Show RIPE AND UNRIPE BANANAS riioso Allowed to Ripen on Tree Aro Not the Best Flavored Whether for shipment or for homo consumption tho banana is cut as soon as it is fullthat is when it has eached its adult form and size but is I till quite green Tho plant is cut off by > a single blow of a machete wielded by a powerful arm As it falls the bunch is caught lopped off and laid aside while the harvester goes on to the next bunch It is a popular supposi tion that bananas ripened on the tree are incomparably superior to those cut green But as a matter of fact one never eats them thus ripened in Jamaica Jamai-ca They are said to be not so good At all events one finds no better fruit in texture and flavor than the best of our own markets But every lover of this fruit knows that its quality varies extraordinarily ex-traordinarily as it is offered to us This is due partly to the different sources from which it comes The best that is brought to us comes from Jamaica It is also due still more to the condition of the fruit when cut Bananas which are perfectly full will ripen mellow and delicious but those cut when immature as too many RIO will turn yellow yet never truly ripen retaining always their hard texture and unripe taste In Jamaica as elsewhere the competition of buyers leads the unscrupulous un-scrupulous ones to accept fruit of any sort even when totally unfit and this sort of competition makes all the more unavailing the efforts of honest buyer to raise tho standard and to teach the people to withhold their fruit until it is properly developed Americans can give more moral support to these efforts by accepting only such fruit as is mature ma-ture at any price A little pains will soon enable one to distinguish good from poor fruit though it is difficult to give a general statement of tho distinctive distinc-tive differences But as a rulcj it will be found that bananas which are largest lar-gest deepest yellow and least angular arc the most mature and best Popular Popu-lar Science Monthly |