The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

The banana has accompanied man into all parts of the tropical world, and for the natives at least still remains the one unfailing staff of life. The bulb once placed in moist fertile earth will continue to propagate itself and to produce fruit indefinitely, even without care of any kind, although for commercial purposes it may be improved and its productiveness increased through selection and cultivation.

Few if any plants that nature has given us can be utilized in so many ways as the banana. The fruit when green, and before the development of its saccharine matter takes place, consists largely of starch and gluten, furnishing a splendid substitute, either boiled or baked, for the potato. Cut into thin slices, and fried in hot oil or lard, it becomes quite as palatable as the Saratoga chips of the United States. When baked in an oven and mashed with butter or sauce, it is not a bad substitute for the potato, and far more nourishing.

When sun-dried and finely ground, a splendid highly nutritious banana-flour is produced, that is not only pleasant to the taste, but according to the report of physicians far more easily digested and assimilated than is the flour of wheat or corn. From good banana flour, either bread, crackers, griddle cakes or fancy pastry may be made, that would be relished on any table.

The green fruit, when cut into small cubes, toasted and mixed with a little mocha coffee to give it flavor, offers the best substitute for that beverage that has been found up to the present time. When scientifically treated with sugar, the semi-ripe fruit with the addition of flavoring extracts may be converted into very good imitations of dried figs, prunes and others forms of preserves, that are not only healthful and palatable, but are nutritious, and may well serve as an important contribution to the food products of the world.

Interesting and important experiments with banana-flour and the various products of both the ripe and the green fruit were made in Camaguey some years ago. The results were exceedingly satisfactory, but with the death of the inventor this promising industry was permitted to drop into disuse. Had Cuba been able to command the use of, or fall back on this splendid substitute for wheat flour, there would have been no bread famine in the island, such as occurred in the spring of 1918, and the Republic would have been independent of outside assistance.

Bananas for commercial purposes, or rather for export, have been grown for many years in the eastern end of the Island, especially in the neighborhood of Nipe Bay, where deep, rich soil, combined with the heavy rainfall of summer, results in rapid growth and full development of the fruit. The banana grown for shipment to the United States is known in Cuba as the Johnson. There are several types of this, but all resemble closely the bananas of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, where the United Fruit Company controls the trade. Owing to the fact that this Company owns its own groves in Central America, conveniently located for loading its ships, the United States is supplied today almost entirely from that section, and the exportation of bananas from Cuba has been materially reduced.

Banana lands, too, are almost invariably well adapted to the growing of sugar cane, hence the great fields of Nipe Bay, and that part of Oriente once devoted to the cultivation of bananas, were eagerly sought by the sugar companies of the Island, and most of the territory converted into big sugar cane plantations.

There are probably twenty varieties of bananas cultivated in different parts of Cuba. Some twelve or more of these may be seen growing at the Experimental Station at Santiago de las Vegas. The variety preferred for local consumption and always in constant demand is the large cooking bananas, known in the United States as the plantain. This banana is not eaten in its natural state, but when cooked, either green or ripe, it finds a place on every table in Cuba.

The plant is tall and the fruit at least twice as long as that of the ordinary banana of commerce. It is not as prolific as other varieties, seldom bearing more than 30 or 40 to the stem, but it is found on every farm on the Island and is relied on as a source of food, even more than is the potato. The bunches under normal conditions command in the market prices varying from 20¢ to 60¢, dependent upon the number of “hands” or bananas to the stalk.

The banana plant reaches a height of twelve or fifteen feet and is reproduced from the sucker or offshoot of the original bulb. About 400 hills are set out to the acre. In twelve months the first comes to maturity, producing a single bunch of fruit, whose price, dependent on variety and size, varied from 20¢ to $1. Each main stalk during the year sends up six or eight suckers, that are used to increase the acreage as desired. Bananas for export are grown profitably only on or near the edge of deep water harbors, where transportation to northern markets is assured.