Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1896 — The Banana Tree. [ARTICLE]

The Banana Tree.

In the West Indies the dried leaves and prepared portion of the stem are Used as packing materials. Fresh leaves are used to shade young coffee or cocoa seedlings in nursery beds and to cover cocoa beans during fermeutaj lion. The young unopened leaves are I SO smooth and soft that they are used jas dressing for blisters. In India tindried stalk of the plantain leaf is used as a rough kind of twine, and the larger parts are made into small boxes for holding snuff, drugs, etc. In the Malay peninsula the ash of the leaf and leaf stalk is used instead of soap or fuller's earth in washing clothes, and a solution of the ash is often used as salt in cooking. In the Dutch Indies the skin of the plantain is used for blackening shoes. The juice which flows from all cut parts of the banana is rich in tannin and of so blackening a nature that it may be used as an indelible marking ink. In Java the leaves of the "Wax banana” are covered on the under side with a white powder, which yields a valuable wax, clear, hard and whitish, forming an important article of trade. The ashes of the leaves, stem and fruit rind are employed in Bengal in many dyeing processes. In Siam a cigarette wrapper is made from the leaves. Fiber is got from the stems of many kinds of bananas. The most valuable is tlie “Manila hemp” of commerce, which holds the chief place for making white ropes and cordage. Old ropes made of it form an excellent papermaking material, much used in the United States for stout packing papers. The Manila hemp industry is a large one. ACout 50,000 tons of fiber, ' alued at $15,000,000, are annually exported from the Philippine Islands. The Manila hemp plant is grown exclusively in the southern part of the Philippines, and all attempts to grow it elsewhere have failed. Many articles are made from Manila hemp-mats, cords, hats, plaited work, lace handkerchiefs bf the finest texture and various qualities of paper. At Wohlau. in Switzerland, an industry has been started for making lace and materials for ladies’ hats from it. By a simple process it is made into straw exactly resembling the finest wheat straw for plaiting.