FRUITFUL FRUITS.
The most prolific of all fruits of the earth is the banana. Its produce is enormous—looo square feet ' planted with 30 or 40 bananas will yield as many clusters, with 160 to 180 fruits on each, each cluster weighing from. 40 to 801b; so that 1000 square feet will produce 40001b of nutritious substance. The same space would in Europe grow .only 331b of wheat, or 991b of potatoes. The produce of the banana is, therefore, to wheat as 133 to 1, and to the potato as 44 to 1. ' It is not so nourishing as wheat, but an acre of bananas will support 25 times as many people as an acre of wheat. The sweet orange, too, is wonderfully productive. One tree at St. Michael's in the Azores was known to bear 20,000 oranges in one year, besides from 4000 to 5000 thrown away as unmarketable. The cocoa palm will annually yield as much as a ton weight of nuts, and the date palm will, when in full bearing, produce a yearly crop of from one to four cwt.
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Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 11 (Supplement)
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182FRUITFUL FRUITS. Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 11 (Supplement)
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