lowed to grow and to carry fruit; when a greater number make their appearance, some of them are cut away. The time which passes between planting the slip and gathering the fruit varies according to the situation; in the hottest districts near the level of the sea the banana comes into flower about nine months after it has been planted; and in three months more the fruit has formed and become ripe. In cold situations an interval of four months will elapse between the flowering and the ripening of the fruit. The care required by a banana plantation is not very great, the principal duty being to hoe around the young plants. As the banana is renewed by stems which arise continually from the neck of the root, it is easily understood that the plant will go on yielding fruit for an indefinite length of time; when the fructification is complete in one stem, the leaves, &c., wither and fall, and give place to a new stem. It is thus that the gatherings from the banana go on successively at short intervals, and that the same plant presents at one and the same moment fruit that is ripe, fruit that is half ripe, fruit that is beginning to be formed flowers, and finally young stems, which are rising as preparations for the future. Thus no crop is more assuring to the planter than the banana. Climatic circumstances may sometimes delay, but can never destroy the hopes of the husbandman. The extraordinary droughts which under the burning climates of the equator so frequently interrupt or destroy ordinary herbaceous plants, rarely exert any pernicious influence upon the banana plantation, the thick shade of which presents a constant obstacle to the evaporation of moisture. During the dry season, when for whole months the heavens preserve their purity, and no drop of rain falls to refresh the earth, the soil which surrounds the banana still continues moist. It looks every morning as if it had been watered during the night; this salutary effect is produced by the nocturnal radiation of the leaves into the clear sky. These leaves, whose extent of surface is considerable, always fall several degrees below the temperature of the surrounding air, and thus condense the watery vapor contained in the atmosphere, which drips down to the foot of the plant.

The produce of a banana plantation depends first upon the distance at which the bananas are placed, and next upon the climate. It is generally estimated in the very warm climates, that a crop of bananas will weigh about 44 lbs., and that from an adult plant three crops will be obtained in the course of a year. In temperate countries, and towards the superior limits of the banana plant, they do not reckon on more than two crops. According to M. de Humboldt, the produce per acre, in hot countries where the mean temperature is about 82° Fahr., will amount to 75 tons, 8 cwt. 1 qr. 17 lbs. ; at Cauca, where the temperature is about 79° Fahr., the produce amounts to 61 tons, 8 cwt. 0 qr. 2 lbs.; at Ibagué, where the temperature is not higher than about 72°, the produce, according to M. Goudot's estimate, is 26 tons, 17 cwt. 3 qrs. 2 lbs. The pulp of the banana is surrounded by a pod or husk of some thickness, which is easily detached, and of which account must be taken if we would estimate the actual weight of the truly alimentary matter afforded. In a

general way, and when the banana is ripe, the shell may be estimated at about 36.8, the edible banana at 73.2 per cent.

The Musa paradisica is the variety of banana generally cultivated, and it also yields the heaviest crops. The fruit of the other two varieties mentioned is much smaller; but it is of a much more delicate flavor. The ripe fruit of the banana is of the consistence of a pear; it is very sweet, and slightly acid. In the common variety, I found crystallizable sugar, gum, an acid, (probably the malic,) gallic acid, albumen, pectic acid, woody fibre, and alkaline and earthy salts. Dried in the sun, 1000 parts of ripe banana were reduced to 439 parts; so that they contained 561 parts of water. The green or unripe banana has a white and almost insipid flesh. In this state it scarcely contains any sugar; it is starch that predominates. In this state, therefore, it is made a substitute for bread, for the potato, or Indian corn; it may be considered a farinaceous vegetable. After having removed the rind, the banana is dressed by being roasted under the ashes until the outer part is slightly brown; it is then served up at table, and constitutes a kind of soft bread, very agreeable to the palate, and greatly preferable, in my opinion, to the produce so much vaunted of the bread-fruit tree. In the expeditions which are undertaken into the forest, and when the habitations of man are to be quitted for some considerable time, the green banana is always made a principal part of the provision; but then it is previously dried, first to lessen its weight, and then to destroy its vitality so far as to prevent its ripening. This drying is performed in a baker's oven, into which the green bananas, stripped of their husks, are introduced, and where they are kept for about eight hours. On being taken out, the bananas are hard, brittle, translucent, and present the appearance of horn; 100 lbs. of the green fruit give but 40 of dry substance. The banana thus prepared is called fifi, and will keep for a great length of time without change. To prepare it for food, it is put to steep in water, and then boiled; by adding a little salted meat, a very substantial and nutritious meal is prepared. I once made a voyage on the Pacific, in a vessel which was principally victualled with dried bananas, which were served out to the company like biscuit.

น

When ripe, the banana is no longer farinaceous; as it ripens, its starch is changed into gum and sugar, and an acid is developed. But between the farinaceous and the sugary or perfectly ripe state, there is one intermediate, in which it is generally eaten. Roasted in

the ashes, the banana has then a taste which brings to mind that of the chestnut; it is also eaten as a vegetable, boiled in the usual way in water. Completely ripe, the fruit is eaten raw or dressed, it is then extremely sweet; a very common practice is to fry it, cut in slices, in grease.

I have no data upon which to estimate the nutritive value of the banana, still I have reasons for believing that it is more nutritious than the potato. I have seen men do a great deal of hard labor upon an allowance of about 61⁄2 pounds of half-ripe bananas, and two ounces of salted meated per diem.

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CHAPTER III.

OF THE SACCHARINE FRUITS, JUICES, AND INFUSIONS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF FERMENTED AND SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.

THE juice of all the sweet fruits when expressed and left to itself under the influence of a suitable temperature, presents the remarkable phenomenon of fermentation, in the course of which the sugar disappears completely, and is replaced by alcohol, the change from first to last being accompanied by the disengagement of carbonic acid gas.

Sugar alone does not suffice to cause the vegetable juices, which contain it, to ferment: for example, a solution of pure sugar in distilled water will remain for a very great length of time without suffering the least change; exposed to the open air it would evaporate, and the saccharine matter would be found in the same state as it was before solution. If, however, a small quantity of that azotized principle which we have called albumen, gluten, &c., be introduced into the solution, fermentation will speedily be set up, and will run through its usual course; it would, therefore, appear to be upon this principle that the commencement and continuance of fermentation depends. Fermentation is not set up immediately in the juice of fruits; a certain time longer or shorter always elapses before it is manifested; the reason of this is, that the albumen or gluten which always enters into the constitution of these juices, must itself have undergone a certain change in order to act as a ferment. The proof of this is comprised in the fact that all vinous liquors contain a very small but constant quantity of carbonate of ammonia, as was shown by M. Doebereiner. These azotized principles, which in the fresh state remain without action upon sweet juices, act immediately as powerful ferments when they are employed after having been exposed for some days to the contact of air and moisture; after, in a word, they have themselves begun to suffer change. The quantity of ferment used up or consumed in exciting and maintaining the fermentation of saccharine juices is so small, that we are led to believe that it really acts by its presence or contact alone. This view appears the more likely, when we know that, after having added an azotized substance to induce fermentation rapidly in a liquid which, besides sugar, contains albumen, we find from six to eight times the quantity of ferment after the phenomena have ceased, which had been added in the first instance; that is to say, we find the whole, or almost the whole, of the original ferment, and, in addition, that which has been produced by the azotized principles pre-existing in the matter subjected to fermentation; this fact is seen every day in the process of making beer.

The ferment or yeast thus produced is but little soluble in water, and in composition bears a remarkable affinity to the azotized mat

ters from which it is derived; M. Dumas has in fact found it to be composed of:

Under the influence of ferment, sugar becomes entirely changed into alcohol and carbonic acid. The composition of grape-sugarwhich appears to be the only one that is susceptible of fermentation, for cane-sugar before undergoing this process passes into the state of grape-sugar, as was demonstrated by M. Henry Rose-the composition of grape-sugar is as follows:

and the constitution of the substances which are produced in the process of fermentation, viz. alcohol and carbonic acid, being as under:

It appears that the composition of 100 parts of grape-sugar may be

by which it would appear that during the transformation of hydrated grape-sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid, the combined water is set at liberty.

The first fermented vegetable juice of which I shall speak is cane-wine, or guarapo of the South Americans, a drink which is in common use wherever the sugar-cane is cultivated. It is prepared from the juice of the sugar-cane suffered to run into fermentation.

The chicha of South America is a fermented liquor prepared from Indian corn, and constitutes the wine of the Cordilleras. The grain is steeped for six or eight hours in water, bruised upon a stone and boiled; the pulp which results is then diffused through 4 times its volume of water, and the temperature being from 60° to 65° F., a violent fermentation is soon set up in the fluid, which begins to subside after a period of twenty-four hours, when the chicha is potable, and now constitutes a liquor of an agreeable and decidedly vinous flavor, in high repute with those who have acquired a taste for it although its muddy appearance and the sediment which it alway

lets fall in the vessel into which it is received, render it somewhat unpleasant at first to European eyes. The Indians, however, always drink it in the muddy state, and even shake the cask before turning the tap. The truth is, that chicha is at once a drink and a very nutritious food.

Guarazo is another vinous liquor which the Indians prepare with rice much in the same manner as they proceed with Indian corn.

Cider and Perry. In countries where the vine is not cultivated, a substitute for wine is found in the fermented juice of a variety of sweet pulpy fruits, more particularly of apples and pears. Of the numerous varieties of apples which are grown in cider countries, the preference is generally given to one which has a rough and somewhat bitter taste. The fruit is gathered by shaking or beating the trees, and the few that remain are taken off by the hand; the fruit is piled up in large backs placed in cellars. It is crushed about two months after it is gathered, and the pulp is left for ten or twelve hours to macerate in the juice, in order to give the rusty or yellow color which is esteemed in cider. The pulp is pressed and the juice is run into large vats or tuns, in which it undergoes fermentation, which having gone on for about a month, the temperature being from 55° to 58° F., the liquor is racked off into smaller vessels, in which the fermentation goes on slowly, and the cider is preserved. The fermentation of cider is, or always ought to be, slow; still, with time, the whole of the sugar is transformed into alcohol, if the process be not interfered with.

Wine. Grape-juice contains-1st. grape-sugar; 2d. albumen and gluten; 3d. pectine; 4th. a gummy matter; 5th. a coloring matter; 6th. tannin; 7th. bitartrate of potash; 8th. a fragrant volatile oil, or cream of tartar; 9th. water. It is obvious, therefore, that grapejuice contains within itself the elements necessary for the production of the vinous fermentation. The relative proportions of these different elements, however, are singularly modified according to the nature of the vine, the quality of the soil, and especially the heat of the climate. There are indeed few crops that are so much at the mercy of the atmosphere as that of the vine; even in the vineyards that are most favorably situated, it is rare that wines of equal quality and flavor are produced in two consecutive years; and in districts upon the verge of the productive limits of the vine, under what may be called extreme climates, where the vine only exists in virtue of hot summers, its produce is still more variable, more inconstant. The limits to the culture of the vine in Europe are generally fixed where the mean temperature is from 10° to 11° C., (50° to 52° F. ;) under a colder climate no drinkable wine is produced. To this meteorological datum must be added the further fact that the mean heat of the cycle of vegetation of the vine must be at least 15° C. (59° F.,) and that of the summer from 18° to 19° C., (from 65° to 67° F.) Any country which has not these climatic conditions cannot have other than indifferent vineyards, even when its mean annual temperature is above what I have indicated. It is impossible, for instance, to cultivate the vine upon the temperate