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Show BANANA THE KING FOOD. The banana is a unique fruit. It contains all of the constituents of bread, with even more nutritious matter mat-ter than white bread. It contains 1ZS times as much food stuff to the acre as wheat, and forty-four times as much as potatoes; three-fourths of an acre of wheat Is computed to feed two persons per-sons a year, while the same acreage of bananas will feed fifty people. The shoots produce ripe bananas in ten or twelve months after planting. Green bananas cut and dried and ground into flour make good bread. The banana is called the "prince of the tropics," and, the great number of uses to which it can be put is indeed astonishing. It takes the place of wheat, rye and barley bar-ley with the people of western Asia, and of rice with the Indians and Chinese. Chi-nese. Besides the fruit, the pitch being starchy, is pounded and boiled, making a nutritious food. The young shoots are cooked a a vegetable. A pleasant drink is expressed from the juice and fermented. The leaves are used as. thatch for houses, carpefs and bedding. Its fibre is made into matting. The fibre also is woven into lace and shawls, sometimes so fine that several yards can be Inclosed in the hands. The coarse parts serve as cordage, shoe strings, ropes and other common articles. arti-cles. The ashes from the burned stalks are used in purifying sugar. The fibre may be made- into paper. Its juice is strong in tannic acid. The rind makes a good ink, as well as shoe-blacking. Both the skin and the fruit are rich in oil, and the leaves exude a good wax. It is really the king of foods. Millions Mil-lions of people depend upon it almost entirely, and other millions welcome it as a luxury. Its consumption is grow-ing grow-ing so fast in the United States and Canada, that a great fleet of ships, and an immense army of people are employed in the industry. |