Cultivation.—­The first care of a planter in superintending the cultivation of the banana tree, with the two-fold object of collecting both fibre and fruit, will be to study the nature of the tree to which he will give the preference.  A number of experiments have been made upon different species of the banana with a view of obtaining therefrom the largest quantity and the best color of fibre, as well as the finest fruit.  Those experiments were very tedious and minute, but were absolutely necessary, in order to arrive at the most economical and advantageous method of rendering the fibre into a state fit for shipment to Europe.  At the same time, it was of the utmost importance to find out the best description of tree, for producing the strongest, the most abundant, and the most silky fibre—­for containing the least quantity of juice, for producing the color sufficiently white to facilitate the operation of bleaching, for bearing fruit of the most esteemed quality, and, therefore, the most favorable for general consumption.

A banana tree, which seemed at first sight to possess all those good qualities—­being of a large size, with whitish or flaxen colored fibre, and producing very savoury fruit, only gave 2 per cent, of fibre after preparation; that is to say, 100 lbs. in its raw state, only gave two pounds of fibre after it was boiled.  In endeavoring to find out the cause of such a small result, it was discovered that this specimen of banana (commonly called the “pig banana,”) contained a larger proportion of water than of fibre, compared with other sorts—­that the heart was too large, and that the inside leaves were so tender that they almost dissolved in the process of boiling.  These were the greatest inconveniences of this species of tree.  There was also another disadvantage, in the quality of its fruit, which was yellow in color, and not so useful as those descriptions of banana which are generally eaten as a substitute for bread.  The results of several experiments made upon various descriptions of banana, demonstrated the properties of each species, both as regarded fibre and fruit.  The most profitable in both respects is undoubtedly the yellow banana, or common plantain.  This tree grows to the height of about fifteen feet, it is nine or ten inches in diameter, its fibre is firm and abundant, and its fruit is used both in a green and ripe state.  This plantain abounds on the continent of Spanish America and between the tropics, where the natives cultivate it as producing the most nutricious fruit of its kind.  Cargoes of the fruit are frequently exported from Surinam and Demerara.  On the Spanish part of the American continent, land is measured by fanegas, each fanega containing twelve quarrees, and each quarree five and one-fifth English acres.  A quarree measures one hundred geometrical paces, or three hundred square feet.

In the first instance, the suckers of