguished; but two types are tolerably distinct. Agave Americana, or maguey, is cultivated in Mexico for the juice which when fermented is called pulque. The plant after some years of growth in a stemless condition throws up a stem very rapidly to a height of forty feet, or even more. The Mexican cultivator, however, nips this stem before it has attained two feet; and scooping a large hollow in the cut stump, waits for the sap to collect. The yield from a vigorous plant—and the sap continues to run for three months—is from two to three hundred gallons! The agave, it must be remembered, grows in the driest soil. The fibre of the leaf is very strong, and is used to make paper of the toughest and most durable kind.
